One wife is attested for Marcellus on inscriptions recovered from Saepinum she erected in his honor, Domitia Vettilla,[2] the daughter of Lucius Domitius Apollinaris, suffect consul in AD 97.

However, it has been argued that Marcellus had married Corellia Hispulla, based on the existence of a son Lucius Corellius Neratius Pansa, consul of AD 122;[3] Hispulla was the daughter of Pliny the Younger’s elderly friend Quintus Corellius Rufus, suffect consul in AD 78.

[5] An inscription found in Xanthos is understood by experts to indicate that he accompanied his adoptive father to the Roman province of Lycia while the older man governed it as legatus Augusti pro praetore, or imperial governor.

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.

[9] 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.

[11] 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.

Although the Romans often burnt what was not worth salvaging when they evacuated a fort, excavations also revealed human remains and immense quantities of equipment, including damaged armour, at Newstead.

[15] Another illustration of Marcellus' role in the network of patronage of his time is a draft of a letter recovered from the Roman fort at Vindolanda.

The commander of the Ninth Cohort of Batavians stationed there, Flavius Cerialis, writes to his friend Crispinus about meeting with governor Marcellus.

"[16] The next record of Neratius Marcellus comes decades after he returned from Britain, when he was elected consul ordinarius in AD 129, serving alongside Publius Juventius Celsus Titus Aufidius Hoenius Severianus.

However, Birley then notes that "it may be that he came to a sad end soon afterwards, for among Hadrian's close friends... the author of the Historia Augusta lists a Marcellus, forced to suicide by the emperor.