NIGHTBRINGER | The Arthurian Encyclopedia

Gaius Quintillianus

Gaynus, Gayous, Quintilian, Quintilianus, Quencelin, Quyntalyn

A Roman warrior who was the nephew of the Roman Emperor Lucius.

At the beginning of the war between Arthur and Rome, Arthur sent GawaineBoso, and Guerin of Chartres (or Gawaine, BorsLionel, and Bedivere) as peace envoys to Lucius.

During the talks, however, Gaius Quintillianus remarked that Britons were more skilled at bragging and threatening than at battle. Gawaine, enraged at these comments, sliced off Gaius’s head, thus starting a battle and the war. Gawain later killed Marcellus Mucius, a friend of Gaius, and bade him to tell Gaius, when he met him in hell, that there were indeed no people who were better at bragging than the Britons.

The Vulgate Merlin calls him Titilus.


See also
Chartres | The Legend of King Arthur


Sources
Historia Regum Britanniae | Geoffrey of Monmouth, c. 1138
Roman de Brut | Wace, c. 1155
Brut | Layamon, late 12th century to mid-13th century
Alliterative Morte Arthure | c. 1400
Le Morte Darthur | Sir Thomas Malory, 1469-1470