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Lucullus |
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Lucius Licinius Lucullus (ca.118-57 BC), one of the canonical great men of Roman history, always included in the biographical collections of leading generals and politicians, two of which survive today despite the slender extant literature from antiquity.1
An optimas or Aristocratic party politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Augur (perhaps from as early as 90 BC in succession to L. Crassus orator)
Senator (perhaps as early as 89 BC, certainly from 81)
Tribune of soldiers 90-89, in the bellum Italicum
Quaestor 88
Acting-quaestor (vir privatus pro quaestore) 87-80
Aedilis curulis 79
Praetor 78
Acting-magistrate commander of Africa province 77-75 (perhaps 77-76)
Consul 74 prior with M. Aurelia Cotta
Commander in chief bellum Mitridaticum and the provinces Asia and Cilicia 73-67
Bithynia province appended to his command 70
Triumph over the Kings Mithradates (VI) of Pontus and Tigran of Armenia 63
In the culmination of over twenty years of almost continuous service to the Republican state and Empire, Lucullus became the main conqueror of the eastern kingdoms, exhibiting unsurpassed extremes in boldness and generalship, most famously in his victory in Armenian Arzanene at the battle of Tigranocerta in 69 BC during the Third Mithridatic War, an almost impossible feat of arms usually regarded as the greatest military victory in Roman history. It was fought on the same (pre-Julian) calendar date as the Roman disaster at Arausio 36 years earlier: pridie Non. Oct. (6 October).2
Which is Julian October 16 69 BC (Roman calendar, sub-heading Conversion of pre-Julian dates).
He returned to Rome from his extensive conquests with such vast amounts of booty that the whole could not be fully accounted, and poured enormous sums into private building, husbandry and even aquaculture projects which shocked and amazed his contemporaries by their magnitude and lavishness. He also patronized the arts and sciences on a large scale, transforming his hereditary estate in the Tusculan highlands into an extraordinary hotel-and-library complex for scholars and philosophers. He built the horti Lucullani on the Pincian Hill in Rome, the famous gardens of Lucullus, and in general became a cultural revolutionary in the deployment of imperial wealth.
The sober and witty Stoic philosopher-historian L. Aelius Tubero labelled him "Xerxes in a toga". After his great personal and public foe Pompeius Magnus heard this, he came up with what he considered a very clever joke of his own, calling Lucullus "Xerxes in a toga".
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Member of the prominent gens Licinia, of the Lucullan stirps which was probably ancient nobility of Tusculum. Grandson of Lucius Licinius Lucullus consul 151, and son of L. Licinius Lucullus praetor 104 (who was convicted for embezzlement in 102/1 from his Sicilian command of 103-2).
The family of his mother Caecilia Metella (born ca.137 BC) was one of the most powerful of the plebeian nobilitas, and at the very height of its success and influence in the last quarter of the 2nd century BC. She was youngest child of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus consul 142 and censor 115-14, and half-sister of two of the most important Roman princes of their time, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus cos.109, censor 102-1, and Lucius Caecilius Metellus Delmaticus cos.119 and pontifex maximus (who was the father of Caecilia Metella, Sulla's fourth wife).3
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, he 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.4
Lucullus returned in 80 BC and was elected curule aedile for 79, along with his brother Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, and gave splendid games.5
Sulla dedicated his memoirs to Lucullus, and upon his death made him guardian of his son Faustus, preferring Lucullus over Pompey.6. Shortly after this, in 74, he became consul (along with Marcus Aurelius Cotta, Julius Caesar's uncle)7, 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. 8
On arrival, Lucullus set out from his province to relieve the besieged Cotta in Bithynia.9 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.
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 issues10), 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 frivolity11 | ” |
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, 12 and was only one of many elite senators' villas around the Bay of Naples. Pompey is said by Pliny to have referred often to Lucullus as "Xerxes in Roman dress".13
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?".14 He was also responsible for bringing the sweet cherry and the apricot to Rome.
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.15
Lucullus is reported by Plutarch to have lost his mind at the end and went intermittently crazy towards his elderly life. Lucullus' brother Marcus oversaw his funeral.
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 away16 | ” |
Major studies.
pt.I Introduction. Klio, 9 (1909), 400-412
pt.II Das Kriegsjahr 69. Klio, 10 (1910), 72-115
pt.III Das Kriegsjahr 68. Klio, 10 (1910), 192-231
Shorter articles.
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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 |
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