Lucius Neratius Marcellus

An inscription recovered from Saepinum provides details of Marcellus' career.^[2] In his teens he was one of the tresviri monetalis, the most prestigious of the four boards that comprise the vigintiviri. Assignment to this board was usually the prerogative of patricians or favored individuals.^[5] An inscription found in Xanthos is understood by experts to indicate that he accompanied his adoptive father to the Roman province of Lycia while the older man governed it as legatus Augusti pro praetore, or imperial governor.^[6] On returning to Rome both were adlected (promoted) into the patrician class, most likely during the Roman census of 73–74. This promotion in status offered many opportunities, including being excused from holding some of the republican magistracies otherwise required to become consul.^[7]

Marcellus was then given the position of curator acta senatorum, or recorder of the minutes of the Senate. He is the first person attested to have held this position. At the age of 25 he held the republican magistracy of quaestor, being selected as one of the pair allocated to attend to the Emperor. The duties of these quaestors included reading the Emperor's speeches to the Senate.^[8] This was followed by his admission to the collegia of the Salius Palatinus, a priestly order tracing its roots back to the Roman Kingdom. Marcellus' service to the Emperor resumed with a commission as a tribunus laticlavius with the Legio XII Fulminata which was part of an expeditionary force led by his adoptive father Neratius Pansa in Cappadocia. This expedition is thought to have taken place in 75 and 76.^[9]

Due to his promotion to the patrician class, Marcellus was excused from holding any commands or offices between the praetorship and his appointment as suffect consul in AD 95, replacing the emperor Domitian on the Ides of January.^[10] Ronald Syme describes being the suffect to replace the emperor as a "high distinction, and close to being consul ordinarius".^[11] Marcellus served as curator aquarum urbis (supervisor of the city's aqueducts) between his consulship and his appointment as the legatus Augusti pro praetore of Roman Britain. He certainly held the office before 103, when his governorship is attested by a military diploma.^[12]

Marcellus was Governor of Britannia from 101 to 104. At about this time the Roman army was hard pressed to hold the territory Agricola had conquered a generation before. Legio II Adiutrix had been withdrawn to the Danube in AD 92 with three cohorts of Batavian auxiliaries. Emperor Trajan, needing reinforcements for his First Dacian War, had called for vexillations (detachments) from the army in Britain. The natives took advantage of the understrength garrison: excavations at Newstead and elsewhere show signs of destruction by fire. Although the Romans often burnt what was not worth salvaging when they evacuated a fort, excavations also revealed human remains and immense quantities of equipment, including damaged armour, at Newstead. This has been taken as clear evidence of hostile action. The frontier was withdrawn from the Antonine Wall to the line of the Stanegate, the future Hadrian's Wall. Marcellus certainly managed at least a portion of this major reorganization.^[13]

Neratius Marcellus was a friend of Pliny the Younger. Although none of Pliny's letters to Marcellus have survived, one of his extant letters does mention him.^[14] Pliny had requested that Marcellus make Suetonius a tribune in Britain. When he succeeded in obtaining this favor for Suetonius, the latter eventually declined the post, which Pliny then transferred to a relative of Suetonius' in his place. This story indicates that Marcellus was able to make military appointments easily through the network of patronage, apparently without consulting the army.^[15]

Another illustration of Marcellus' role in the network of patronage of his time is a draft of a letter recovered from the Roman fort at Vindolanda. The commander of the Ninth Cohort of Batavians stationed there, Flavius Cerialis, writes to his friend Crispinus about meeting with governor Marcellus. The text is damaged at this point, and there have been several theories proposed by modern historians as to the purpose of this communication. Anthony Birley suggested Cerialis was asking Crispinus to intercede on his behalf for a promotion or transfer; M. P. Speidel and R. Seider suggest this was an example of litterae commendaticiae, or a letter introducing himself to Crispinus; in their edition of the letter, Alan K. Bowman and J. David Thomas offer a more prosaic interpretation: "The writer is asking Crispinus to... make his military service pleasant by putting him on good terms with as many influential people as possible."^[16]

The next record of Neratius Marcellus comes decades after he returned from Britain, when he was elected consul ordinarius in AD 129, serving alongside Publius Juventius Celsus Titus Aufidius Hoenius Severianus.^[17] Observing that the emperor Hadrian relied on his brother for advice, Birley believes that Marcellus was "on familiar terms" with Hadrian, which may be the reason for the signal honour of a second consulship. However, Birley then notes that "it may be that he came to a sad end soon afterwards, for among Hadrian's close friends... the author of the Historia Augusta lists a Marcellus, forced to suicide by the emperor."^[18]