A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

MARCELLUS. MARCELLUS. 937'
tiated himself with the elder Vespasian also, and also a bishop's see, the inhabitants of which un-.
was nearly as powerful for a while under the Fla- questionably termed themselves Thibursicenses (see:
vian house as under Claudius- and Nero. But Orelli, CobTp. Instrip. No. 3691), from the Colonia
towards the close of Vespasian's reign, A. D. 79, Tuburnica, the Oppidum Tubernicense of Pliny
Marcellus, from what motives is unknown, en- (H. N. vii. 4), and from the Oppidum Tuburbitanumn
gaged in Alienus Caecina's conspiracy against the'Majus and Minzs of the ecclesiastical writers. It
emperor [CAECINA ALIENUS]. Caecina was as- is' equally difficult to. determine within narrow
sassinated, Marcellus was tried, convicted, and, limits the epoch when Nonius flourished: he must
unable to withstand the long-stored hatred of the be later than the middle of the second century,
senators, destroyed himself. (Dion Cass. lxvi. 16.) since once at least (p. 49, ed. Gerl.) he refers to
The character of Marcellus is drawn by the author Appuleius, and frequently copies A. Gellius, alof the Dialogue de Oratoribus (5, 8, 13); his elo- though he nowhere refers' to him by name. Hequence. was his only merit, and he abused it to the must be earlier than the sixth century, since he is
worst purposes. himself quoted repeatedly by Priscian (pp. 43, 278,
A coin of the town of. Cyme in Aeolia bears on 477, ed. Krehl.). Two points are thus fixed, but
its obverse, ANOT. EMIPI1. MAPKEAAn. r. KT., they are unfortunately far asunder, and we are left
and refers, probably, to the period of his procon- to wander over a space of three centuries, while
sulate of Pamphylia. (Eckhel, Doct. Nurn. Vet. the very nature of the piece almost entirely exvol. ii. p. 493.) [W. B. D.] eludes the possibility of drawing any inference from
MARCELLUS, GRA'NIUS, praetor of Bithy- style; all that can be said upon this head is, that
nia, in the reign of Tiberius, was accused, in A. D. the various words and expressions which have been
15, by his own quaestor, Caepio Crispinus, and by adduced for the purpose of proving that he must
the notorious delator, Hispo Romanus, of treason belong to the fifth century, will, without exception,
and extortion in his provincial government. Mar- be found, upon examination, to fail in establishing
cellus was acquitted of treason, but convicted and this proposition; and on the other hand, the argufined for extortion. Tacitus marks this trial as ments employed to demonstrate that he ought to
one of the earliest of. those frivolous yet fatal accu- be placed at the commencement of the third are:
sations which multiplied with the years and vices equally powerless. He may be the same person
of Tiberius. (Tac. Ann. i. 74.) [W. B.. with the grammarian Marcellus addressed by AuMARCELLUS, MA'RCIUS, a rhetoricua:n sonius (Carmn. xix.), but there is no evidence what —
mentioned by Seneca. (Contr. 28, 29.) [W.B.D.] ever in favour of the supposition except the identity
MARCELLUS, MI'NDIUS, was an adherent of a very common name.
of Augustus in the last war with Sext. Pompey, The work is divided into eighteen chapters, but
-a. c.-36. Through Marcellus Menodorus nego- of these the first twelve ought in reality to be
tiated his second.desertion from Pompey to Augus- viewed as separate treatises, composed at different
tns. (Appian, B. C. v. 102.) [W. B. D.] periods, with different objects, and not linked
MARCELLUS, P. NERA'TIUS, is mentioned together by any connecting bond. At the same
by the younger Pliny (Ep. iii. 8) as a person of time each chapter is far from presenting a compact,
rolnk and interest at Trajan's court. He was consul well-ordered, consistent whole, but generally exin A. D. 1 04. (Fasti.) [WV. B. D.] hibits a confused farrago, as if a compartment of an
MARCELLUS, NO'NIUS, a Latin. gram- ill-kept commonplace book had been transcribed
marian, the author of an important treatise, which without adequate pains having been bestowed on.
in MSS. is designated as Nonii Marcelli Peripa — the classification and distribution of the materials'
tetici Tuburticensis de Compendiosa Doetrina per collected. Some idea of the contents may be obLitteras ad Filium, for the latter portion of which tained from the following outline: -
title many printed copies substitute erroneously CAP. I. De Proprietate Sermonurn, may be reDe Proprietate Sermonis. The most recent editor garded as a glossary of obsolete words, which are
is obliged to confess, after a full investigation of thrown together without any arrangement. Many'
every source from which information could be' de- are, however, inserted which do not belong to this
rived,- that. we are totally unacquainted with the class, and which- might, with perfect propriety, be
personal history of this writer, that we cannot fix transferred to c. iv.
with certainty either the place or the time of his CAP. II. De Honestis et Note Veterum Dictis.
birth, that it is difficult to- detect the plan pursued A collection of words' placed in alphabetical order.
in the compilation of the work, that no satisfactory which were employed by the early Latin writers
classification of the numerous codices has yet been in a sense different fromn that'which they bore in
accomplished, and that no sure estimate has been the age of Nonius. Many of these ought to have
formed of their relative value. The epithet Tubur- found a place in c. i.; and from the statements
ticensis, which appears also under the varying with regard to others, we might draw some curious
shapes,. Tuburcicensis, Tuburgicensis, Tiburticensis, inferences regarding the state of the language when
Thiburticensis, Tiburiensis, does not lead readily to this tract was drawn up.
any conclusion. We can scarcely agree with' CAP. III. De Indiscretis Generibus, a collection'
Wass in considering it equivalent to Tiburtinus, a of words in alphabetical order, of which the gender
word which occurs, so frequently elsewhere, that is found to vary in the best authorities, such as'
even the most ignorant transcribers would not have finis, calx, papaver, and the like.
transformed it so: rudely; nor can we persuade CAP. IV. De vera Signz~icatione Verborum, a
ourselves that. Gerlach has succeeded in proving collection of words in alphabetical order, which
that it must be derived from Tubursicumn or Tubur- occur in the same or in different writers with
sicca, in Numnidia, near the river Ampsaga, a town marked variations of meaning, such as aequor, conwhich became at an early period the seat of a ducere, lustrare. This is by far the longest section
Christian bishopric, and is to be distinguished from in the book.
TuZburssioum, in the proconsular provifice of Africa, CAP. V. De Ditferentiis Verboramn, what we