 In 52 BC he was elected consul, together with Servius Sulpicius Rufus, for the following year.During his consulship Marcellus proved himself to be a zealous partisan of Pompey and the "optimates", and urged the Senate to extreme measures against Julius Caesar, managing to establish that the subject of recalling Caesar should be discussed on 1 March of the following year.He also considered the Lex Vitinia invalid, removing Roman citizenship from citizens of Comum, and caused a senator of Comum, who happened to be in Rome, to be scourged, a punishment Roman citizens were exempted from under the Lex Porcia.