There is much disagreement about the date of this inscription, and therefore the identity of the Metellus who was honoured by it. Sylloge³ identified him as L.Metellus Calvus, who was consul in 142 B.C. and afterwards accompanied Scipio Aemilianus on an embassy to the states of the eastern Mediterranean. This view was supported by H.Mattingly, in "Hellenistic Constructs", page 143 ( Google Books ). But other scholars have put the date half a century later, in about 85 B.C. The inscription was found on the island of Paros, but it almost certainly came from Delos.
The people of the Athenians {on Delos} dedicated this statue of Lucius Caecilius Metellus son of Quintus, the consul of the Romans, to Apollo; the supervisor Protimos of Myrrhinous, the son of Dositheos, took care of the construction and erection of the statue.
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