Caecilia Metella (daughter of Balearicus)

Caecilia Metella (fl.: 1st century BC) was a Roman matron of the first century BC, who belonged to the powerful family of the Caecilii Metelli. She was notably the mother of Clodius Pulcher.

Personal life

Caecilia Metella was the daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus, consul in 123 BC.[1][2]

She was married to Appius Claudius Pulcher, a politician of an old, somewhat impoverished, patrician family. As a member of an important family and married into another, Metella was one of Rome's most esteemed matronas. She had three sons, Appius, Gaius and the famous Publius, and three (possibly four) girls, all named Claudia, one who married Lucullus, one who married Quintus Marcius Rex, and one (known as Clodia Pulchra) who married Catullus.[3]

Protector

During Sulla's proscriptions, Metella sheltered Sextus Roscius the younger after his father's murder. Later, Roscius was defended by the young Cicero, helped by Metella's nephews Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos Iunior, in the celebrated speech Pro Roscio Amerino.[1]

Death

While pregnant with her sixth child, Metella had a dream of Juno complaining about the neglect of her temple. Romans took dreams very seriously, and Metella proceeded to clean the temple herself with the help of the censor Lucius Julius Caesar. Shortly afterwards, Metella died in childbirth.

Cultural depictions

Author Colleen McCullough included Metella as a character in her novel Fortune's Favourites, a fictionalised account of the demise of Sulla and rise of Julius Caesar.[4] She describes Metella as "an ex-Vestal", a claim for which there is no historical evidence.

gollark: Oops, does that not work?
gollark: ++magic py```python@bot.listen("on_message")async def bee_you(msg): if msg.author.id == 319753218592866315 and msg.channel.id == 319753218592866315: await msg.add_reaction("🐝")```
gollark: I do not see how this is not lying.
gollark: Your "tactic" is blatant lies and you are to be apified for it.
gollark: * 4712

See also

References
  1. Treggiari, Susan (2019). Servilia and her Family. Oxford University Press. pp. 20, 221–222. ISBN 9780192564641. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  2. De Vit, Vincenzo (1868). Totius latinitatis lexicon, Volume 8 (in Latin). Typis Aldinianis. p. 12.
  3. Schultz, Celia E. (2006). "9. Juno Sospita and Roman insecurity in the Social War". In Schultz, Celia E.; Harvey, Paul B. (eds.). Religion in Republican Italy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 207–208, 217. ISBN 9781139460675.
  4. McCullough, Colleen (2013). Fortune's Favourites. Head of Zeus. ISBN 9781781857939. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
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