Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus

Who is Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus?

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus was a Praetorp in 148 BC, Consul in 143 BC, Proconsul of Hispania Citerior in 142 BC and Censor in 131 BC. He was the oldest son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus and grandson of Lucius Caecilius Metellus.

A brilliant general, he fought in the Third Macedonian War and played a pivotal role in the Fourth. Under his leadership in 148 BC when still a Praetor the Roman troops twice defeated Andriscus, a self-proclaimed pretender to the Macedonian throne who claimed to be son of Perseus, last king of the Antigonid dynasty. Andriscus had risen against Rome intending to liberate Macedonia with an army recruited from Thrace. Under Metellus' authority Macedonia was reduced and made a Roman province. For that he won his agnomen and since then introduced the Clypeus Macedoniccus in his family's medals.

In 147 BC, he defeated Christolaus at the Battle of Scarpheia and in 146 BC the Arcadians at Chaeronea but Metellus was then sent to fight in the Achaean War to avenge an insult offered to a Roman Embassy at Corinth. He fought under the command of Consul Lucius Mummius Achaicus whose ultimate victory in the war against the Achaean League delayed Macedonicus from celebrating immediately the honours of the Triumph which his success at the battle of Scarpheia merited. On his return to Italy he received the honour of a Triumph and the title of Macedonicus. He then built at the Campus Martius a Portic of Cecilius which later became the Portic of Octavius. He also built two grandiose temples one dedicated to Jupiter and the other to Juno. These were the first marble temples in Rome, ornamented with equestrian statues of the various Generals of Alexander brought by him from Greece.