[1] She was the daughter of the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, while her mother Clodia was a notorious adulterer and possibly the inspiration for the figure of Lesbia in poetry.
[3] In 53 BC, Metella Celer was married to Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, a conservative politician, allied to her father's family.
Briefly after the wedding she started an affair with Publius Cornelius Dolabella, a man of the opposite political spectrum.
[a] Cicero bitterly discusses the affair in his letters, because at the time, his daughter Tullia was Dolabella's wife.
Metella seduced several of Julius Caesar's intimate friends, in order to get the family name cleared after the defeat of the Optimates in the battles of Pharsalus and Munda.