Quick Facts
Biography
Marcus Caelius (born circa 44 BC, died 9 AD) was the senior centurion (Primus Pilus) in Legio XIIX who was killed in the Battle of Teutoburger Wald. 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 freedmen (ex-slaves), Privatus and Thiaminus.
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]
I O[RDINI] LEG[IONIS] XIIX ANN[ORVM] LIII S[EMISSIS]
CECIDIT BELLO VARIANO OSSA
[LIBERTORVM] INFERRE LICEBIT P[VBLIVS] CAELIVS T[ITI] F[ILIVS]
LEM[ONIA TRIBV] FRATER FECIT
English translation:
To Marcus Caelius, son of Titus, of the Lemonian voting tribe, from Bononia
First centurion of the eighteenth legion, 53½ years old
He fell in the Varian War. His freedmen's bones
may be interred here. Publius Caelius, son of Titus,
of the Lemonian voting tribe, his brother, erected (this monument)
The tombstone can today be found in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn.