In 69 BC he presided over the quaestio de repetundis, a standing tribunal of senatorial iudices (juror-judges) for investigating and deciding cases of extortion.
In addition, Metellus's brothers were well-placed to influence the trial: Marcus was to be president of the extortion court in the coming year, and Lucius was already in Verres's old position as Governor of Sicily.
The defence planned to delay the trial until the following year, when the Metellus brothers and Hortensius would be able to influence the court's decision.
Confident of victory, Metellus sent for the Sicilian witnesses and told them that Verres would come to no harm due to the positions held by himself and his brothers.
Because of this, Cicero accuses Metellus of being corrupt to the point that he would "throw duty and dignity to the winds"[3] without even having a real connection to Verres.
According to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, Crete was aiding Mithridates, king of Pontus, by supplying him with mercenaries in the first century BC.
[4] Pirates were a terrible problem in the Mediterranean at that time; they added the risk of kidnapping to sailing, pilfered grain from shipments to Rome, and attacked ports.
Marcus Antonius Creticus, father of Marc Antony, sent legates to Crete concerning their involvement with Mithridates and the pirates; the Cretans dismissed the matter, and a war began.
Pompey ignored Metellus' command over the island and accepted the Cretans' surrender, and he even sent a military delegation to the last-stand stronghold of Lasthénis and Panáres, at Láppa.
As revenge for the opposition to his triumph, Metellus used his influence to prevent the ratification in the senate of Pompey's reorganization of the east until 60 BC.
[1] Metellus remained a prominent member of Pompey's opposition until his death in the late 50s BC.
[5] According to Cicero in his letters to Atticus, Creticus was an ambassador sent to Gaul in the hopes of preventing the Gallic states from joining the Aedui in 60 BC.
He was aided in this, albeit reluctantly, by the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, a relative of Creticus.