The Caecilii Metelli were one of the most important families of the late

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

. They rose to prominence in the beginning of the third century, with the

consulship The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter in 284 BC. It was however Quintus Caecilius Metellus, consul in 143, who greatly improved the prestige of the family, notably thanks to his victory during the

Fourth Macedonian War The Fourth Macedonian War (150–148 BC) was fought between Macedon, led by the pretender Andriscus, and the Roman Republic. It was the last of the Macedonian Wars, and was the last war to seriously threaten Roman control of Greece until the First ...

, for which he received the ''

agnomen An ''agnomen'' (; : ''agnomina''), in the Roman naming convention, was a nickname, just as the ''cognomen'' had been initially. However, the ''cognomina'' eventually became family names, and so ''agnomina'' were needed to distinguish between sim ...

'' Macedonicus. His descendants and those of his younger brother Lucius received an astonishing number of magistracies during the last century of the Republic.

''Stemma''

The overall structure of the ''stemma'' is taken from the one drawn by Münzer in the '' Realencyclopädie'', which has recently been reproduced by Karl-J. Hölkeskamp''.'' T. P. Wiseman made some important corrections in two articles on the descendants of Balearicus and the later Metelli, which have been included.Wiseman, "Last of the Metelli" & "Celer and Nepos". The ''nomen'' Caecilius is omitted for all the men named Metellus. All dates are BC, except stated otherwise. Numbers in brackets indicates the order of marriages. Dotted lines show adoptions.

References

Bibliography

* T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association, 1952–1960. * August Pauly, Georg Wissowa, Friedrich Münzer, ''et alii'', ''

Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft The Pauly encyclopedias or the Pauly-Wissowa family of encyclopedias, are a set of related encyclopedias on Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman classical studies, topics and scholarship. The first of these, or (1839–1852), was begun by compiler A ...

'' (abbreviated ''PW''), J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1894–1980. * Christopher Smith, Kaj Sandberg (editors), ''Omnium Annalium Monumenta: Historical Writing and Historical Evidence in Republican Rome'', Leiden & Boston, Brill, 2017. * T. P. Wiseman,
The Last of the Metelli
, ''Latomus'', T. 24, Fasc. 1 (Jan. 1965), pp. 52–61. * ——,
Celer and Nepos
, '' The Classical Quarterly'', 2, Vol. 21, No. 1 (May, 1971), pp. 180–182. {{DEFAULTSORT:Caecilii Metelli Family Tree Ancient Roman family trees *