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.

Rome has lost one-fifth (one hundred and fifty thousand) of the entire population of citizens over seventeen years of age within just three campaign seasons (twenty months).

The bravest Roman armies in the peninsula have been destroyed, the few remnants severely demoralized, and the only remaining consul (Varro) completely discredited.

In the face of this appalling catastrophe, the desperate Romans resort to human sacrifice, twice burying people alive at the Forum of Rome and abandoning an oversized baby in the Adriatic Sea.

As Hannibal had hoped, the Samnites and many other peoples of southern Italy now abandon Rome.

The Hellenistic southern provinces of Arpi, Salapia, Herdonia, Uzentum, including the cities of Capua and Tarentum (two of the largest city-states in Italy) all revoke their allegiance to Rome and pledge their loyalty to Hannibal.

Rome, refusing to accept defeat, resumes Fabius' brilliant strategy of delay and harassment, frustrating Hannibal from delivering a mortal blow and beginning to wear down his strength.

Aratus now begins to lead the Achaean League in resisting Philip's anti-Roman policy and his interference in Messene.

The ambitious Philip V of Macedon, now popular throughout much of Greece following his decisive actions in the so-called War of the Allies (also the Social War of 219—217), looks to extend his empire while Rome is preoccupied with fighting Carthage in the Second Punic War.

In an attempt to stem the tide of Roman expansion, sets out to attack Rome's client states in neighboring Illyria.

He confirms his purpose in 215 by making an alliance against Rome with Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who is invading Italy and is interested to protect supply lines from North Africa.

Philip, currently the most powerful ruler in the Balkans, thus initiates ten years of inconclusive warfare against Rome (First Macedonian War, 215-205).

Rome responds by supporting Philip's many enemies in the Balkans as they fight the war, which expands Roman interests into the Balkans.

Hiero II of Syracuse has remained loyal to the Romans since 263 BCE, frequently supplying them with soldiers and provisions during the Punic Wars.

He maintains a powerful defensive fleet and employs his famous kinsman, the Greek Archimedes, in the construction of ingenious mechanical devices for defense of the city.

Hiero dies in 216/215 BCE.

During the long mainland campaign of the Second Punic War, with the Roman and Carthaginian armies now deadlocked on the Italian peninsula, fighting has continued as well on Sardinia and Sicily, which have become Rome's chief sources of food.

Aided by internal upheaval in Syracuse, Carthage reestablishes its presence on the island in 215 BCE; the Syracusans become Carthaginian allies.

Despite the defections by Syracuse and southern Italy, most of Rome's other allies hold firm.

Marcellus is summoned to Rome to counsel the dictator M. Junius Pera, on the future conduct of the war, and is made proconsul in 215 BCE.

Within months, when the consul L. Postumius Albinus is killed in battle, Marcellus is unanimously chosen by the Roman people to be his successor.

Unfortunately, because the other consul is also a plebeian, the Senate will not allow Marcellus to hold the position, apparently finding bad omens where two plebeian consuls are concerned.

Marcellus therefore returns to his job as proconsul, whereupon he once again defends the city of Nola, from the rear guard of Hannibal’s army.

Roman senators, who are generally large landowners, had been forbidden to engage in large-scale business after 218, probably as a consequence of the war with Carthage.

During the days of national catastrophe after the Battle of Cannae, the Lex Oppia decree of 215, instituted by Gaius Oppius, a tribune of the plebs during the consulship of Fabius Maximus and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (consul 215 BCE), is the first of a series of sumptuary laws.

It restricts not only a woman’s wealth, but also her display of wealth.

Specifically, it forbids any woman to possess more than half an ounce of gold, to wear a multicolored garment (particularly those trimmed in purple), or to ride in an animal-drawn vehicle in the city or any town or within a mile thereof, except in the case of public religious festivals.

Primarily an economic measure in response to serious financial issues during the Second Punic War, the restrictions it imposes lay the framework for later sumptuary legislation designed to control expenditure on extravagance for social rather than economic reasons.

Enna, repeatedly mentioned in the First Punic War, had been taken first by the Carthaginians under Hamilcar, and subsequently recaptured by the Romans, but in both instances by treachery and not by force.

In the Second Punic War, while Marcellus is engaged in the siege of Syracuse, the defection of several Sicilian towns from Rome has alarmed Pinarius, the governor of Enna.

Lest his citizens should follow their example; and in order to forestall the apprehended treachery, he with the Roman garrison falls upon the citizens when assembled in the theater, and puts them all to the sword without distinction, after which he gives up the city to be plundered by his soldiers.

Marcellus is elected consul yet again in 214 BCE, his colleague being Fabius Maximus.

Marcellus defends Nola from Hannibal for a third time, and even captures the small but significant town of Casilium.

Following his triumph at Casilium, Marcellus is sent to Sicily, upon which Hannibal has set his sights, and finds the island in disarray.

Hieronymus, the new ruler of the Rome-allied Kingdom of Syracuse, had recently come to the throne upon his grandfather's death and fallen under the influence of the Carthaginian agents Hippocrates and Epicydes.

He had then declared war against the Romans after the Carthaginian victory at the Battle of Cannae.

However, Hieronymus is soon deposed; the new Syracusan leaders attempt a reconciliation with Rome but cannot quell their suspicions and then align themselves with the Carthaginians.

In 214 BCE, the same year that he is sent to Sicily, …