Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1074

Rh 10(10 METELLUS. have received the surname of Nepos, because he was the eldest grandson of the latter ; for the Metelli were so numerous that it hecame neces- sary, for the sake of distinction, that each member of the family should have some personal desig- nation. This surname of Nepos was also borne by one of his children [No. 21]. Metellus Nepos exerted himself in obtaining the recall of his kins- man Metellus Numidicus from banishment in b. c. 99, and was consul the following year, b. c. 98, with T. Didius. In this year the two consuls carried the lex Caecilia Didia. (Cic. post Red. in Sen. 15, pro Dam. 20, ad Alt. ii. 9 ; Schol. Bob. pro Sext p. 310, ed, Orelli ; Obsequ. 107.) 17. Caecilia (Metella), sister of the pre- ceding, and daugliter of Balearicus, married App. Claudius, consul in b. c. 79. [Caecilia, No. 4.j 18. Caecilia (Metella), daughter of Dalma- ticus [No. 13], married first Scaurus, consul in B. c. 115, and afterwards the dictator Sulla. [Cae- cilia, No. 5.] 19. Q. Caecilius Q. f. L. n. Metellus Pius, son of Numidicus [No. 14], received the surname of Pius on account of the love which he displayed for his father when he besought the people to re- call him from banishment, in B. c. 99. He was about twenty yenrs of age when he accompanied his father to Numidia in B. c. 109. He obtained the praetorship in B. c. 89, and was one of the commanders in the Marsic or Social war, which had broken out in the preceding year. He de- feated and slew in battle Q. Pompaedius, the leader of the Marsians in B. c. 88. He was still in arms in B. c. 87, prosecuting the war against the Sam- nites, when Marias landed in Italy and joined the consul Cinna. The senate, in alarm, summoned Metellus to Rome ; and, as the soldiers placed more confidence in him than in the consul Octavius, they entreated him to take the supreme command shortly after his arrival in the city. As he refused to comply with their request, numbers deserted to the enemy ; and finding it impossible to hold out against Marius and Cinna, he left the city and ■went to Africa. Here he collected a considerable force and was joined by Crassus, who had also fled thither from Spain, but they quarrelled and sepa- rated shortly afterwards. In B. c. 84 Metellus was defeated -by C. Fabius, one of the Marian party. He therefore returned to Italy, and re- mained in Liguria ; but hearing of the return of Sulla from Asia in the following year (b. c. 83), he hastened to meet him at Brundisium, and was one of the first of the nobles who joined him. In the war which followed against the Marian party, Metellus was one of the most successful of Sulla's generals. Early in b. c. 82, Metellus gained a victory over Carrinas, near the river Aesis in Umbria, defeated shortly afterwards another divi- sion of Carbo's army, and finally gained a decisive victory over Carbo and Norbanus, n€ar Faventia, in Cisalpine Gaul. In B.C. 80, Metellus was consul with Sulla himself. In tjiis year he rewarded the services of Calidiu8» i" obtaining the rccdl of his father from banishment, by using his influence to obtain for liim the praetorship. In the following year (b. c. 79), Mttellus went as proconsul into Spain, in order to prosecute the war against Sertorius, who adhered to the Marian party. Here he remained for the next eight years, and found it so difficult to obtain any advantages over Sertorius, that not METELLUS. only was he obliged to call to his aid the armies Lu Nearer Spain and in Gaul, but the Romans also se;it to his assistance Pompey with proconsular power and another army. Sertorius, however, was a match for them both ; and when Metellus, after frequent disasters, at length gained a victory over Sertorius, he was so elated with his success, that he allowed himself to be saluted imperator, and celebrated his conquest with the greatest splendour. But Sertorius soon recovered from this defeat, and would probably have continued to defy all the efforts of Metellus and Pompey, if be had not beeii murdered by Perperna and his friends in B. c. 72. [Sertorius.] Metellus returned to R,ome in the following year, and triumphed on the 30th of December. In B. c. 65, Metellus was one of those who sup- ported the accusation against C. Cornelius. lie was pontifex inaximus, and, as he was succeeded in this dignity by C. Caesar in B. c. 63, he must have died either in this year or at the end of the preceding. Metellus Pius followed closely in the footsteps of his father. Like him, he was a steady and unwavering supporter of the aristocracy ; like him, his military abilities were very considerable, but not those of a first-rate general, and he was unable to adapt himself or his troops to the guerilla- warfare which had to be carried on in Spain ; like his fiither, again, his personal character contrasted most favourably with the general dissoluteness of his contemporaries ; and lastly, he imitated his father in the patron.ige which he bestowed upon Archias and other poets. His conduct at the time of his father's banishment, and the gratitude which he showed to Q. Calidius, are especially deserving of praise. He adopted the son of Scipio Nasica, who is called in consequence Metellus Pius Scipio [No. 22]. (Sail. Jug. 64 ; Appian, B. C. i. 33, 53. 68, 80-91, 97, 103, 108—115 ; Aurel. Vic. de Fir. III. 63 ; Ores. v. 18, 28 ; Plut. Mar. 42, Crass. 6, Sertor. 12—27 ; Liv. Epit. 84, 91, 92 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 15, 28 — 30 ; Dion Cass, xxvii. 37 ; Plut. Cues. 7 ; Cic. pro Arch. 4, 5, 10, pro Plane. 29, pro Cluent. 8, pro Ball. 2, 22 ; Ascon. in Cic. Corn. p. 60, ed. Orelli.) 20. Q. Caecilius Q. f. Q.n. Metellus Celer, consul B, c. 60, was son of Nepos, consul B. c. 9!i. [No. 16.] The latter was most probably his father, but his descent has given rise to much dispute. Cicero and Asconius both call Metellus Celer tlie frater oi the younger Metellus Nepos [No. 21 J, and Asconius states that the latter was the son of the elder Nepos [No. 16], the grandson of Balea- ricus [No. 7], and the great-grandson of Macedo- nicus [No. 5]. (Cic. ad Fam. v. I, 2 ; Ascon. in Cornel, p. 63.) From the way in which Celer speaks of Nepos, as well as from other circum- stances, we are led to conclude that they were brothers and not first-cousins. The only difficulty in this supposition is, that they both bear the prae- nomen Quintus ; but the ingenious hypothesis of , Manutius {ad Cic. I. c) removes this difficulty. ' He supposes that the elder Nepos [No. 16] may have had two sons, one called Quintus and the other perhaps Lucius : that the latter, the subject of this notice, was adopted by the Q. Metellus Celer, who is mentioned by Cicero as one of the orators in B. c. 90, and that he received in consequence the praenomen Quintus and the cognomen Celer. Ma- nutius further supposes that after the death of the elder son Quintus, the wife of Nepos bore hira a