:''For his grandfather and namesake, see
Lucius Licinius Lucullus.''
'Lucius Licinius Lucullus' (ca.
118-
56 BC) was a
consul of
ancient Rome, a supporter of
Lucius Cornelius Sulla and victor in the East.
Biography
Born in
Rome, he was a member of the prominent ''gens''
Licinia, the grandson of the consul
Lucius Licinius Lucullus, and the son of Caecilia Metella Calva, sister of
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus and of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus (who was the father of Caecilia Metella Dalmatica,
Sulla's third wife).
[1]
Serving under Sulla
Lucullus first began service as a military tribune, serving in the
Social War under Sulla, and as a
quaestor in
88 BC he was the only officer to support Sulla's march on Rome. He also served under Sulla in the
First Mithridatic War, raising a fleet which helped Sulla open up the seas during the siege of
Athens and then, after Lucullus had defeated the Mithridatic admiral Neoptolemus in the
Battle of Tenedos, it helped Sulla cross the
Aegean to Asia. After a peace had been agreed, Lucullus stayed in Asia and collected the financial penalty Sulla imposed upon the province for its revolt. Lucullus, however, tried to lessen the burden that these impositions created.
[2]
Lucullus returned in
80 BC and was elected
curule aedile in
79, along with his brother
Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, and gave splendid games.
[3]
Consulship
Sulla dedicated his memoirs to Lucullus, and upon his death made him guardian of his son
Faustus, preferring Lucullus over
Pompey.
[4]. Shortly after this, in
74, he became consul (along with
Marcus Aurelius Cotta,
Julius Caesar's uncle)
[5], and defended Sulla's constitution from the efforts of
Lucius Quinctius.
Initially, he drew
Cisalpine Gaul in the lots at the start of his consulship as his
proconsular command after his year as consul was done, but he got himself appointed governor of
Cilicia after its governor died, so as to also receive the command against
Mithridates VI in the
Third Mithridatic War.
[6]
Campaigns in the east
On arrival, Lucullus set out from his province to relieve the besieged Cotta in
Bithynia.
[7] He harried the army of Mithridates and killed many of his soldiers. He then turned to the sea and raised a fleet amongst the Greek cities of Asia. With this fleet he defeated the enemy's fleet off
Ilium and then off
Lemnos. Turning back to the land, he drove Mithridates back into
Pontus. He was wary of drawing into a direct engagement with Mithridates, due to the latter's superior cavalry. But after several small battles, Lucullus finally defeated him at the
Battle of Cabira. He did not pursue Mithridates immediately, but instead he finished conquering the kingdom of Pontus and setting the affairs of Asia into order. His attempts to reform the rapacious Roman administration in Asia made him increasingly unpopular among the powerful
publicani back in Rome.
He then led an attack against
Tigranes II of
Armenia, Mithridates's son-in-law and ally, and to whom Mithridates fled after Cabeira. He proceeded first against
Tigranocerta and laid siege to it. This drew forth the army of Tigranes, which Lucullus defeated despite being heavily out-numbered. He then defeated Tigranes and Mithridates in the
Battle of Artaxata (
October 6 68 BC) but didn't proceed onto
Artaxata because of dissension among his troops. His authority over his legions was undermined by the efforts of his brother-in-law
Publius Clodius. This allowed Mithridates and Tigranes to retake much of their respective kingdoms.
At the machination of the
equites and Pompeian supporters back in Rome, Lucullus was replaced by
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in
66 BC and returned to Rome.
As a decadent
The opposition to him continued on his return and caused the delay of his
triumph until
63 BC. Instead of returning fully to political life (although, as a friend of
Cicero, he did act in some issues
[8]), however, he mostly retired to extravagant leisure, or, in Plutarch's words,:
He used the vast treasure he amassed during his wars in the East to live a life of luxury. He had splendid
gardens outside the city of Rome, as well as villas around
Tusculum and
Neapolis. The
one near Neapolis included fish ponds and man-made extensions into the sea,
[9]and was only one of many elite senators' villas around the
Bay of Naples.
Gastronome
So famous did Lucullus become for his banqueting that the word
lucullan now means ''lavish,'' ''luxurious'' and ''gourmet''.
Once, Cicero and Pompey succeeded in inviting themselves to dinner with Lucullus, but, curious to see what sort of meal Lucullus ate when alone, forbade him to send word ahead to his servants to prepare a meal for guests. However, Lucullus outsmarted them. He ordered that his servants serve him in the Apollo Room, and as his servants had been schooled ahead of time as to precisely what to make for each of the different dining rooms, Cicero and Pompey ate the most luxurious of all meals.
Another tale runs that one of his servants, upon hearing that he would have no guests for dinner, served only one course. Lucullus reprimanded his servant saying, "What, did not you know, then, that today Lucullus dines with Lucullus?".
[10] He was also responsible for bringing the
sweet cherry and the
apricot to Rome.
Bibliophile
He was a student of the philosopher
Antiochus of Ascalon and one of only a few late Republican senators (Caesar also included) who expressed interest in the idea of building a public library.
[11]
Marriages
★
Clodia, or Claudia Pulchra Tertia; whom he married as her first husband, but divorced c.66 on his return to Rome after friction in Asia with
her brother. Claudia became notorious for her love affairs, and also became a plebeian for unknown reasons, thus taking the name of Clodia.
★
Servilia Caepionis Minor, the younger sister of
Servilia Caepionis, also notorious for her loose morals, but mother of Lucullus's only son.
Plutarch writes:
References
1. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 1.1-6
2. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 2.1-4.5
3. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 1.6
4. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 4.5
5. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 5.1
6. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 5.2-6.5
7. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 7.1-36.7 - an account of his whole governorship, by far the bulk of Plutarch's ''Life''
8. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 42.4-43.3
9. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 38.2-41.6
10. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 41.1-6
11. Plutarch, ''Life of Lucullus'', 42.1-3
Sources
★
Plutarch, ''
★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html Lucullus''
★ Keaveney, Arthur. ''Lucullus. A Life.'' London/New York: Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0-415-03219-9.
External links
★
Bust of Lucullus
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