• from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer [1] (before 103 BC or c. 100 BC – 59 BC) was a consul in 60 BC and son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, or, according to some, the son of Tribune Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer while the latter is the son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos. Previously he held the offices of Praetor and Augur in 63 BC.[2]

During the Third Mithridatic War (73-63 BC) against Mithridates VI of Pontus and Tigranes the Great of Armenia, Metellus Celer was a lieutenant of Pompey. In the winter of 66 BC Oroeses, king of the Caucasian Albanians attacked the forces of Pompey while they were celebrating the festival of the Saturnalia in their winter quarters in Lesser Armenia. Pompey had split his army into three divisions. Oroeses attacked Metellus Celer was in charge of one of them and of the custody of Tigranes the Younger of Armenia. Metellus vigorously repulsed Oroeses while Flaccus and Pompey, who were in charge of the other two divisions, defeated the other Albanians.[3]

In 63 BC, when Catilinarian Conspiracy was discovered Catiline, its leader, was indited for violence. He went to stay at the house of Metellus Celer to allay suspicions as Metellus was the praetor. It did not work.[4] Metellus then brought several conspirators to trial by virtue of a decree of the senate and imprisoned them.[5] Cicero entrusted matters outside Rome to Metellus Celer.[6] He was sent to the district of Pisa (in Etruria) with three legions. On learning that the rebels were advancing towards Pistoia to flee to Cisalpine Gaul (in northern Italy) he encamped at the foot of the mountain they had to come down from for their passage to Cisalpine Gaul, while the consul Antonius had his troops at their rear.[7] He besieged Faesulae (Fiesole), the base of Catiline, together with Antonius. The two men were encamped in two different places. Catiline attacked Antonius instead of Metellus, even through the former had a larger army.[8] References to Metellus Celer during the conspiracy were also made by Cicero and Valerius Maximus.[9][10]

When he was consul in 60 BC Metellus Celer sided with the optimates and vigorously opposed Pompey in everything because he had divorced his sister.[11] Together with Cato the Younger he was the main opponent of the ratification of the acts Pompey had made with the cities and kingdoms in Asia as a result of the Mithridatic War. He also opposed an agrarian bill proposed by Flavius, a plebeian tribune, which Pompey sponsored and which was intended to give land grants to Pompey's discharged soldiers which they were entitled to. Metellus led the opposition to the agrarian bill. He contested every point of Flavius' bill and attacked him so persistently that the plebeian tribune had him put in prison. Metellus wanted to convene the senate there and Flavius sat at the entrance of the cell to prevent this. Metellus had the wall cut through to let them in. When Pompey heard this he was afraid of the reaction of the people and told Flavius to desist. Metellus did not consent when the other plebeian tribunes wanted to set him free.[12]

In 59 BC Metellus Celer and Cato the Younger for a time refused to swear obedience to the agrarian law of Julius Caesar, who was consul in that year. Eventually they complied.[13]

During Metellus Celer’s praetorship, Titus Labienus indicted Gaius Rabirius for the murder of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus thirty-six years earlier. Saturinus had been opposed by the consuls of the time at the direction of the senate. Thus, with the proposed trial the senate would lose the authority to enforce its decrees. Acts which had received the approval of the senate and had been committed many years earlier tended to give immunity to those who tried to repeat the conduct of Saturninus and make punishment of such acts ineffective. The senate was outraged that an innocent elderly man of senatorial rank was attacked and that the tribunes were entrusted with the control of affairs. There were pro and anti-prosecution factions. The former won through the support of Julius Caesar, who was the judge together with Lucius Julius Caesar. Rabirius was charged. The judges had been unlawfully chosen by the praetor, Metellus Celer, instead of the people. Rabirius appealed and would have been convicted by the people, but this was presented by Metellus by obstructing the meeting of the assembly of the people.[14]

Metellus Celer was married to his cousin Clodia Quadrantaria, often referred to in scholarship as Clodia Metelli ("Clodia the wife of Metellus", the daughter of Appius Claudius Pulcher. They had a daughter named Caecilia Metella like all the women in the family of the Caecilii Metelli.

Qiuinuts Caeclius Metellus Celer died suddenly in 59 BC, according to some poisoned by his wife, who was notoriously debauched, reputed incestuous lover of her brother Clodius, of Caelius, possibly of the great lyric poet Catullus (most authorities identify her as the subject of his Lesbia), and many others.

Notes

1. agnomen due to the celerity with which he treated of his father's funerals. (Cfr. F. Noel, in Dictionnaire Historique ...)
2. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.26.3
3. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 36.54
4. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.1-2
5. Sallust, The War with Catiline, 42.3 [1]
6. Plutarch, Parallel lives, The Life of Cicero, 16.1
7. Sallust, The War with Catiline, 30.4; 57.2 [2]
8. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.39.2 [3]
9. Cicero, Epistilae ad Familiares, 2.1; Against Catiline, 1.19, 2.5—6; Pro Sulla 65
10. Valerius Maximus, Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings,7.7
11. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.49.3
12. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.50.2-4
13. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 38.7.1
14. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.26

References

Primary sources

• Cassius Dio, Roman History, Vol. 3, Books 36-40, Loeb Classical Library, Loeb, 1989; ISBN 978-0674990593
• Sallust, Catiline's Conspiracy, The Jugurthine War, Histories, Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, 2010; ISBN 978-0192823458

Secondary sources

• T. P. Wiseman, "Celer and Nepos", Classical Quarterly vol. 1 (1971), p. 180—182
• Manuel Dejante Pinto de Magalhães Arnao Metello and João Carlos Metello de Nápoles, "Metellos de Portugal, Brasil e Roma", Torres Novas, 1998

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• From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos Iunior (c. 100 BC – 55 BC) was a son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos. He was a plebeian tribune in 62 BC, a praetor in 60 BC, a consul in 57 BC and the governor of Hispania Citerior in 56 BC.

Metellus Nepos was a Lieutenant of Pompey in the campaign and against the pirates in the Mediterranean in 67 BC and, like his brother Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, in the Third Mithridatic War (73-63 BC) against Mithridates VI of Pontus and Tigranes the Great of Armenia. In the war against the pirates he was assigned the command of Lycia and Pamphylia (both on the south coast of modern Turkey).[1] Josephus mentioned that in 65 BC Pompey sent Metellus and Lollius to capture Damascus,in Syria.[2] It is generally assumed that this refers to Metellus Nepos.

In 63 BC, Metellus Nepos was elected plebeian tribune for 62 BC, along with Cato the Younger. Inaugurated on 10 December 63 BC, he began a vitriolic campaign against Cicero, whom he accused before the People and of having illegally executed some of the accomplices of Catiline without trial during the Catilinarian Conspiracy. Metellus Nepos, together with is colleague Bestia and Julius Caesar, who was a praetor, prevented Cicero from making a speech on the last day of his consulship, 29 December 63 BC, restricting him to the customary oath on giving up office. Cicero instead pronounced an oath of his own, "swearing that in very truth he had saved his country and maintained her supremacy." The people confirmed his oath.[3][4] Metellus Nepos proposed a bill which provided for Pompey to be recalled to Rome with his army to restore order. Pompey had just won the Third Mithridatic War (73-63 BC) in the East. The proposal was strongly opposed by Cato the Younger, who was a staunch optimate. The dispute came close to violence. Metellus Nepos had armed some of his men. According to Plutarch, the senate announced the intention to issue a final decree to remove Nepos from his office but Cato the Younger opposed it. He did not mention whether the decree was enforced or not.[5] Metellus Nepos went to Asia to inform Pompey about the events, even though, as a plebeian tribune, he had no right to be absent from the city.[6] Tatum maintains that Metellus Nepos leaving the city even though plebeian tribunes were not allowed to do so was 'a gesture demonstrating the senate's violation of the tribunate.' [7] Julius Caesar also proposed a measure to recall Pompey to Rome for the same reason. Caesar was suspended from his office by a final decree of the senate.[8] Both men dropped their proposals.

When Metellus Nepos was a praetor in 60 BC, he passed a law which abolished import duties in Rome and Italy. The senate was angry and wished to erase his name for the law and replace it with another one. This was not carried out.[9]

In 57 BC, when Metellus Nepos was one of the consuls, Pompey sponsored a vote to recall Cicero back to Rome from his exile. The other consuls, Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, supported this cause in the senate partly as a favour to Pompey and partly because he bore a grudge against Publius Clodius Pulcher, the man who had Cicero expelled. Metellus Nepos supported Clodius. There were factional disturbances. Knowing that the people was in favour of Cicero's return, Pulbius Clodius had some gladiators attack a crowd at a funeral. The measure was nor passed. The opposing faction hit back with their own gladiators. Pressured by Spinther and Pompey, Nepos changed his mind. Spinther presented a motion for Cicero's return which the senate decreed. Both consuls proposed the motion to the people who passed it.[10] Cicero wrote him a letter prompted by the fact that he made a speech which was favourable to him in the senate and said that he had conquered himself and lay aside his enmity for the sake of the Republic. He also said that if he helped him he would be at his service.[11]

In 56 BC Metellus Nepos was nominated Governor of Hispania Citerior, dominating La Coruña, where the Vaccaei had defeated his father.

Notes

1. Appian, The Foreign Wars, The Mithridatic War, 14.94
2. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 14.1.4
3. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, the Life of Cicero, 32.1-3
4. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, 5.2
5. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, The life of Cato the Younger, 27-29.1-2
6. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.43
7. Tatum, J. W., The final Crisis (69-44), in A p.198
8. Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Julius Caesar, 16
9. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.51.3-4
10. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 39.6
11. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, 5.4

References

Primary sources

• Cassius Dio, Roman History, Vol. 3, Books 36-40, Loeb Classical Library, Loeb, 1989; ISBN 978-0674990593 Plutarch, Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans, Benediction Classics, 2015; ISBN 978-1781395134

Secondary sources

• Manuel Dejante Pinto de Magalhães Arnao Metello and João Carlos Metello de Nápoles, "Metellos de Portugal, Brasil e Roma", Torres Novas, 1998
• Tatum, J. W., The final Crisis (69-44), in Nathan Rosenstein, N., and Morstein-Marx. R., a Companion to the Roman Republic(Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World), Blackwell, 2010; ISBN 978-1444334135