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Gaius Volusenus Quadratus (''fl.'' mid-1st century BC) was a distinguished military officer of the Roman Republic. He served under Julius Caesar for ten years, during the Gallic Wars and the civil war of the 40s. Caesar praises him for his strategic sense and courageous integrity.〔''Vir consilii magni et virtutis'' (''Bellum Gallicum'' 3.5.2).〕 ==Military service== During the Gallic War Volusenus served as ''Tribunus Militum'' in the 12th Legion under the legate Servius Galba, and distinguished himself in battle when Galba was defeated by the Nantuates in 57 BC.〔Julius Caesar, ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (3.5 )〕 In 55 BC Volusenus was sent out by Caesar in a single warship to undertake a week-long survey of the coast of south eastern Britain prior to Caesar's invasion.〔''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (4.21 )〕 He probably examined the Kent coast between Hythe and Sandwich. When Caesar set off with his troops however he arrived at Dover and saw that landing would be impossible. Instead he travelled north and landed on an open beach, probably near Walmer. Volusenus had evidently failed to find a suitable harbour, which would have prevented the damage Caesar's exposed ships would suffer at high tide. The great natural harbour at Richborough, a little further north, was used by Claudius in his invasion just 100 years later, but we do not know whether Volusenus travelled that far, or indeed whether it existed in a suitable form at that time (our knowledge of the geomorphology of the Wantsum Channel that created that haven is limited). Volusenus later became ''Praefectus Equitum'' (cavalry commander). In 53 BC, during the revolt of Ambiorix, he was sent ahead by Caesar with cavalry to relieve Quintus Cicero, who was besieged by the Sugambri in Atuatuca, but found it difficult to convince the terrified defenders that the rest of Caesar's army was not far behind.〔''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (6.41 )〕 When the legate Titus Labienus suspected Commius, the formerly loyal king of the Atrebates, of conspiring against them in the winter of 54 or 53 BC, he invited him to a meeting and sent Volusenus and some centurions to execute him for his treachery. Commius escaped, but sustained a wound to the head.〔''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (8.23 )〕 In 51 BC Volusenus was serving as commander of cavalry under Mark Antony, and in the winter of that year was ordered by Antony to pursue Commius, who was conducting a campaign of agitation and guerrilla warfare. He defeated him in several skirmishes, and finally destroyed Commius's forces in a single engagement, although at the cost of a spear-wound to the thigh. S.P. Oakley sees this encounter as an unusual example of single combat in the Late Republic, echoing duels between Romans and physically superior Celts in the Early Republic.〔Like those in which T. Manlius Torquatus and M. Valerius Corvus earned their respective ''cognomina''; S.P. Oakley, "Single Combat in the Roman Republic," ''Classical Quarterly'' 35 (1985), p. 396.〕 Commius himself escaped and later sued for peace on the condition that he never again had to meet a Roman.〔''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (8.48 )〕 In 48 BC, during the Civil War, an attempt to assassinate Volusenus was made by Aegus and Roscillus, two noble brothers of the Celtic Allobroges who had served in Caesar's cavalry throughout the Gallic Wars. The brothers had been caught defrauding their comrades of pay and decided to defect to Pompey's side. The death of Volusenus was meant to render Pompey useful service, but the task proved too difficult, and they were forced to defect without any such token.〔Julius Caesar, ''Commentarii de Bello Civili'' 3.59-61〕 Ronald Syme noted that Volusenus's decade-long tour of duty might have been uncommon for a man of his equestrian social rank, many of whom "owed their commissions less to merit than to the claims of friendship and influence or the hope of procuring gain and political advancement." The exemplary career of Volusenus, like that of Decidius Saxa, indicates that even in the Late Republic an equestrian might choose to excel as a career officer rather than as a publican or businessman.〔Ronald Syme, ''The Roman Revolution'' (Oxford University Press, 1939, reissued 2002), pp. 70–71 (online ) and 355.〕 Volusenus is one of only three ranking officers to whom Caesar ascribes the quality of ''virtus''.〔The other two are Quintus Cicero and Titus Labienus; Myles Anthony McDonnell, ''Roman manliness:'' virtus ''and the Roman Republic'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 308 (online. )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gaius Volusenus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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