Lucius Neratius Marcellus (fl. 1st century – 2nd century AD) was an imperial Roman military officer and senator who held a number of posts in the Emperor's service. Marcellus was elected consul twice, first under Domitian in 95AD and again under Hadrian in 129. His life provides several examples of how patronage operated in early Imperial Rome.
He was a consul in 95AD, succeeding the Emperor Domitian, and again in 129. He served as a military tribune with the Legio XII Fulminata. He is the first person attested to have held the position of recorder of the minutes of the Senate. He was Governor of Britannia from 101 to 104. This was a period when the under-garrisoned province was under pressure from restless tribes. Marcellus supervised a stabilization of the situation which included a withdrawal from the future site of Antonine Wall to what was later to become the line of Hadrian's Wall.
Early life
The origins of the gens Neratia lie in the Italian town of Saepinum, located in Samnium. Olli Salomies, in his study of Imperial Roman nomenclature, has established that while Marcellus was the brother of the jurist Lucius Neratius Priscus, and thus the natural child of Lucius Neratius Priscus, he had been adopted by his uncle Marcus Hirrius Fronto Neratius Pansa, consul in 73 or 74, who was childless.
It has been argued that Marcellus was married twice. One wife is attested for Marcellus on inscriptions recovered from Saepinum she erected in his honor, Domitia Vettilla, the daughter of Lucius Domitius Apollinaris, suffect consul in AD 97. However, it has been argued that Marcellus had married Corellia Hispulla, based on the existence of a son Lucius Corellius Neratius Pansa, consul of AD 122;<ref>Epistulae, iii.3.</ref> Hispulla was the daughter of Pliny the Younger’s elderly friend Quintus Corellius Rufus, suffect consul in AD 78. Ronald Syme notes that Marcellus "need not have ... only one wife", and argues he was married first to Hispulla, then to Vettilla.
Career until governor of Britain
An inscription recovered from Saepinum provides details of Marcellus' career. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. Ronald Syme describes being the suffect to replace the emperor as a "high distinction, and close to being consul ordinarius". 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.