Salvete omnes

"In the time of our grandfathers," is an expression used by Pliny, and we can see the same sentiment in Cicero looking back to the time of Scipio Aemilianus, Mucius Scaevola, and Laelius. The Post Gracchan period is the time when the Caecilii Metelli came to dominate Roman politics. Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, con. 143, was the great patriarch to one branch of the family, his brother L. Caecilius Metellus Calvus, con. 142, of the other. Mettellus Pius, son of Numidicus, was grandson of Metellus Calvus. Among the descendents of Macedonicus were Balearicus, con. 123, Caprarius, con. 113, Nepos, con. 98, Creticus, con. 69, Celer, con. 60, and his brother Nepos, con. 57. Pius, because of what had happened to his father, came to represent the more reactionary elements in the Senate during the Post Gracchan period. But even he cannot be seen as one of the extreme reactionaries among the Sullans. It was Pius who was sent to ask Sulla where his proscriptions would end. Macedonicus and his descendents, I think, represent the more centrist position throughout the period. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus was a bitter enemy of Q. Pompeius (Val. Max. 9.3.7). He was a rival of Scipio Aemilianus and that amicitatis. Macedonicus supported enfranchising the Italians, attacking Aemilianus for his opposition to it. He opposed the Gracchi, yet joined with Mucius Scaevola to preserve the Gracchan constitution against more radical elements. In the later period we find descendents of Macedonicus aiding Cicero in his early career against the abuses of Sullans, and Metellus Celer taking a position that opposes the worst reactionaries among the Optimates, yet also opposes moves by Populares like Caesar. The Caecilii Metelli who descend from Macedonicus I take as a centrist axis. They appear to me to continually act to preserve the system; open to reforms that strengthen the system, but not proposing reform or supporting radical changes to the system from any political faction. They are what I call conservatives. Working from that basis then, we can try to define other political divisions as we pass through the Post Gracchan period into the Post Sulla period.