2. Q.CaecilusMetellus, L. F. L. N., son of the preceding, is enumerated by Cicero in his list of Roman orators (Brut. 14, 19), and his oration at his father's funeral has been spoken of above. (Comp. Plin. Nat. 7.43. s. 45.) He was elected one of the pontifices in B. C. 216, plebeian aedile in B. C. 209, and curule aedile in B. C. 208 (Liv. 23.2], 27.21, 36). In B. C. 207 he served in the army of the consul Claudius Nero, and was one of the legates sent to Rome to convey the joyful news of the defeat and death of Hasdrubal; and it was mainly in consequence of his services in this war that he owed his elevation to the consulship in the following year. On his return to Rome he was appointed magister equitum to M. Livius Salinator, who was nominated dictator for the purpose of holding the comitia, and it was at these comitia (B. C. 206) that he was elected consul with L. Veturius Philo, who had served with him in the campaign against Hasdrubal (Liv. 27.51, 28.9, 10 ; Cic. Brut. 14). The consuls received Bruttii as their province, in order to prosecute the war against Hannibal; but their year of office passed over without anything of importance occurring, and Metellus remained in the same province as proconsul, during the following year. At the end of the year he was recalled to Rome, and nominated dictator for the purpose of holding the comitia (Liv. 28.10, 11, 45, 46, 29.10, 11). Q. Metellus had, like his other distinguished contemporaries, taken an active part in the Hannibalian war; but at the conclusion of this war in B. C. 201, he is reported to have said in the senate that he did not look upon its termination as a blessing to Rome, since he feared that the Roman people would now sink back again into its former slumbers, from which it had been roused by the presence of Hannibal. (V. Max. 7.2 § 3.)

Metellus survived the war many years, and was employed in several public commissions. In B. C. 201 he was appointed one of the decemviri for dividing the public land in Samnium and Apulia among the Roman soldiers, who had served in Airica against Hannibal (Liv. 31.4). In B. C. 185 he was one of the ambassadors sent to Philip of Macedonia and to the Achaeans. (Liv. 39.24, 33; Plb. 23.6, &c., vel Excerpt. Legat. 40, 41; Paus. 7.8.6, 7.9.1.) The name of Metellus also occurs in the debates in the senate in B. C. 193, and his address to the censors in B. C. 179 is given by Livy. (Liv. 35.8, 40.46.)