Marcellinus

the author of the life of Thucydides. [Thucydides.]

a friend of Martial, who addressed to him three short poems while Marcellinus was travelling or with the legions on the Dacian frontier. (Ep. 6.25, 7.80, 9.46.) [W.B.D]

the chief minister of the usurper Magnentius, first appears in history as Praefectus Orientis, in A. D. 340, and is probably the Marcellinus who stands in the Fasti as consul the following year. He was Comes Sacrarum Largitionum under Constans, and the most active promoter, if not the first contriver of the conspiracy by which that prince was destroyed (A. D. 350). Marcellinus, now holding the rank of Magister Officiorum and general in chief of the troops, was employed by the usurper to suppress the insurrection of Nepotianus, on which occasion he displayed the most savage cruelty towards the wealthier and more distinguished inhabitants of Rome. He subsequently headed the embassy despatched to offer terms of peace and alliance to Constantius, and is said to have been seized and detained by the indignant emperor, but we find him soon afterwards at liberty, commanding the armies of the West, and he probably perished at the great battle of Mursa, A. D. 351.

Marcellinus is represented by Julian as animated by the most violent and implacable hostility towards all the members of the house of Constantine, and as the master rather than the servant of Magnentius. [Constans I.; Constantius; Magnentius; Vetranio; Nepotianus.] (Codex Theod. Chron. p. 41; Julian, Orat. 1.2; Zosim. 2.41-54; Aurel. Vict. Epit. 41.) [W.R]

or Marcellia'nus (Μαρκελλιανός, Procop.), a Roman officer, who acquired for himself in the fifth century an independent principality in Illyricum. He was a friend of the patrician Aetius, on whose assassination, A. D. 454 [Aetius], he appears to have renounced his allegiance to the contemptible emperor Valentinian III. [Valentinianus III.]; and having gathered a force, established himself in Dalmatia and the other parts of Illyricum. (Procop. De Bell. Vandal, 1.6.) After the assassination of Valentinian, whether before the election or after the deposition of Avitus is not clear [Avitus], a conspiracy of the young nobles was formed under the restless Paeonius to raise Marcellinus to the empire, but without success. (Sidon. Apollin. Epistol. 1.11.) During the reign of Majorian, Marcellinus appears to have recognized his authority; and the title of Patricius Occidentis, which Marcellinus bore, was perhaps conferred at this time. He marched with a body of troops, chiefly or entirely Goths, to the assistance of Majorian against the Vandals, and was posted in Sicily to defend that island from invasion; but the patrician Ricimer, jealous of Marcellinus, employed his superior wealth in bribing his soldiers to desert him; and Marcellinus, fearing some attempt on his life, withdrew in anger from Sicily, which was left defenceless, and returned apparently to Illyricum. This was probably in A. D. 461 or 462, after Majorian's death. (Priscus, Historia, apud Excerpta de Legationibus Gentium ad Romanos, 100.14, and Romanorum ad Gentes, 100.10.) The Western empire, which had passed into the hands of Severus, now apprehended an attack from Marcellinus, but he was prevailed on to give up any hostile purpose by the mediation of the Eastern emperor, Leo, who sent Phylarchus as ambassador to him. (Priscus, ibid.) In A. D. 464 he was engaged in the defence of Sicily, from which he drove out the Vandals (Idatius, Chronicon); and apparently, in 468, at the request of Leo, drove the same enemy from Sardinia (Procopius, l.c.). About the time of the expedition of Basiliscus [Basiliscus] against Carthage (A. D. 468), he was again in Sicily, acting with the Romans against the Vandals, when he was assassinated by his allies (Marcellin. Cuspinian. Cassiodor. Chronica). Genseric, the Vandal king, who regarded him as his most formidable enemy, rejoiced exceedingly at his death, and repeated the saying, that " the Romans had cut off their right hand with their left." (Damascius, Vita Isidor. apud Phot. Biblioth. Cod. 242.) Marcellinus was a heathen (Damascius, l.c.), a man of learning, and the friend of Salustius, the Cynic philosopher. He was given to divination, in which he had the reputation of being highly skilled; and was eminent for statesmanship and military skill, of which his establishment and maintenance of his independent position, unstained by any great crime, is a sufficient proof. He governed his principality equitably (Suidas, s. v. Μαρκελλῖνος); and perhaps transmitted it to his family; for his nephew, Julius Nepos [Nepos], when driven from the Western empire by the patrician Orestes [Orestes], retained some territory and the imperial title in Illyricum, where he was assassinated some years after. [Glycerius.] The ancient authorities for the life of Marcellinus have been cited: of moderns, Gibbon (Decline and Fall, &100.100.36) and Tillemont (Hist. des Empéreurs, vol. vi.) may be consulted: but we doubt whether either of them has accurately digested the scattered notices of the ancients. [J.C.M]

[Ammianus.]

aedile B. C. 203, was unjustly and for a ridiculous reason condemned to death in that year. (D. C. 76.8, 9.)

an orator who pleaded on the defendant's side at the impeachment of Marius Priscus, proconsul of Africa, and replied to Pliny. (Plin. Ep. 2.11; comp. Juv. Sat. 1.49, 8.120.) [W.B.D]

so called on account of the office of comes, which he held probably at Constantinople, was a native of Illyricum. Works IV. Libri de Temporum Qualitatibus et Positionibus Locorum

Marcellinus Comes is said to have written IV. Libri de Temporum Qualitatibus et Positionibus Locorum, which is much praised by Cassiodorus (De Institutione Divinarum Liber., 100.7), but which is lost. Chronicon

He wrote besides a short Chronicon, which begins with the consulship of Ausonius and Olybrius, or the accession of Theodosius the Great, in A. D. 379, and goes down to the accession of Justin I., in 518. Editions

This is the original work of Marcellinus as published in the editio princeps by Sconhovius. Another writer continued the work till the fourth consulate of Justinian the Great, in 534. The latter part is contained in the edition of Jo. Sirmond, Paris, 1619, 8vo. Assessment

The compilation of Marcellinus, who lived probably at the end of the fifth and in the beginning of the sixth century of our era, is not without some value, and is often quoted by modern historians. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Lat. vol. ii. p. 616. [W.P]

[MARCELLUS, CLAUDIUS.]

a quaestor in a provincial government whose integrity towards the treasury is highly commended by the younger Pliny. (Plin. Ep. 4.12.) [W.B.D]

quoted by Lampridius (Alex. Sev. 48) as the author of a biography of Trajan, and ranked by Vopiscus (Prob. 2) among historians of the second class, such as Pharius Maximus, Suetonius Tranquillus, Julius Capitolinus, and Lampridius. [W.R]

See Ammianus Marcellinus.