Gaius Volusenus Quadratus (fl. mid-1st century BC) was a distinguished military officer of the Roman Republic. He served under Julius Caesar for ten years, during the Gallic Wars and the civil war of the 40s. Caesar praised him for his strategic sense and courageous integrity. Italian origin The name Volusenus may be Etruscan in origin (as Volasenna), but some scholars have attributed an Umbrian origin to the family, based on inscriptional evidence. Military service During the Gallic War Volusenus served as tribunus militum in the 12th Legion under the legatus legionis Servius Galba, and distinguished himself in battle when Galba was defeated by the Nantuates in 57 BC. 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. He probably examined the Kent coast between Hythe and Sandwich. However, when Caesar arrived at Dover with his forces he saw that landing would be impossible. Instead, he travelled north and landed on an open beach, probably near Walmer. Volusenus had evidently failed to find a suitable harbour, which would have prevented the damage Caesar's exposed ships would suffer at high tide. The great natural harbour at Richborough, a little further north, was used by Claudius in his invasion just 100 years later, but we do not know whether Volusenus travelled that far, or indeed whether it existed in a suitable form at that time (our knowledge of the geomorphology of the Wantsum Channel that created that haven is limited). 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. When the legate Titus Labienus suspected Commius, the formerly loyal king of the Atrebates, of 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. 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