Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1075

Rh METELLTTS. third son, to whom he again gave the names of Quintus and Nepos. This supposition accounts not only for the two brothers bearing the same praenomen, but also for the younger, and not the elder, having the cognomen of his father. In B. c. 66, Metellus Celer served as legate in the array of Pompey in Asia, and distinguished himself by repulsing an attack which Oroeses, king of the Albanians, made upon his winter-quarters. lie returned to Rome before Pompey, and was praetor in B.C. 63, the year in which Cicero was consul. Like the other members of his fiimily he distinguished himself during his year of office by a warm support of the aristocratical party. He pre- vented the condemnation of C. Rabirius by re- moving the military flag from the Janiculum, as has been already narrated in the life of Caesar [Vol. I. p. 541 J. He co-operated with Cicero in opposing the schemes of Catiline ; and, when the hitter left the city to make war upon the republic, Metellus had the charge of the Picentine and Se- nonian districts. By blocking up the passes he prevented Catiline from crossing the Apennines and penetrating into Gaul, and thus compelled him to turn round and fiice Antonius, who was march- ing against him from Etruriiu In the following year, b. c. 62, Metellus went with the title of pro- consul into the province of Cisalpine Gaul, which Cicero had relinquished because he was unwilling to leave the city. Although Metellus and Cicero had been thus closely connected, yet he was ex- ceedingly angry when the orator attacked his brother Nepos, who had given him, however, abun- dant provocation. [See below. No. 21.] The letter which Celer wrote to Cicero on this occasion is still preserved, and is very characteristic of the haughty aristocratical spirit of the family. Cicero's reply is very clever. (Cic. ad Fam. v. I, 2.) In B. c. 61, Metellus was consul elect, and by his personal influence prevented the celebration of the Compitalia, which a tribune of the plebs was preparing to celebrate in opposition to a senatus- consultum. Towards the end of the year he took an active part in conjunction with M. Cato, and others of the aristocracy, in resisting the demands of the publicani, who petitioned the senate to allow them to pay a smaller sum for the farm- ing of the taxes in Asia than they had agreed to give. Their request was accordingly refused, but was subsequently granted, in b. c. 59, by Caesar, who brought forward a bill in the comitia for the purpose. In b. c. 60, Metellus was consul with L. Afranius, who was a creature of Pompey, and had been raised to this dignity by Pompey's in- fluence. Pompey was anxious to obtain tiie rati- fication of his acts in Asia, and an assignment of lands for his soldiers ; but Afranius was not a man of sufficient ability and energy to be of much ser- vice to him, and Metellus thwarted all his plans, since Pompey, and not Caesar, was generally re- garded at that time as the most formidable enemy of the aristocracy. It was this opposition which drove Pompey into the arms of Caesar, and thus prepared the downfall of the republic. So resolute was the opposition of Metellus to the agrarian law of the tribune L. Flavins, which he brought for- ward in order to provide for Pompey's veterans, that the tribune had him dragged to prison ; but even this did not frighten Metellus, and the law was in consequence abandoned. He acted with such energy and decision in favour of the aiisto- METELLUS. ICMU cracy that Cicero calls him " egregius consul " ; and although lie did not at first oppose the adop- tion of Clodius into a plebeian family, apparently not attaching much importance to the matter, yet as soon as he perceived that Clodius was resolved to favour the views of the democratical party, Me- tellus opposed his plans to the utmost of his power. Clodius was the first-cousin of Metellus, being the son of his father's sister, and likewise the brother of his own wife ; but he did not allow this family connection to produce any change in his political conduct. As a war threatened to break out iu Gaul, the senate determined that the consuls should draw lots for the provinces of the Gauls ; but Me- tellus did not leave Rome this year, nor apparently the next. In b. c. 59, the year of Caesar's consul- ship, he took a leading part in the opposition to the agrarian law of Caesar, but in vain. He died in the course of the same year, so unexpectedly, that it was suspected that he had been poisoned by his wife Clodia, with whom he lived on the most unhappy terms, and who was a woman of the ut- most profligacy. The character of Metellus has been sufficiently indicated in the preceding sketch of his life : he was one of the great leaders of the aristocracy, but did notf possess either sufficient in- fluence or sufficient genius to cope with such men as Caesar and Pompey. His oratory is spoken of favourably by Cicero, and was more adajited to the popular assemblies than to the courts. (Dion Cass. xxxvi. 37, and libb. xxxvii. xxxviii ; Sail. Cat. 57 ; the passages of Cicero in Orelli's Onom. Tult. vol. ii. p. 107.) 21. Q. Metellus, Q. f. Q. n. Metellus Nepos, brother of the preceding, and son of the elder Nepos [No. 16]. In B.C. 67 he served as legate of Pompey in the war against the pirates, and was still with him in Asia in B. c. 64. In B. c. 63 he returned to Rome, in order to become a candidate for the tribunate, that he might thereby favour the views of Pompey. The aristocracy, who now dreaded Pompey more than any one else in the state, were in the utmost consternation. They brought forward M. Cato as a rival candidate, and succeeded in carrying his election, but were unable to prevent the election of Metellus likewise. Me- tellus entered upon his office on the 10th of De- cember, B. c. 63, and commenced his official career by a violent attack upon Cicero, whom he looked upon as the main support of the existing order of things. He openly asserted that he who had con- demned Roman citizens without a hearing ought not to be heard himself, and accordingly prevented Cicero from addressing the people on the last day of his consulship, when he had to lay down his office, and only allowed him to take the usual oath, whereupon Cicero swore that he had saved the state. On the 1 st of January, b. c. 62, Cicero at- tacked Metellus with great bitterness in the senate, and two days afterwards Metellus replied to him with equal bitterness, upbraiding him with his low origin, denouncing him as a tyrant for condemning Roman citizens to death uuheard, and threatening bird with an impeachment. Stung to the quick, Cicero published an oration against him, entitled "Metellina," of the nature of which the second Philippic will probably give us the best idea. Supr- ported by Caesar, who was anxious, above alt things, to drive Pompey to an open rupture with the senate, Metellus brought forward a bill to summou Pompey, with his army, to Rome, in order