Lucullus
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| First Mithridatic War |
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| Amnias – Mount Scorobas – Orchomenus –Chaeronea – Tenedos |
| Third Mithridatic War |
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| Cyzicus – Cabira – Tigranocerta – Artaxata – Lycus |
| Mithridatic Wars |
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| First – Second – Third |
- 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.
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[edit] 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]
[edit] 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]
[edit] 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, Gaius 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]
[edit] 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.
[edit] As a decadent
- See also: Gardens of Lucullus
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,:
- quitted and abandoned public affairs, either because he saw that they were already beyond proper control and diseased, or, as some say, because he had his fill of glory, and felt that the unfortunate issue of his many struggles and toils entitled him to fall back upon a life of ease and luxury...[for] in the life of Lucullus, as in an ancient comedy, one reads in the first part of political measures and military commands, and in the latter part of drinking bouts, and banquets, and what might pass for revel-routs, and torch-races, and all manner of frivolity.[9]
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.[10]
So famous did he become for his banqueting that the word lucullan now means lavish or luxurious. Several interesting anecdotes underscore this great dedication to decadence, including when Cicero and Pompey succeeded in inviting themselves to dinner with Lucullus, but forbade him to send word ahead to prepare a meal. Cicero and Pompey were curious to see what sort of meal Lucullus ate alone, but Lucullus outsmarted them. He ordered that his servants serve him in the Apollo Room, and as his servants already knew 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?".[11] He was also responsible for bringing the sweet cherry and the apricot to Rome.
He was though a student of the philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon and probably the only Roman of note in the late Republic who expressed interest in the idea of building a public library.[12]
[edit] 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:
- After his divorce from Clodia, who was a licentious and base woman, he married Servilia, a sister of Cato, but this, too, was an unfortunate marriage. For it lacked none of the evils which Clodia had brought in her train except one, namely, the scandal about her brothers. In all other respects Servilia was equally vile and abandoned, and yet Lucullus forced himself to tolerate her, out of regard for Cato. At last, however, he put her away.[13]
[edit] References
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 1.1-6
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 2.1-4.5
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 1.6
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 4.5
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 5.1
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 5.2-6.5
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 7.1-36.7 - an account of his whole governorship, by far the bulk of Plutarch's Life
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 42.4-43.3
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 38.1-39.3
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 38.2-41.6
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 41.1-6
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 42.1-3
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 38.1
[edit] Sources
- Plutarch, Lucullus
- Keaveney, Arthur. Lucullus. A Life. London/New York: Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0-415-03219-9.
[edit] External links
| The Works of Plutarch | ||
|---|---|---|
| The Works | Parallel Lives | The Moralia | Pseudo-Plutarch | |
| The Lives |
Alcibiades and Coriolanus1 • Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar • Aratus of Sicyon & Artaxerxes and Galba & Otho2 • Aristides and Cato the Elder1 |
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| The Translators | John Dryden | Thomas North | Jacques Amyot | Philemon Holland | Arthur Hugh Clough | |
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1 Comparison extant 2 Four unpaired Lives |
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| Preceded by Gaius Aurelius Cotta and Lucius Octavius |
Consul of the Roman Republic with Marcus Aurelius Cotta 74 BC |
Succeeded by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus |
