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. S.P. Oakley sees this encounter as an unusual example of single combat in the Late Republic, echoing duels between Romans and physically superior Celts in the Early Republic. Commius himself escaped and later sued for peace on the condition that he never again had to meet a Roman. In 48 BC, during the Civil War, an attempt to assassinate Volusenus was made by Aegus and Roscillus, two noble brothers of the Celtic Allobroges who had served in Caesar's cavalry throughout the Gallic Wars. The brothers had been caught defrauding their comrades of pay and decided to defect to Pompey's side. The death of Volusenus was meant to render Pompey useful service, but the task proved too difficult, and they were forced to defect without any such token. Ronald Syme noted that Volusenus's decade-long tour of duty might have been uncommon for a man of his equestrian social rank, many of whom "owed their commissions less to merit than to the claims of friendship and influence or the hope of procuring gain and political advancement." The exemplary career of Volusenus, like that of Decidius Saxa, indicates that even in the Late Republic an equestrian might choose to excel as a career officer rather than as a publican or businessman. Volusenus is one of only three ranking officers to whom Caesar ascribes the quality of virtus. Political career? Based on a "hopelessly corrupt" reading of one of Cicero's speeches against Mark Antony, Volusenus was sometimes identified by 19th-century scholars as a tribune of the plebs in 43 BC. The passage, and Volusenus's documented loyalty to Caesar, was thus interpreted to mean that he was a supporter of Mark Antony, but two other manuscripts indicate that the proper noun is in fact a verb (voluissent) and neither Cicero nor any other source mentions Volusenus among Antony's followers. T.R.S. Broughton does not record a plebeian tribunate for Volusenus in The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, confirming only that Volusenus was a military tribune in 56 and held the rank of praefectus equitum in 52–51 and again in 48. References Ancient Roman soldiers Ancient Romans in Britain Roman people of the Gallic Wars 1st-century BC Romans