Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus
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Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus (ca 160 BC – 91 BC) was the leader of the conservative faction of the Roman senate and a bitter enemy of Gaius Marius.
Still young, he was sent to Athens, where he made his studies under the orientation of Carneades, celebrated philosopher and great master in oratory, from where he came with remarkable culture and a brilliant orator. As said by D. Guéranger, his integrity and his moral principles never allowed him to use his eloquence or ancestry except in favor of justice and good right, refusing even to defend the cause of his brother in law Lucius Licinius Lucullus when accused of excesses and greed while Governor of Asia.
He was a Quaestor in 126 BC, a Tribune in 121 BC, an Aedile in 118 BC, a Praetor in 115 BC, Governor of Sicily in 114 BC and elected consul in 109 BC, being then sent to Numidia to wage war against Jugurtha and face the subornator, campaign in which, uncorruptible and a great strategist, he obtained successive victories, forcing him to negotiate his surrender, the which he didn't render concrete because his Lieutenant Marius, elected Consul, managed, by intrigues, to replace him in command. After winning the battle of the Muthul, when he returned to Rome, displeased, he was surprised by the demonstrations of enthusiasm and recognition which he received from the people and the Senate which, already repented from the lightness with which had ceded to the intrigues of the ambitious Marius, had minted coins in his honor and conceded him to celebrate a triumph and to acquire the agnomen Numidicus, with great envy of Marius.
He was elected Censor in 102 BC in partnership with his cousin Gaius Caecilius Metellus Caprarius. During the censorship, he tried to expel Lucius Appuleius Saturninus from the senate, but without success. Afterwards, Saturninus had his revenge and forced him to swear the acceptance of the agrarian law that entitled Marius' veterans to farmlands. Numidicus refused and was sent into exile. Remaining Numidicus as the main leader of the aristocratic faction, opposing the fulgurant political ascencion of the demagogue Marius - favoured by the final success of the prison of Jugurta thanks to a stratagem of Sylla - served the same of an artifice to vanquish him: knower of the integrity of his character, he made present by the Tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, his follower, a proposal of an agrarian law which, once approved by the Plebians, obliged every Senator to swear him allegiance, under penalty of banishment and a heavy fine, but simultaneously suggesting that the Senators would vote it with mental reservations, that is, impliciting a clause that would annul that swearing, subterfuge to which knowingly Metellus would never render. Effectively, Numidicus didn't hesitate: refusing to swear obedience to a law to which he opposed, he paid the corresponding fine and left to exile. After leaving the Forum, he said to his friends: To do harm is proper of the evil spirits; to do good without taking risks is proper of the ordinary spirits; the man of heart never ever deflects from what is fair and honest, never looking to rewards or to threats. [1] A year later, in 99 BC, he was rehabilitated, thanks to the unshaded and tireless struggle of his son, for that cognominated Pius. Returning to Rome and to his houses at the Palatine Hill and the Via Tiburtina, there he lived the rest of his days, little more intervining in the public businesses.
He was the father of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius.
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- Manuel Dejante Pinto de Magalhães Arnao Metello and João Carlos Metello de Nápoles, "Metellos de Portugal, Brasil e Roma", Torres Novas, 1998
| Preceded by Marcus Minucius Rufus, Spurius Postumius Albinus |
Consul 109 BC, with Marcus Iunius Silanus |
Succeeded by Servius Sulpicius Galba, Quintus (Lucius) Hortensius |
