Marcus Claudius Marcellus had gained the most…

Marcus Claudius Marcellus had gained the most prestigious award a Roman general could earn, the spolia opima, for killing the Gallic military leader and king Viridomarus in hand-to-hand combat in 222 BCE at the battle of Clastidium during the Gallic War of 225 BCE.

He is noted for having saved the life of his brother, Otacilius, when the two were surrounded by enemy soldiers in Italy.

Elected praetor in in 216 BCE, the third year of the Second Punic War, Marcellus is selected to commander the army in Sicily.

As Marcellus and his men prepare to ship to Sicily, his army is recalled to Rome owing to the devastating losses at Cannae, considered to be one of the worst disasters in the long history of Rome By the orders of the Senate, Marcellus is forced to dispatch fifteen hundred of his men to Rome to protect the city after the terrible defeat by Hannibal of Carthage.

With his remaining army, along with remnants of the army from Cannae, (who are considered to have been disgraced by the defeat and by surviving it), Marcellus camps near Suessula, a city in the region Campania of Southern Italy.

At this point, part of the Carthaginian army begins to make a move for the city of Nola.

Marcellus repels the attacks and manages to keep the city from Hannibal’s grasp.