25. M.CaeciliusMetellus, brother of the two preceding [Nos. 23, 24], was praetor B. C. 69, in the same year that his eldest brother was consul. The lot gave him the presidency in the court de pecuniis repetundis, and Verres was very anxious that his trial should come on before Metellus. (Cic. Verr. Act. 1.8, 9, 10.) Since he did not obtain the consulship, Drumann conjectures (vol. ii. p. 57) that the gladiators of M. Metellus, whom Cicero mentions in B. C. 60 (ad Att. 2.1.1) may have belonged to the son of the praetor, and were exhibited by him in honour of his father, who would therefore have died about this time.