Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1076

Rh lor,2 METELLUS. to restore peace and protect the citizens from arbi- tniry punishment. Parties were in the state of the highest exasperation : on the day on which the bill was to be brought forward, Cato attempted to pre- vent its being read, but was driven out of the forum by force. He soon, however, returned, sup- ported by a large body of the aristocracy ; and this time tlie victory remained in their hands. Metelhis was obliged to take to flight, and repaired to Pompey : the senate proposed to deprive him of liis office, and according to some accounts actually did so. MeteUus returned to Rome with Pompey, and was raised to the praetorship in B. c. 60. In this year he brought forward a law for the abolition of the vectigalia in Italy ; and the senate, out of hatred to MeteUus, attempted to call the law by the name of some other person. In tlie following year he appears not to have gone to a province, but to have remained in Rome. In B. c. 57 he was consul with P. Cornelius Lentubis Spinther. Cicero, who had been banished in the preceding year, and whose friends were now exerting themselves to obtain his recall, was greatly alarmed at the elec- tion of MeteUus, since he was one of his bit- terest personal enemies. But since Clodius h.ad offended both Pompey and Caesar, and the latter was anxious to mortify and weaken the power of the demagogue, MeteUus, out of respect to them, suppressed his feelings towards Cicero, and an- nounced in the senate on the 1st of January, that he should not oppose his recall from exile. Cicero wrote to him to express his gratitude {ad Fam. v. 4), and in subsequent speeches he frequentlj' praises his moderation and magnanimity. At the same time the friends of Cicero at Rome seem to have had some suspicions of MeteUus ; but he was eventually induced, very much by the influence of his relative, P. Servilius, to give a hearty support to Cicero's friends, and in the month of September the orator was at Rome. But almost immediately afterwards we again find MeteUus on the other side, and in the month of November using his efforts to obtain the aedileship for Clodius. In B. c. 56 MeteUus administered the province of Nearer Spain. Either before he left Rome or soon afterwards MeteUus had quarrelled with Clodius, and this enmity naturally led to a recon- ciliation with Cicero, to whom he writes in appa- rently cordial terms (ad Fam. v. 3). In the month of April he repaired, with many other dis- tinguished Roman nobles, to Caesar's winter- quarters at Luca, doubtless with the view of obtaining the prolongation of his command. On bis return to Spain he made a sudden and appa- rently unjustifiable attack upon the Vaccaei, whom he defeated ; but in the following year (b. c. 55) they took the town of Clunia from him, and ad- vanced with such considerable forces that MeteUus d.ired not attack them. MeteUus seems to have returned to Rome in the course of this year, and to have died in the same year, as his name does not occur again. In his testament he left Carrinas (probably the consul of b. c. 43) the heir of all his property, passing over all the Metelli and likewise the Claudii, with whom he was so nearly connected (Val. Max. vii. 8. § 3.) MeteUus did not adhere etrictly to the political principles of his family. He did not support the aristocracy, like his brother ; nor, on the other liand, can he be said to have been a leader of the democracy. He was in fact METELLUS. little more than a servant of Pompoy, and accordini? to his bidding at one time opposed, and at another supported Cicero. (App. Mithr. 95 ; Flor. iii. 6 ; Joseph. Ant. iv. 2. § 3, /?. J. i. 6. § 2 ; Plut. Cat. Min. 20 ; Dion Cass, xxxvii. 38 — 51, xxxix. 1 — 7, 54; Plut. Goes. 21 ; the passages of Cicero in OreUi's Onom. Tull. vol. ii. p. 107, &c.) 22. Q. Caecii.ius, Q. f. Metei.lus Pius SciPio, the adopted son of MeteUus Pius [No. 19]. He was the son of P. Cornelius Scipio N.asica, praetor b. c. 94, and Licinia, a daughter of the orator L. Crassus, and was a grandson of P. Corne- lius Scipio Nasica, consul b. c. 111, and Caecilia, a daughter of MeteUus Macedonicus. Through his grandmother he was therefore descended from the famUy of the Metelli, into which he was subse- quently adopted. Before his adoption he bore the names of P. Cornelius Sci{>io Nasica, and hence his name is given in various forms. Sometimes he is called P. Scipio Nasica, sometimes Q. MeteUus Scipio, and sometimes simply Scipio or MeteUus. His full legal name, as it appears in a senatus con- sultum (Cic. ad Fam. viii. 8), is the one given at the commencement of this notice. Appian erro- neously gives him the praenomen Lucius. (Z?. C. ii. 24.) MeteUus is first mentioned in B. c. 63, when he is said to have come to Cicero by night, along with M. Crassus and MarceUus, bringing with them letters relating to the conspiracy of Catiline. In B. c. 60 he was elected tribune of the plebs, but was accused of bribery by M. Favonius, who had failed in his election, and was defended by Cicero. He was tribune in B. c. 59, and was one of the college of pontiffs before whom Cicero spoke re- specting his house in B. c. 57. In the latter year he exhibited gladiatorial games in honour of his deceased father, MeteUus Pius. In b. c. 53 Scipio was a candidate for the consulship along with Plau- tius Hypsaeus and Milo, and was supported by the Clodian mob, since he was opposed to Milo. The candidates had recourse to the most unblushing bribery, and to open violence and force. The most frightful scenes were daily occurring in the streets of Rome ; and these disturbances were secretly fomented by Pompey, who was anxious to be named dictator, for the purpose of restoring order to the city, and thereby possessing the power which might enable him to crush Caesar, of whom he had now become jealous. The comitia could not be held for the election of consuls ; and when the murder of Clodius at the beginning of the fol- lowing year, b. c. 52, threw the state almost into anarchy, the senate consented that Pompey should be elected sole consul. This took place at the end of February; and shortly afterwards he married Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio, to whom he showed particular favour. Hypsaeus and Scipio were both accused of bribery ; but though both were equally guilty, the former only was condemned. On the 1 st of August Pompey made Scipio his colleague in the consulship ; and Scipio showed his gratitude by using every effort to destroy the power of Caesar and strengthen that of Pompey. He was all the more ready to exert himself in Pompey's favour, since the latter was now obliged to enter into a close connection with the aristocratical party, to which Scipio belonged, for the purpose of cnish- ing his rival. One of the first acts of MeteUus after his appointment to the consulship was to bring forward a law restoring to the censors the powers