After the completion of the Second Punic War, in 201 BC, Metellus, appointed "decemvir", was sent along with nine other prominent Romans by the praetor of Rome, Marcus Junius Pennus, to Samnium and Apulia to organize the redistribution of public lands to veterans returning from the victorious campaign against Hannibal in Africa. Before leaving on this mission, while still in Rome, Caecilius Metellus spoke before the Senate, saying that "he did not look upon its [the war's] termination as a blessing to Rome, since he feared that the Roman people would now sink back again into its former slumbers, from which it had been roused by the presence of Hannibal."