Marcus Claudius Marcellus

Marcus Claudius Marcellus (c. 268–208 BC) was a five-time consul of the Roman Republic and one of its most heroic commanders during the Second Punic War. In 222 BC at the Battle of Clastidium, Marcellus killed the Insubrian Gallic chieftain Viridomarus in single combat, becoming only the third and final Roman in history to dedicate the sacred Spolia Opima to Jupiter Feretrius.

Following Rome's catastrophic defeat at Cannae in 216 BC, Marcellus checked Hannibal's advance at the First Battle of Nola, proving the Carthaginian general was not invincible. Dispatched to Sicily, he conducted the epic two-year Siege of Syracuse (214–212 BC), overcoming the defensive war machines of Archimedes to capture the city. Known as 'The Sword of Rome' alongside Fabius Maximus 'The Shield', Marcellus fell in a reconnaissance ambush near Venusia in 208 BC, where Hannibal rendered him full funeral honors.