Megellus was a member of the patrician Postumia clan, a family reportedly at the forefront of the so-called Struggle of the Orders in their attempts to prevent the opening up of the political offices to the plebeian classes.

As an aedile, Megellus heavily fined (pecunia multaticia) any individuals who broke the Lex Licinia Sextia by encroaching on public land.

Returning to Rome, Megellus and his consular colleague Marcus Fulvius Curvus Paetinus took the towns of Sora, Arpinum and Cerennia.

[12] With the resumption of hostilities in 298, Rome was soon in need of experienced military commanders to take the field against a coalition of enemies, with the Samnites to the south in league with the Etruscans, Umbrians and Gauls to the north.

[14] As part of the campaign that culminated in the Battle of Sentinum, Magellus was ordered to attack the Etruscans, in particular the armies and territory around the town of Clusium.

[19][22] This triumph was notorious, as his senatorial enemies claimed that he was not entitled to one, as he had technically left the province which the Senate had assigned to him, during his return to Rome.

Consequently, he was appointed legatus, a high military office, to the consul Spurius Carvilius Maximus, and agreement was reached to suspend his prosecution until the end of the campaigning season.

[4][25] However, the victories achieved by Carvilius Maximus, especially the Battle of Aquilonia, at which Megellus fought, resulted in the trial never taking place, as his opponents believed that his popularity meant that he would have inevitably been found innocent.

During the election process, with the war against Samnium virtually won, he took the highly unusual step of nominating himself, thereby breaking the law prohibiting men serving as consul again until ten years had elapsed.

[4] Upon winning and entering office as senior consul in 291 BC, his first act was to demand that Samnium be assigned to him as his theatre of war, without waiting for the outcome of the drawing of lots for the provincial commands.

Over the strenuous objections of his colleague Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus, who in the end decided not to impose his veto, Megellus’ request was granted.

Although the Senate followed his advice, they were swayed by the Fabii, who were the enemies of Megellus,[34] and refused to appoint him as one of the commissioners responsible for assigning the lands to the colonists and overseeing the foundation of the new settlement.

The senate instead voted a triumph for the man he ousted, Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges, allowing him to claim credit for the capture of Cominium.

[note 1][35] As a consequence of his high-handed behaviour, when he left office in 290 BC, Megellus was prosecuted by two of the tribunes on the charge of having employed troops on his own land.

[37] Megellus’ last known activity in public life occurred in 282 BC, when Rome was asked to intercede on behalf of the town of Thurii, which was suffering raids from the Lucanians and Bruttians.

[39] His demands were rejected out of hand, and Megellus was treated without the customary respect accorded an ambassador; the Terentines mocked his Roman toga, his imperfect Greek pronunciation, and as he was led out of the town, he was even apparently urinated upon.