Gaius Volusenus

Gaius Volusenus Quadratus was a Roman tribune under Julius Caesar.

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. When Caesar set off with his troops however he arrived at Dover and saw that landing would impossible. Instead he travelled north and beached his ships near Walmer.

Volusenus failed to find the great natural harbour at Richborough, later used by Claudius in his later invasion. However our knowledge of the geomorphology of the Wantsum Channel that created that haven is limited and it may not have been suitable at the time. In any case, there is no record of Caesar's reaction to Volusenus' apparent intelligence failings.

When the legate Titus Labienus discovered that Commius, the formerly loyal king of the Atrebates, was 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.

By 51 BC Volusenus was appointed 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 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. Commius himself escaped and later sued for peace on the condition that he never again had to meet a Roman.