Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus (c. 210 BC – 116 BC/115 BC) was a Praetor in 148 BC, Consul in 143 BC, Proconsul of Hispania Citerior in 142 BC and Censor in 131 BC. He was the oldest son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus and grandson of Lucius Caecilius Metellus.

A brilliant general, he fought in the Third Macedonian War and played a pivotal role in the Fourth. Under his leadership in 148 BC when still a Praetor the Roman troops twice defeated Andriscus, a self-proclaimed pretender to the Macedonian throne who claimed to be son of Perseus, last king of the Antigonid dynasty. Andriscus had risen against Rome intending to liberate Macedonia with an army recruited from Thrace. Under Metellus' authority Macedonia was reduced and made a Roman province. For that he won his agnomen and since then introduced the Clypeus Macedoniccus in his family's medals.

In 147 BC, he defeated Critolaos of Megalopolis at the Battle of Scarpheia and in 146 BC the Arcadians at Chaeronea but Metellus was then sent to fight in the Achaean War to avenge an insult offered to a Roman Embassy at Corinth. He fought under the command of Consul Lucius Mummius Achaicus whose ultimate victory in the war against the Achaean League delayed Macedonicus from celebrating immediately the honours of the Triumph which his success at the battle of Scarpheia merited. On his return to Italy he received the honour of a Triumph and the title of Macedonicus. He then built at the Campus Martius a Porticus of Cecilius (Porticus Caecilii) which later became the Porticus of Octavia (Porticus Octaviae). He also built two grandiose temples one dedicated to Jupiter and the other to Juno. These were the first marble temples in Rome, ornamented with equestrian statues of the various Generals of Alexander brought by him from Greece.

In 143 BC, when Consul, he campaigned against the Celtiberians in central Hispania during the Numantine War. He defeated one of the Celtiberian tribes, the Arevaci. He did not confront the city of Numantia, which then became the focus of the war and which resisted for ten years.

In 133 BC, he gave a speech attacking Tiberius Gracchus regarding that tribune's plan to bypass the traditional prerogative of the senate and keep the vast fortune of the recently deceased Attalus III of Pergamum under the control of the Plebeian Assembly. Attalus had bequeathed his kingdom to the people of Rome.

Metellus was elected Censor in 131 BC, boldly pledging to halt the growing degradation of Roman custom. In a speech which he delivered at his appointment, he proposed that matrimony was to be mandatory to all citizens, in order to put an end to the libertinage then already widespread. A century later Augustus caused this speech to be read at the Senate and published as an Edict for the knowledge and regeneration of the Roman People. His moralizing efforts awakened strong popular opposition, led by the Tribune Gaius Atinius Labeo Macerio whom he had previously expelled from the Senate. He was almost killed by the mob on the Tarpeian Rock.

Later there were some disagreements between him and Scipio Aemilianus, but he never lost sight of the merit of this adversary, whose death he mourned, ordering his sons to transport Aemilianus' body to the crematory pyre.

Celebrated for his eloquence and his taste for the Arts, he died in 116 BC/115 BC. He was generally respected as the paradigm of the fortunate Roman for from an illustrious birth he united all manner of civil and military honours, and left a large family of four sons, of whom one was then Consul, two had already been and one would be soon. His two sons-in-law, Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio and Gaius Servilius Vatia would also attain the Consulship.

Children

He was the father of:

• Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus
• Lucius Caecilius Metellus Diadematus
• Marcus Caecilius Metellus
• Gaius Caecilius Metellus Caprarius
• Caecilia Metella, born c. 170 BC, wife of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio
• Caecilia Metella, born c. 170 BC, wife of Gaius Servilius Vatia

In popular culture

Metellus raising the siege, now at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Metellus was played by Gordon Mitchell in the 1961 film The Centurion. "Metellus raising the siege", a painting by Armand-Charles Caraffe, commemorates the legend of Metellus lifting the siege of Centobrigia in 142 BC, in order to spare the lives of innocents.

See also

• Caecilia (gens)

References

• UNRV.com
• Stockton, David. The Gracchi, Oxford University Press, Oxford ENG; 1979.

Further reading

• Manuel Dejante Pinto de Magalhães Arnao Metello and João Carlos Metello de Nápoles, "Metellos de Portugal, Brasil e Roma", Torres Novas, 1998.

Political offices
Preceded by Servius Sulpicius Galba, Lucius Aurelius Cotta	Roman consul 143 BC, with Appius Claudius Pulcher	Succeeded by Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus, Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus