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ROMAN REPUBLIC -
Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio ( Imperator in North Africa, 47-46 B.C.) -
Silver Denarius 18mm (3.0 grams) Struck at North African mint: 47-46 B.C.
Reference: B.M.C., Africa 1; Syd. 1046; Craw. 459/1 -
Q . METEL PIVS, laureate head of Jupiter right.
Elephant right, SCIPIO above, IMP in exergue.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica (b. ca. 100/98
BC, d. 46 BC) was a
Roman
consul and military commander in the
Late Republic. During the
civil war between
Julius Caesar and the
senatorial
faction led by
Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great"), he remained a staunch
optimate.
He led troops against Caesar's forces, mainly in the battles of
Pharsalus and
Thapsus, where he was defeated. He later committed suicide.
Ronald
Syme called him "the last
Scipio of any consequence in Roman history."[1]
Family
connections
Metellus Scipio, as his name appears frequently in modern scholarship, was
born Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica. His grandfather was the
P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio who was consul in 111 BC; his father
married a
Licinia Crassa, daughter of the
L. Licinius Crassus who was consul in 95 BC. The father died not long after
his praetorship
(ca. 93 BC),[2]
and was survived by two sons and two daughters. The brother was adopted by their
grandfather Crassus, but left little mark on history.[3]
Publius Scipio, as he was referred to in contemporary sources early in his
life, was
adopted in adulthood through the
testament of
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, consul in 80 BC and
pontifex maximus. He retained his
patrician status: "Scipio's ancestry," notes Syme, "was unmatched for
splendour."[4]
As
Jerzy Linderski has shown at length,[5]
this legal process constitutes adoption only in a loose sense; Scipio becomes a
Caecilius Metellus in name[6]
while inheriting the estate of Metellus Pius, but was never his "son" while the
pontifex maximus was alive. He was called "Metellus Scipio" but also
sometimes just "Scipio" even after his adoption. The official form of his name
as evidenced in a degree of the senate was "Q. Caecilius Q. f. Fab. Metellus
Scipio."[7]
Scipio married Aemilia Lepida, daughter of
Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus (consul 77 BC), but was not without rival
in the match. The virginal
Cato had also wanted to marry Aemilia and lost out in the seduction:
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When [Cato] thought that he was old enough to marry,— and up to that
time he had consorted with no woman,— he engaged himself to Lepida, who
had formerly been
betrothed to Metellus Scipio, but was now free, since Scipio had
rejected her and the betrothal had been broken. However, before the
marriage Scipio changed his mind again, and by dint of every effort got
the maid. Cato was greatly exasperated and inflamed by this, and
attempted to go to law about it; but his friends prevented this, and so,
in his rage and youthful fervour, he betook himself to
iambic verse, and heaped much scornful abuse upon Scipio … .[8] |
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The couple had one son, a Metellus Scipio who seems to have died when he was
only 18.[9]
Another son may have been born around 70, or a son may have been adopted. The
couple's much more famous daughter was born around that time as well.[10]
Scipio first married off the celebrated
Cornelia Metella to
Publius Crassus, the son of
Marcus Licinius Crassus. After
Publius's premature death at
Carrhae, Scipio decided to succeed Caesar as the father-in-law of Pompeius,
who was at least thirty years older than Cornelia. The marriage is one of the
acts by which Pompeius severed his alliance to Caesar and declared himself the
champion of the optimates. He and Scipio were consuls together in 52.
Political
career
Cicero names
"P. Scipio" among the young
nobiles
on his defense team when
Roscius of Ameria was prosecuted in 80 BC. He is placed in the company of
M. Messalla and
Metellus Celer, both future consuls.[11]
Metellus Scipio has been listed as
tribune of the
plebs in 59,[12]
but his patrician status argues against his holding the office.[13]
It is possible that Scipio's 'adoption' into a plebeian gens may have
qualified him for a tribunate on a technicality.[citation
needed] He was possibly
curule aedile
in 57 BC, when he presented funeral games in honor of his adopted father's death
six years earlier. He was
praetor, most
likely in 55 BC, during the second joint consulship of Pompeius and Marcus
Crassus.
In 53 BC, he was
interrex
with
M. Valerius Messalla.[14]
He became consul with Pompeius in 52 BC, the year he arranged the marriage of
his newly widowed daughter to him.
Indisputably aristocratic and conservative, Metellus Scipio had been at least
symbolically a counterweight to the power of the so-called
triumvirate before the death of Crassus in 53. "Opportune deaths," notes
Syme, "had enhanced his value, none remaining now of the Metellan consuls."[15]
He is known to have been a member of the
College of Pontiffs by 57 BC, and was probably nominated upon the death of
his adoptive father in 63 and subsequently elected.[16]
Role
in civil war
In January 49 BC, Metellus Scipio persuaded the
senate to issue the ultimatum to Caesar that made war inevitable.[17]
That same year, he became
proconsul
of the
province of Syria.[18]
In Syria and in the
province of Asia, where he took up winter quarters, he used often oppressive
means to gather ships, troops, and money:[19]
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He put a per capita tax on slaves and children; he taxed columns, doors,
grain, soldiers, weaponry, oarsmen, and machinery; if a name could be
found for a thing, that was seen as sufficient for making money from it.[20] |
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Scipio put to death
Alexander of Judaea,[21]
and was acclaimed
Imperator for "alleged" victories in the
Amanus mountains[22]
— as noted disparagingly by Caesar.[23]
In 48 BC, he brought his forces from Asia to
Greece,
where he maneuvered against
Gn. Domitius Calvinus and
L. Cassius until the arrival of Pompeius. At the
Battle of Pharsalus, he commanded the center. After the optimates' defeat by
Caesar, Metellus fled to
Africa. With the support of his former rival-in-romance
Cato, he wrested the chief command of Pompeius's forces from the loyal
Attius Varus, probably in early 47. In 46 BC, he held command at the
Battle of Thapsus "without skill or success,"[15]
and was defeated along with Cato.[24]
After the defeat he tried to escape to the
Iberian Peninsula to continue the fight, but was cornered by the fleet of
Publius Sittius. He committed suicide by stabbing himself so he would not
fall at the hands of his enemies.
Dignity
in death
Facing death, Metellus Scipio achieved an uncharacteristic dignity, famously
departing from his soldiers with a nonchalant Imperator se bene habet
("Your general's just fine").[25]
These last words elicited strong praise from the
Stoic
moral philosopher
Seneca:
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Take, for example, Scipio, the father-in-law of Gnaeus Pompeius: he was
driven back upon the African coast by a
head-wind and saw his ship in the power of the enemy. He therefore
pierced his body with a sword; and when they asked where the commander
was, he replied: 'All is well with the commander.' These words brought
him up to the level of his ancestors and suffered not the
glory which fate gave to the Scipios in Africa to lose its
continuity. It was a great deed to
conquer Carthage, but a greater deed to conquer death. 'All is well
with the commander!' Ought a general to die otherwise, especially one of
Cato's generals?[26] |
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Assessment
Classical scholar
John H. Collins summed up the character and reputation of Metellus Scipio:
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From all that can be learned of this Scipio, he was as personally
despicable and as politically reactionary as they come: a defender of
C. Verres
(In
Ver.
II. 4. 79–81), a debauchee of singular repulsiveness (Valerius
Maximus, 9.1.8[27]),
an incompetent and bull-headed commander (Plutarch,
Cato Min.
58), an undisciplined tyrant in the possession of authority (Bell.
Afr. 44–46),[28]
an extortioner of the provinces (BC
3.31–33),[29]
a proscription-thirsty bankrupt (Att.
9.11[30]),
a worthy great grandson des hochmütigen, plebejerfeindlichen
Junkers[31]
(Münzer,
RE 4.1502) who had led the lynching of
Tiberius Gracchus, and a most unworthy father of the gentle
Cornelia. Only in the Imperator se bene habet with which he
met death is there any trace of the nobler character of
his great forebears[32]
(Seneca
Rhet., Suas. 7.8[33]).[34] |
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