Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter was consul in 284 BC, and praetor the year after.
In this capacity, he fell in the war against the Senones and was succeeded by Manius Curius Dentatus.
[1][2][3][4] Fischer, in his Römische Zeittafeln, has him as praetor and also dying in 285 BC, and in the year following he has him again as consul.
Wilhelm Drumann denies the identity of the consul and the praetor, on the ground that it was not customary for a person to hold the praetorship the year after his consulship; but examples of such a mode of proceeding do occur, so Drumann's objection fails.
An alternative hypothesis makes him the son or nephew of a Quintus Caecilius, supposedly tribune of the plebs in 316 BC.