Caecilia Metella was daughter of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus

Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus

Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus was a son of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus. He was a Consul in 119 BC, a Censor in 115 BC and then Pontifex Maximus. He had eliminated from the Senate 32 of its members and fought Saturninus, thus contributing to the return to Rome, in 99 BC, of his brother...

, Pontifex Maximus

Pontifex Maximus

The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...

in 115 BC

115 BC

Year 115 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scaurus and Metellus...

.

Dalmatica's first marriage was to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus

Marcus Aemilius Scaurus

Marcus Aemilius Scaurus was a Roman consul in 115 BC and considered one of the most talented and influential politicians of the Republic....

, an aging politician at the peak of his power. The patrician Scaurus was princeps senatus

Princeps senatus

The princeps senatus was the first member by precedence of the Roman Senate. Although officially out of the cursus honorum and owning no imperium, this office brought enormous prestige to the senator holding it.-Overview:...

(president of the Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

) and a traditional ally of her family. Dalmatica bore Scaurus two children: Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (II)

Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (praetor 56 BC)

Marcus Aemilius Scaurus was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC and son of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and Caecilia Metella Dalmatica.Scaurus lost his father when he was very young, but his education was insured by several other family friends...

 and Aemilia Scaura

Aemilia Scaura

Aemilia Scaura was the daughter of the patrician Roman Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and his second wife Caecilia Metella Dalmatica....

, second wife of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.

Following Scaurus' death, Dalmatica married Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...

. In 86 BC

86 BC

Year 86 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cinna and Marius/Flaccus...

, Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...

 obtained his seventh consulship and outlawed his political enemies, ordering confiscation of property and several persecutions. Sulla, at the time in the East fighting king Mithridates VI of Pontus

Mithridates VI of Pontus

Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...

, was at the top of the list. Dalmatica was forced to abandon Rome and met Sulla in Greece. There, she gave birth to the twins Faustus Cornelius Sulla and Fausta (married Titus Annius Milo

Titus Annius Milo

Titus Annius Milo Papianus was a Roman political agitator, the son of Gaius Papius Celsus, but adopted by his maternal grandfather, Titus Annius Luscus...

, praetor in 54 BC). In 81 BC

81 BC

Year 81 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Decula and Dolabella...

, following a brief civil war with the last of Marius' supporters, Sulla entered Rome and was appointed dictator

Roman dictator

In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...

. Again, Dalmatica followed her husband and became Rome's "First Lady."

Dalmatica died around 80 BC

80 BC

Year 80 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sulla and Metellus...

. Ignoring the anti-luxury laws that he drafted himself, Sulla organized a spectacular state funeral for her.

See also

• Women in Rome
  Women in Rome
  Freeborn women in ancient Rome were citizens , but could not vote or hold political office. Because of their limited public role, women are named less frequently than men by Roman historians. But while Roman women held no direct political power, those from wealthy or powerful families could and did...
  
  
• Caecilia (gens)
  Caecilia (gens)
  The gens Caecilia was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned in history as early as the 5th century BC, but the first of the Caecilii who obtained the consulship was Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter, in 284 BC....
  
  
• Caecilius Metellus
• Caecilii Metelli family tree

• Manuel Dejante Pinto de Magalhães Arnao Metello and João Carlos Metello de Nápoles, "Metellos de Portugal, Brasil e Roma", Torres Novas, 1998