METELLUS, LUCIUS CAECILIUS

died 221 BC Roman general during the First Punic War (264241 BC). As consul in 251, Metellus decisively defeated the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal at Panormus (now Palermo, Sicily) by panicking the enemy's elephants. Thereafter the image of an elephant frequently appeared on coins issued by the Metelli family. Metellus held a second consulship in 247. He is said to have been blinded in 241 while rescuing the statue of Minerva from a fire in the temple of Vesta.