Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius

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Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius (* around 128 BC; † 64/63 BC) was a Roman politician with an optimistic outlook. Reached the consulate . As a general he led a command in the alliance war , in the civil war on Sulla's side against Marius and finally in the war against Quintus Sertorius , for whose defeat he was awarded a triumph together with Pompey . He also held the high priesthood of Pontifex Maximus .

Denarius of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius

youth

Quintus Caecilius Metellus, who came from one of the most powerful plebeian gentes , was born around 128 BC. And was the only son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus , under whom he was 108 BC. In Africa in the war against Jugurtha . He got his nickname Pius (something like: "the one who is faithful to duty") because he was 99 BC. For the recall of his father from exile.

General in Italy and exile

He was 89 or 88 BC. Chr. Praetor and in the following years promagistrate with military command. In 88 BC He fought in the alliance war in Apulia and took Venusia . In one battle he defeated the Marshal general , Quintus Poppaedius Silo , who was killed in the process. After Sulla had withdrawn to the east against Mithridates , the Populares under the leadership of Cinnas and Marius threatened Rome. At that time Metellus Pius was waging war against the Samnites and was instructed by the Senate to make peace with the tribe in order to be able to protect the capital against the Populares. However, the peace conditions seemed unacceptable to him, which is why the Samnites soon came to an agreement with the populars. Back in Rome he belonged to the Senate delegation that negotiated unsuccessfully with Cinna. After the conquest of Rome, he withdrew to North Africa, where his family was supported by numerous clients . He tried to equip an army there until he was expelled by the Cinnan general Gaius Fabius Hadrianus and probably fled to Liguria .

Command during the Civil War

When Sulla in 83 BC When he returned to Italy in the 3rd century BC, Metellus was one of the first senators and the only proconsul to join him. In the civil war that followed between Marius and Sulla, he was one of the latter's most important generals. After successes in Apulia and Campania against the consuls Gaius Norbanus and Scipio Asiaticus , which he won together with Sulla, he moved north with his army, where he first got Gnaeus Papirius Carbos legate, Gaius Carrinas , and at Faventia Norbanus and Carbo himself on the Aesis river hit. As a result, numerous opposing associations and the Celtic areas south of the Alps switched to his side. After Sulla's victory over the Populares, Metellus became Pontifex Maximus , after he had been in office since about 97 BC Had already been pontiff . As a reward for his services in the civil war, he took over for the year 80 BC. Together with Sulla the consulate . He used this, among other things, to support Quintus Calidius , who, as a tribune of the people, had applied to recall his father, in his candidacy for the praetur .

Commander in the Sertorius War

Then Metellus was sent as proconsul to the province of Hispania ulterior to fight the rebellious Quintus Sertorius and with him to remove the last remnants of the enemy of the civil war. In the first two years Metellus tried from his province in the south of the Iberian Peninsula to launch offensives in the direction of Lusitania , but these were stopped or thrown back by the guerrilla tactics of the enemy. When the army of Sertorius in 77 BC BC was reinforced by the troops fleeing after the failed Lepidus uprising, the Senate sent Pompey to support Metellus. While Pompeius defeated Sertorius at Lauro , in the east of the Iberian Peninsula, Metellus succeeded in the south in defeating the commander Lucius Hirtuleius at Italica . When, after numerous skirmishes, all the armies of the Hispanic theater of war near Segontia in 75 BC BC clashed., Defeated Metellus first sub commander Perperna and finally Sertorius himself. He then became the Emperor proclaimed, numerous enemy troops ran over to him and Sertorius ventured up to his assassination no pitched battle more. Metellus and Pompey did not end the war until 71 BC because of the guerrilla tactics that the enemy had resumed and which did not bring a decision for a long time. And were honored with a triumphal procession for their victories in Hispania . For his campaign against Sertorius, Metellus earned the respect of the Roman military historians, especially Frontinus , who often refers to his deeds in his book Strategemata .

Retirement

After returning to Rome, Metellus appears to have withdrawn from politics. In court, however, he appeared in 66 BC. BC against Catiline and in the following year against Gaius Cornelius . He died around 63 BC His adoptive son was Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio , who lived in 52 BC. Became consul.

swell

No writings by Metellus Pius himself are known or preserved. Since the contemporary historians of this era have only survived in fragments, the Greek-language works of the two imperial authors, Plutarch and Appian , are the most important sources on Metellus Pius' career.

literature


Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sallust, de bello Iugurthino 64.4.
  2. ^ Cicero, oratio post reditum in senatu 37.
  3. ↑ contradictory mess: Cicero, pro Archia poeta 9 and Livy, periocha 76th
  4. ↑ Appian, bella civilia 1,53,230.
  5. ↑ Plutarch, Marius 42–43.
  6. ↑ Appian, bella civilia 1,80,365.
  7. ↑ Appian, bella civilia 1,80,365-94,434.
  8. ↑ On the joint consulate with Sulla, cf. Wolfram Letzner : Lucius Cornelius Sulla. An attempt at a biography , Münster 2000, pp. 296–306.
  9. ↑ For a detailed description of the events in Spain and the role of Metellus cf. Michael Mühlberghuber: Investigations into the life, career and personality of Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius (cos. 80 BC). His role in the Sertorius War (80–71 BC) , diploma thesis at the University of Vienna, Vienna 2015, pp. 27–105. On-line
  10. ↑ Plutarch, Sertorius 10-27; Plutarch, Pompey 17-20; Appian, bella civilia 1,108,505-115,538.
  11. ↑ Velleius Paterculus, Historia Romana 2,30,2.
  12. ↑ For the successful fight of Metellus against Lucius Hirtuleius see Sextus Iulius Frontinus, strategemata 2,1,2-3 and 2,3,5.
  13. ↑ Asconius Pedianus, 86.28-87.6 Clark and 60.21-61.5 Clark.
  14. ↑ Cassius Dio, Historia Romana 37,37,1-2 and 40,51,2-3.
personal data
SURNAME Caecilius Metellus Pius, Quintus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Metellus Pius, Quintus Caecilius; Pius, Quintus Caecilius Metellus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman consul 80 BC Chr.
DATE OF BIRTH around 128 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 63 BC Chr.