Marcus Titius

Marcus Titius was a Roman politician (suffect consul in 31 BC) and commander at the end of the Roman Republic.

Marcus Titius was the son of a Lucius Titius and nephew of Lucius Munatius Plancus. The offices which Lucius Titius held are not known but he was proscribed at the end of 43 BC and escaped to Sextus Pompey. Now his son Marcus Titius built a fleet and plundered the coast of Etruria. In 40 BC he was captured in Gallia Narbonensis by Menodoros, a general of Sextus Pompey, but pardoned for his father’s sake. When the triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian wanted to settle their conflict with Sextus Pompey in the Pact of Misenum in the summer of 39 BC many exiles were allowed to come back to Rome, so Marcus Titius and his father returned home.

Probably under the influence of Munatius Plancus his nephew Titius soon became a follower of Mark Antony. In 36 BC Titius took part as Quaestor in the campaign of Antony against Parthia. After the Romans tried in vain to capture Phraaspa, the capital of Media Atropatene, they withdrew to Armenia, but on their way they were often attacked by the Parthian army. At one of these attacks Titius tried in vain to stop the Tribune Flavius Gallus pursuing the enemy. The army of Gallus was soon surrounded and only saved by Antony when he arrived with the main forces.

In the meantime Sextus Pompey had escaped to Lesbos Island after his final defeat by Octavian (at the end of 36 BC). On the Greek isle he raised a new army and fleet. After the return from the Parthian war Antony learnt of the arrival of Pompey and received his envoys to negotiate about an alliance. But the triumvir was mistrustful and instructed Titius to advance with an army and a fleet against Pompey and if necessary to fight against him. But if Pompey would be willing to submit he should be escorted by Titius to Alexandria. But in the meantime Pompey had landed in northwestern Asia Minor at the beginning of 35 BC without resistance by Gaius Furnius, the governor of the Roman province Asia, because Furnius did not have enough forces and did not know the orders of Antony. So Pompey could capture Lampsacus, Nicaea and Nicomedia but then Titius arrived from Syria with an army and 120 ships. The fleet of Titius was reinforced by 70 ships that arrived from Sicily where they had supported the fleet of Octavian in his battle against Pompey in the previous years. The headquarters of the ships of Titius now was Proconnesus.

...
Wikipedia