older man governed it as legatus Augusti pro praetore, or imperial governor. On returning to Rome both were adlected (promoted) into the patrician class, most likely during the Roman census of 73–74. This promotion in status offered many opportunities, including being excused from holding some of the republican magistracies otherwise required to become consul. Marcellus was then given the position of curator acta senatorum, or recorder of the minutes of the Senate. He is the first person attested to have held this position. At the age of 25 he held the republican magistracy of quaestor, being selected as one of the pair allocated to attend to the Emperor. The duties of these quaestors included reading the Emperor's speeches to the Senate. This was followed by his admission to the collegia of the Salius Palatinus, a priestly order tracing its roots back to the Roman Kingdom. Marcellus' service to the Emperor resumed with a commission as a tribunus laticlavius with the Legio XII Fulminata which was part of an expeditionary force led by his adoptive father Neratius Pansa in Cappadocia. This expedition is thought to have taken place in 75 and 76. Due to his promotion to the patrician class, Marcellus was excused from holding any commands or offices between the praetorship and his appointment as suffect consul in AD 95, replacing the emperor Domitian on the Ides of January. Ronald Syme describes being the suffect to replace the emperor as a "high distinction, and close to being consul ordinarius". Marcellus served as curator aquarum urbis (supervisor of the city's aqueducts) between his consulship and his appointment as the legatus Augusti pro praetore of Roman Britain. He certainly held the office before 103, when his governorship is attested by a military diploma. Britain and after Marcellus was Governor of Britannia from 101 to 104. At about this time the Roman army was hard pressed to hold the territory Agricola had conquered a generation before. Legio II Adiutrix had been withdrawn to the Danube in AD 92 with three cohorts of Batavian auxiliaries. Emperor Trajan, needing reinforcements for his First Dacian War, had called for vexillations (detachments) from the army in Britain. The natives took advantage of the understrength garrison: excavations at Newstead and elsewhere show signs of destruction by fire. Although the Romans often burnt what was not worth salvaging when they evacuated a fort, excavations also revealed human remains and