Marsus, Octavius
whom Cicero calls "sceleratus homo atque egens," was legate of Dolabella in B. C. 43, by whom he was sent into Syria with one legion. He was soon after followed by Dolabella, and was present with the latter at Laodiceia, when the town was betrayed into the hands of C. Cassius Longinus. He followed the example of his general and put an end to his own life. Appian calls him simply Marsus, but Dio Cassius Marcus Octavius, for which, however, we ought undoubtedly to read Marsus Octavius. (Cic. Phil. 11.2, with the note of Garatoni; Appian, App. BC 4.62; D. C. 47.30.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.