Marcus Claudius Marcellus (ca.

268–208 BCE), five times elected as consul of the Roman Republic, is an important Roman military leader during the Gallic War of 225 BCE and the Second Punic War.

Marcellus gains 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.

Furthermore, he is noted for having conquered the fortified city of Syracuse in a protracted siege during which Archimedes, the famous inventor, was killed.

Marcus Claudius Marcellus dies in battle in 208 BCE, leaving behind a legacy of military conquests and a reinvigorated Roman legend of the spolia opima.