Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1078

Rh 10C4 METELLUS. COINS OP METELLUS SCIPIO. 23, Q. Caecilius Metellus Creticus. His descent and that of his two brothers is quite un- certain ; for he evidently could not have been the son of Metellus Macedonicus, as Florus (iii. 8. § 1) states. (Drumann, vol. ii. p. 50.) Metellus Avas consul B. c. 69 with Q. Hortensius, and ob- tained the conduct of the war against Crete, which Hortensius had declined, when the lot had given this province to him. Metellus left Italy in B. c. 68 with three legions. He was engaged two whole years in the subjugation of the island, and did not return to Rome till the third. The diffi- culty of the conquest was much increased by the unwarrantable interference of Pompey ; for after Cydonia, Cnossus, and many other towns had fallen into the hands of Metellus, and the war seemed almost at an end, the Cretans sent to offer their sub- mission to Pompej'-, from whom they hoped to obtain more favourable terms than from Metellus. By the Gabinian law, passed in B. c. 67, which gave to Pompey the conduct of the war against the pirates, the supreme command in the whole of the Mediterranean was also assigned to him ; he therefore had a pretext for interfering in the affairs of Crete, but it was clearly never intended that he should supersede Metellus. His emissaries had probably persuaded the Cretans to make this offer ; but however this may be, he immediately complied with their request, and sent his legate L. Octavius to receive the surrender of their towns, and shortly afterwards another of his legates, Cornelius Sisenna, came to the island from Greece with the command of some troops. Metellus, however, refused to take any notice of their claims, and continued to attack and subdue the towns, although the in- habitants were erijcouraged in their resistance to him by the legates of Pompey. Eleuthera and Luppa fell into his hands ; and in the capture of the latter town Octavius was made prisoner, but dismissed by Metellus with contempt. Cornelius Sisenna had meantime died, and hitherto Octavius had not ventured to use force against Metellus, but now he employed the troops of Sisenna to fight on tlie side of the Cretans. But as these troops shortly afterwards withdrew from the»island, for some reason unknown to us, Octavius took refuge with Aristion in Hierapytna, from which, however, he fled at the approach of Metellus, leaving the Cretans to their fate. Thereupon Lasthencs and Panares, the chief leaders of the Cretans, made their submission to him, and the war was brought to a. close. METELLUS. In iJ. c. 66 Metellus returned to Rome, but lie was prevented from obtaining a triumph by the partisans of Pompey. Metellus, however, could not relinquish his claim to a triumph, and accord- ingly resolved to wait in the neighbourhood of the city till more favourable circumstances. His pa- tience was as great as his desire for the honour ; for he Avas still waiting before the city in b. c. 63, when the conspiracy of Catiline broke out. He Avas sent into Apulia to prevent an apprehended rising of tlie slaves ; and in the following year, B. c. 62, after the death of Catiline, he Avas at length permitted to make his triumphal entrance into Rome, and received the surname of Creticus, He was robbed, however, of the chief onuiments of his triumph, Lasthenes and Panares, Avhom a tribune of the plebs compelled him to surrender to Pompey. Metellus, as was naturally to be expected, joined Lucullus and the other leaders of the aristocracy in their opposition to Pompey, and succeeded in pre- venting the latter from obtaining the ratification of his acts in Asia. In b. c. 60 Metellus was sent by the senate with two others to investigate the state of Gaul, where a rising of the people was apprehended. He is mentioned by Cicero, in b. c. 57, as one of the pontiffs before whom he spoke respect- ing his house, and he probably died soon afterwards. (Liv. Epit 98—100 ; Flor. iii. 7, iv. 2 ; Eutrop. vi. 11 ; Oros. vi. 4; Veil. Pat. ii. 34, 38; Justin, xxxix. 5 ; Appian, Sic. 6 ; Dion Cass. Frag. 178, xxxvi. 1, 2 ; Pint. Pomp. 29 ; SaU. Cat. 30 ; Cic. Verr. i. 9, pro Flacc. 3, 13, 40, in Pison. 24, ad Alt. i. 19, de Har. Resj 6.) 24. L. Caecilius Metellus, brother of the preceding [No. 23], Avas praetor B.C. 71, and as propraetor succeeded Verres in the government of Sicily in B. c. 70. He defeated the pirates, who had conquered the Roman fleet and taken posses- sion of the harbour of Syracuse, and compelled them to leave the island. His administration is praised by Cicero for restoring peace and security to the inhabitants, after the frightful scenes which had been enacted there by Verres ; but he never- theless attempted, in conjunction with his brothers, to shield Verres from injustice, and tried to pre- vent the Sicilians from bringing forward their testimony and complaints against him. He Avas consul B. c. 68 Avith Q. Marcius Rex, but died at the beginning of his year. (Liv. Epit. 98 ; Oros. vi. 3; Cic. Verr. Act. i. 9, Accus. ii. 4, iii. 16, ii. 28, 56, 67, iii. 53, in Pis. 4 ; Dion Cass, xxxv. 4.) 25. M. Caecilius Metellus, brother of the two preceding [Nos. 23, 24], Avas praetor b. c. 69, in the same year that his eldest brother Avas consul. The lot gave him the presidency in the court de pecuniis repetundis, and Verres was very anxious that his trial should come on before JMe- tellus. (Cic. Verr. Act. i. 8, 9, 10.) Since hedid not obtain the consulship, Drumann conjectures (vol. ii. p. 57) that the gladiators of M. Metellus, Avhom Cicero mentions in b, c. 60 (ad Att. ii. 1. § 1), may have belonged to the son of the praetor, and were exhibited by him in honour of his father, Avho would therefore have died about this time. 26. Q. Caecilius Metellus Cketicus, is con- jectured by Drumann (vol. ii. p. 57) to have been the son of No. 23, and to have been the quaestor Avith C. Trebonius, Avho supported the adoption of Clodius into a plebeian family, Avhen Trebonius I