MARCELLUS. . 239
in single combat surpassed himself; he never declined a challenge, and never accepted without killing his chal- lenger. In Sicily, he protected and saved his brother Otacilius when surrounded in battle, and slew the ene- mies that pressed upon him ; for which act he was by the generals, while he was yet but young, presented with crowns and other honorable rewards ; and, his good qual- ities more and more displaying themselves, he was created Curule ^dile by the people, and by the high-priests Augur ; which is that priesthood to which chiefly the law assigns the observation of auguries. In his aedileship, a certain mischance brought him to the necessity of bring- ing an impeachment into the senate. He had a son named Marcus, of great beauty, in the flower of his age, and no less admired for the goodness of his character. This youth, Capitolinus, a bold and ill-mannered man, Marcellus's colleague, sought to abuse. The boy at first himself repelled him ; but when the other again perse- cuted him, told his father. Marcellus, highly indignant, accused the man in the senate : where he, having ap- pealed to the tribunes of the people, endeavored by va- rious shifts and exceptions to elude the impeachment ; and, when the tribunes refused their protection, by flat denial rejected the charge. As there was no witness of the fact, the senate thought fit to call the youth himself before them : on witnessing whose blushes and teai-s, and shame mixed with the highest indignation, seeking no further evidence of the crime, they condemned Capitoli- nus, and set a fine upon him ; of the money of which, Marcellus caused silver vessels for libation to be made, which he dedicated to the gods. After the end of the first Punic war, which lasted one and twenty years, the seeds of Gallic tumults sprang up, and began again to trouble Rome. The Insubrians, a people inhabiting the subalpine region of Italy, strong in