METELLUS NUMIDICUS, QUINTUS CAECILIUS

died c. 91 BC Roman general during the Jugurthine War (111105) and a leader of the Optimates (conservative senatorial aristocracy). As consul in 109 Metellus defeated the Numidian leader Jugurtha by the River Muthul in North Africa. Despite further military successes against Jugurtha, he lost his command to his subordinate Gaius Marius, who was elected consul for 108 despite Metellus' opposition. As censor in 102, Metellus unsuccessfully attempted to remove the reformers Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and Gaius Servilius Glaucia from the Senate, and in 100 he went into exile to escape having to swear support for Saturninus' agrarian law. Metellus returned to Rome in 99, the year after Saturninus was killed, but thenceforth took no part in politics.