192 PLINT's Is^ATUEAL HISTOET. [Book VII. 



Punic war, has left it written to the effect that his father had 

 attained the ten greatest and best things, in the search after 

 which wise men have spent all their lives. For, as he states, 

 he was anxious to become the first warrior, the best orator, 

 the bravest general, that the most important of all business 

 should be entrusted to his charge, that he should enjoy the very 

 highest honours, that he should possess consummate wisdom, 

 that he should be regarded as the most distinguished senator, 

 that he should by honourable means acquire a large fortune, 

 that he should leave behind him many children, and that he 

 should be the most illustrious person in the state. To refute 

 this assertion, would be tedious and indeed unnecessary, seeing 

 that it is contradicted more than sufficiently by the single 

 ftict, that Metellus passed his old age, deprived of his sight, 

 which he had lost in a fire, while rescuing the Palladium 

 from the temple of Yesta ;^ a glorious action, no doubt, al- 

 though the result was unhappy : on which account it is, that 

 although he ought not to be called unfortunate, still he cannot 

 be called fortunate. The Ptoman people, however, granted 

 him a privilege which no one else had ever obtained since the 

 foundation of the city, that of being conveyed to the senate- 

 house in a chariot whenever he went to the senate :" a great 

 distinction, no doubt, but bought at the price of his sight. 



(44.) The son also, of the same Q. Metellus, who has given 

 the above account of his father, is considered himself to have 

 been one of the rarest instances of human felicity.^ For, in ad- 

 success, that Pliny is not correct in the remark, that the first elephants 

 brought to Rome, were those which followed in the triumph of Metellus. 

 He has himself informed us, B. viii. c. 6, that they were introduced by 

 Curius Dentatus, in his triumph over Pyrrhus, some years before that of 

 Metellus. The same fact is also stated by Florus, B. i. c. 18. — B. 



^^ Ovid, Fast. B. vi. 1. 436, et seg., and Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 4, 

 allude to this circumstance. — B. 



91 This fact has been supposed by Hardouin to be controverted by the 

 statement of Aulus Gellius, who says, B. iii. c. 18, that all the senators, who 

 had passed the curule chair, were carried to the curia or senate-house, in a 

 chariot. But, as Ajasson correctly observes, Aulus Gellius does not assert 

 that the senators were carried at the public expense, which was the case 

 with Metellus.— B. 



3- Val. Maximus, B. vii. c. 1, details the various fortunate circumstances 

 which occurred to Q. Metellus; he makes no mention, however, of the vio- 

 lent attack made upon him by Labeo ; indeed, he expressly states, that 

 his good fortune continued to the last moments of his Ufe. — B. 



