Marcus Caelius
senior centurion in XVIII Roman Legion who was killed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Marcus Caelius (c. March 45 BC – c. September AD 9) was the senior centurion (Primus pilus) in XVIII Roman Legion who was killed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. He is known from his cenotaph, which was discovered in 1620 in Birten (now a part of Xanten), Germany. Caelius is depicted wearing his military uniform, with phalerae (a type of military decoration), armillae (a type of bracelet), and a corona civica (an award for saving a fellow citizen's life), while in his right hand, he holds a vitis (carried by all centurions). On either side of his image are his non-combatant servants, Privatus and Thiaminus, both of whom perished in the battle and were given the status of freedman post-humously by Caelius’ brother, Publius.
The tombstone's lower left corner is damaged, but enough survives to determine that the text below the image once read:
M[ARCO] CAELIO T[ITI] F[ILIO] LEM[ONIA TRIBV] BON[ONIA]
P[RIMVS] O[RDO] LEG[IONIS] XIIX ANN[ORVM] LIII S[EMISSIS]
[CE]CIDIT BELLO VARIANO OSSA
[HVC] INFERRE LICEBIT P[UBLIVS] CAELIVS T[ITI] F[ILIVS]
LEM[ONIA TRIBV] FRATER FECIT
English translation:
To Marcus Caelius, son of Titus, of the Lemonian district, from Bologna,
first centurion of the eighteenth legion. 53+1⁄2 years old.
He fell in the Varian War.
His freedman's bones may be interred here. Publius Caelius, son of Titus,
of the Lemonian district, his brother, erected (this monument)."
The tombstone can today be found in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn.
The public source identifies “Marcus Caelius” as senior centurion in XVIII Roman Legion who was killed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Marcus, Caelius and senior.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q895831. VIAF identifies the subject as 170309163. The Library of Congress control number is no2011037837. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1620.
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This entry incorporates text from “Marcus Caelius” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.