Family
The Caecilii Metelli were extremely prominent, conservative members of the Roman nobility in the Republican period, though they were members of the plebeian gens Caecilia. Their greatest influence was from the second century BC onwards. The name Metellus possibly means 'mercenary'. A saying attributed to Naevius stated that "it is fated for the Metelli to become consuls at Rome," and it seems to be true: Creticus' brother, father, grandfather, three uncles, great grandfather, and great great grandfather were all consuls.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus was Creticus' grandfather. He was praetor in 148 BC, and he received the command in Macedonia. There he defeated Andriscus, a pretender to the throne, for which he received a triumph and the cognomen 'Macedonicus'. He was censor in 131 BC, and consul in 143 BC. Macedonicus, as a conservative aristocrat, opposed Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus. Each of his four sons became consul.
Creticus' father was Gaius Caecilius Metellus Caprarius, the youngest son of Macedonicus. In 133 BC he served under Scipio Aemilianus in Numantia. Caprarius was praetor in 117 BC, consul in 113 BC, and fought as proconsul in Thrace in 112 BC. He triumphed for his victory in Thrace in 111 BC. He was censor in 102 BC.
Creticus had two brothers. One was Lucius Caecilius Metellus. He was praetor in 71 BC and governor of Sicily in 70 BC. He died in office as consul in 68 BC. The other was Marcus Caecilius Metellus, praetor and president of the extortion court in 69 BC.
Creticus' sister, Caecilia Metella, was the wife of Gaius Verres, who was governor of Sicily from 73-71 BC.
Creticus' daughter was also named Caecilia Metella. She married Marcus Licinius Crassus, son of the famous Marcus Licinius Crassus. Caecilia Metella's tomb still survives on the Via Appia.
Read more about this topic: Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“Some [adolescent] girls are depressed because they have lost their warm, open relationship with their parents. They have loved and been loved by people whom they now must betray to fit into peer culture. Furthermore, they are discouraged by peers from expressing sadness at the loss of family relationships—even to say they are sad is to admit weakness and dependency.”
—Mary Pipher (20th century)
“What we often take to be family values—the work ethic, honesty, clean living, marital fidelity, and individual responsibility—are in fact social, religious, or cultural values. To be sure, these values are transmitted by parents to their children and are familial in that sense. They do not, however, originate within the family. It is the value of close relationships with other family members, and the importance of these bonds relative to other needs.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish or a German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making “ladies” dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)