192 
PLTinr's IfATUEAL HISTORY. 
[Book YII. 
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 refate 
this assertion, would be tedious and indeed unnecessary, seeing 
that it is contradicted more than sufficiently by the single 
fact, 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 Eoman 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 Eome, 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 seq., 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 GeUius, 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. 
92 Yal. 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 life. — B. 
