Gaius Volusenus
Gaius Volusenus Quadratus was a
Roman military officer and ally of
Julius Caesar.
During the
Gallic War he 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 impossible. Instead he travelled north and beached his ships near
Walmer. Volusenus failed to find the great natural harbour at
Richborough, later used by
Claudius in his later invasion. However our knowledge of the
geomorphology of the
Wantsum Channel that created that haven is limited and it may not have been suitable at the time. In any case, there is no record of Caesar's reaction to Volusenus' apparent intelligence failings.
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 discovered that
Commius, the formerly loyal king of the
Atrebates, was 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. 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, Roscillus and Aegus, two Gallic noblemen serving in Caesar's cavalry who had been caught defrauding their comrades of pay, decided to defect to
Pompey's side, and attempted to assassinate Volusenus in an effort to show Pompey they had performed him some useful service. The task proved too difficult, and they were forced to defect without any such token.
[Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Civili 3.59-61] After Caesar's victory, he was Tribune of the Plebs in 43 BC, and following Caesar's assassinating in 44 BC, he was a supporter of
Mark Antony.
[Cicero, Phillipics 14.3]
