Venosa > Venusia Basilicata Italy

Fabius Maximus had been elected consul, for the fifth time, in 209.

Marcellus, named proconsul, retains control of his army.

During that year the Roman Army under Marcellus faced Hannibal's forces in a series of skirmishes and raids, without being drawn into open battle.

Marcellus defends his actions and tactics in front of the senate and is named consul for the fifth time for the year 208 BCE.

After entering his fifth consulship, Marcellus reenters the field and takes command of the army at Venusia.

While on a reconnaissance mission with his colleague, T. Quinctius Crispinus and a small band of two hundred and twenty horsemen, the group is ambushed and nearly completely slaughtered by a much larger Carthaginian force of Numidian horsemen.

Marcellus is impaled by a spear and dies on the field.

In the following days, Crispinus dies of his wounds.

The loss of both consuls is a major blow to Roman morale, as the Republic has lost its two senior military commanders in a single battle, while the formidable Carthaginian army is still at large in Italy.

In the year 23 BCE, Roman Emperor Augustus will recount that Hannibal had allowed Marcellus a proper funeral and even sent the ashes back to Marcellus’ son.

None of the Latin allies revolt, remaining loyal to Rome, with the sole exception of Venusia.

Eleven monks of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche had been banished from Normandy in January 1061 as a result of several quarrels between the barons of Duke William I of Normandy, Robert de Grantmesnil, his nephew Berengar, half-sister Judith (future wife of Roger I of Sicily).

They had headed to the Mezzogiorno, where all had been well received by Pope Alexander II, who had just succeeded Pope Nicholas II, and who, after hearing of their troubles in Normandy, had given Robert and his monks the temporary use of the church of Saint-Paul the Apostle in Rome.

To find a more permanent situation Robert had sought help from his cousin, William of Montreuil, at this time in the service of Pope Alexander II, who had given Robert and his monks half the town of Aquino.

He also sought help from Richard I of Capua, Prince of Capua who, as it turned out, made Robert many empty promises.

In disgust, Robert had turned to Robert Guiscard, who had treated the abbot with great respect and invited him and his monks to settle in his Duchy of Calabria.

Robert founds the abbey of Sant'Eufemia Lamezia in Calabria in about 1061 or 1062, and Guiscard also grants him the abbey of Venosa in 1062.

Robert Guiscard's titles, at his his death on Kefalonia on July 17, 1085, are duke of Apulia and Calabria, prince of Salerno, and suzerain of Sicily.

His body is transported for burial in the Hauteville family mausoleum of the Abbey of the Santissima Trinità at Venosa.

He is succeeded by Roger Borsa, his son by Sikelgaita, as Bohemund, his son by an earlier wife Alberada De Macon (aka Alberada of Buonalbergo), is set aside.

Guiscard leaves two younger sons: Guy, Duke of Amalfi, and Robert Scalio, neither of whom make any trouble for their elder brothers.