A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

5. Q.MarciusRex, Q. F., probably a grandson of No. 4, was consul B. C. 68, with L. Caecilius Metellus. His colleague died at the commencement of his year of office, and as no consul was elected in his place, we find the name of Marcius Rex in the Fasti with the remark, solus consulatum gessit. He was proconsul in Cilicia in the following year, and there refused assistance to Lucullus, at the instigation of his brother-in-law, the celebrated P. Clodius, whom Lucullus had offended. In B. C. 66, Marcius had to surrender his province and army to Pompeius in compliance with the Lex Manilia. On his return to Rome he sued for a triumph, but as obstacles were thrown in the way by certain parties, he remained outside the city to prosecute his claims, and was still there when the Catilinarian conspiracy broke out in B. C. 63. The senate sent him to Faesulae, to watch the movements of C. Mallius or Manlius, Catiline's general. Mallius sent proposals of peace to Marcius, but the latter refused to listen to his terms unless he consented first to lay down his arms (D. C. 35.4, 14, 15, 17, 36.26, 31; Cic. in Pison. 4; Sall. Hist. 5, Cat. 30, 32-34). Marcius Rex married the eldest sister of P. Clodius [CLAUDIA, No. 7]. He died before B. C. 61, without leaving his brother-in-law the inheritance he had expected (Cic. Att. 1.16.10).