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query on Q.C.Metellus, Marius' implacable enemy


Russ

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I am involved in a writing project that mentions a member of the Metelli. There seems to be some confusion, as I have conflicting sources, who say the family is patrician or that the family was plebeian and some who give examples of tribunes of the plebs within the family. The subject of my query is Q.C.Metellus, Marius' implacable enemy...is he of a patrician stock as Hildiger mentions or Plebeian as Findlay Hooper claims...any clarity would be greatly appreciated.

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Broughton's Magistrates of the Roman Republic is an excellent resource for this sort of enquiry but it is also an extremely hard and expensive book to get hold of theses days.

 

As far as I am aware the Metelli were of Plebeian stock, although very wealthy an active through out the Republic and stood toe to toe with the patricians through out that time, they were infact merely lowly plebeians!

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Caecilii Metelli were definitely plebians. L Caecilius Metellus Denter enobled the family by gaining the consulship in 284 BC. They were a very powerful clan; Q Caecilius Metellus (cos 206) had both sons and six grandsons reach the consulship. Metelli held 19 consulships between 284 and 52 BC.

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  • 1 year later...

Quite true! 

 

The daughter of Q Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus (cos 143) married: C Servilius Vatia (father of the consul of 79), another married P Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio (cos 111);  his grand daughter, daughter of Baliaricus (cos 123), married Ap Claudius Pulcher (cos 79).

 

The grand daughter of his brother, L Caecilius Metellus Calvus (cos 142) daughter of Delmaticus, married M Aemilius Scaurus (cos 115) and Sulla, another married L Licinius Lucullus and was mother of the consuls of 74 & 73).

 

Crassus married a daughter of Metellus Creticus (cos 69) and Pompey married a daughter of Metelllus Scipio (son of a Caecilia Metella who married  Scipio Nasica.

 

The important role of women in Roman politics is usually ignored in our sources and difficult to reconstruct. 

Edited by Pompieus
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