Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius - Supporter of Sulla

Supporter of Sulla

Arriving in Africa by early 86 BC, Metellus Pius started raising an army from his private clients, with the intent of joining Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who had been the principal opponent of Cinna and Marius. He was joined by Marcus Licinius Crassus, but both men fell out, and Crassus was forced to leave and eventually join up with Sulla in Greece. He acted as proconsular governor of the province, but this was unrecognized by Cinna and his regime at Rome. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until 84 BC that the Marians at Rome were able to send out their own governor, Gaius Fabius Hadrianus. Upon his arrival, he drove out Metellus Pius who fled to Numidia; pursued here, he and the Numidian king Hiempsal II were forced to flee onwards to Mauretania. From here, Metellus Pius made his way to Liguria by late 84 BC or early 83 BC.

By 83 BC, Sulla had returned from the east and was marching slowly to Rome for his confrontation with the Marian regime. Moving quickly, Metellus Pius was the first to meet him along the Via Appia, bringing new troops with him. He, like many of the aristocracy, only joined Sulla when it was prudent to do so, and not because they approved of his measures, such as his first march on Rome. Regardless, recognizing Metellus as possessing proconsular imperium, Sulla made him his principal subordinate. By July 83 BC, the Senate, under the direction of the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, declared Metellus Pius a public enemy.

In 82 BC, he was sent by Sulla to secure the northern parts of Italy, and accompanied by the young Gnaeus Pompeius, Metellus Pius attacked and defeated Gaius Carrinas at Picenum. He then achieved a victory over Papirius Carbo and Gaius Norbanus at Faventia, pacifying Cisalpine Gaul for Sulla. With Sulla’s victory in 82 BC, he began rewarding his supporters, and made Metellus Pius the Pontifex Maximus in 81 BC, following the murder of Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex. He was also a Monetalis from 82 BC to 80 BC.

During this entire period, he was shown to be one Sulla’s best subordinates. A traditionalist supporter of the Senate’s prerogatives, he had no other objective apart from fighting the populism of Marius and Cinna, and did not participate in the atrocious violence that marked the arrival of the dictatorship of Sulla. Finally in 80 BC, he was appointed consul alongside Sulla, Metellus Pius used his position to reward Quintus Calidius, who had helped bring his father back, by supporting his bid for the praetorship.