The Claudii Marcelli
in Cicero’s Brutus

Gabriel Grabarek (Indiana University)

This paper examines how Cicero utilizes in his Brutus the prominent position of the Claudii Marcelli as a family, and specifically M. Claudius Marcellus and his open opposition of Caesar, in order to lay out a proper and virtuous path of action in the nascent dictatorship of Julius Caesar. The Claudii Marcelli were an ancient and ennobled plebeian family, from the consul of 222 B.C. who was only one of three Romans to dedicate the spolia opima, down to the young Marcellus who is famously lamented by both Virgil and Propertius. M. Claudius Marcellus (cos. 51) had a strong relationship with Cicero, having worked together on several important cases, such as the defense of Scaurus in 54, and the defense of Milo in both 56 and 52, and they exchanged several letters. His relationship with Caesar on the other hand, can best be described as tumultuous. He publicly flogged a citizen of Novum Comum in order to demonstrate the illegality of Caesar’s actions in Gaul, and then attempted to have Caesar removed from command immediately after the defeat of Vercingetorix. By citing the voluntary exile of Marcellus to the city of Mytilene, on Lesbos, after Pharsalus, and comparing Marcellus’ oratory so directly with that of Caesar’s within the Brutus, Cicero sets forth his own version of virtus in terms of political ‘exile’. This argument is strengthened further if the Brutus is seen as having been inspired by Brutus’ own De virtute, as is convincingly discussed by several scholars. So little of the De virtute survives, but a very interesting fragment comes from Seneca’s discussion of his own exile in the Ad Helviam in which Seneca compares the nobility and virtus of his own exile to that of Marcellus.

Near the beginning of the Brutus (3.12), Cicero uses the striking exemplum of the first of the Claudii Marcelli. Specifically, he compares his own newly found desire to write after reading the letters, most likely the De virtute, of Brutus to the Romans’ new-found strength after Marcellus defeated Hannibal at Nola. It is in this context that Cicero begins his discussion of Roman oratory, and throughout, the only two contemporary orators he cites are Marcellus and Caesar (248.1) when Brutus asks him to do so, de duobus tamen quos a te scio laudari solere, Caesare et Marcello? While scholars have focused on a strictly literary interpretation of their opposition, I argue that it is no mere coincidence that Cicero so directly and uniquely compares Marcellus with Caesar, especially with the backdrop of Marcellus’ family in the introduction to the Brutus, and with the inspiration for the Brutus being the De virtute in which Brutus himself praises the actions of Marcellus in the wake of Caesar’s victory at Pharsalus. The Marcelli were a strong family, and Cicero’s consular contemporary served as a powerful alternative to the regime of Caesar.