Lucullus
 For his grandfather and namesake, see Lucius Licinius Lucullus.
Lucius Licinius Lucullus (ca. 118-56 BC) was a military commander and a politician of the Roman Republic, most recognized for supporting Lucius Cornelius Sulla in his march on Rome as well as for winning the battle of Tigranocerta during the Third Mithridatic War. The famous gardens of Lucullus are named after him.
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 Lucius Licinius Lucullus and wife 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), children of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus.[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 1.1-6]
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, 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.[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 2.1-4.5]
Lucullus returned in 80 BC and was elected curule aedile in 79, along with his brother Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, and gave splendid games.[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 1.6]
Consulship
Sulla dedicated his memoirs to Lucullus, and upon his death made him guardian of his son Faustus, preferring Lucullus over Pompey.[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 4.5]. Shortly after this, in 74, he became consul (along with Marcus Aurelius Cotta, Julius Caesar's uncle)[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 5.1], 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. [Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 5.2-6.5]
Campaigns in the east
On arrival, Lucullus set out from his province to relieve the besieged Cotta in Bithynia.[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 7.1-36.7 - an account of his whole governorship, by far the bulk of Plutarch's Life] 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[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 42.4-43.3]), 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, [Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 38.2-41.6] 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".[Pliny Natural History: Book IX pg 279]
Gastronome
So famous did Lucullus become for his banqueting that the word 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?".[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 41.1-6] 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.[Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 42.1-3]
Death
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.
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:
Primary sources
Plutarch, Lucullus
Plutarch Kimon, Sulla, Pompeius, Cicero
Liber de viris illustribus, no.74
Cassius Dio Roman History, book 36
Appian Roman History, book 12: Mithridateios
Photian summary of Memnon's local history of Herakleia Pontike
Cicero Lucullus; also known as Academica Prior, book 1
Cicero pro Archia poeta
Cicero de imperio Cn.Pompeii
Cicero pro L.Murena
Cicero ad Atticum, book 1
Julius Frontinus Stratagems
The elogium of Lucullus from Arretium, ILS 60 (ed.H.Dessau)
Secondary sources
Keaveney, Arthur. Lucullus. A Life. London/New York: Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0-415-03219-9.
Ooteghem, J. van. Lucius Licinius Lucullus, 1959
Badian, Ernst. s.v.Lucullus(2), p.624 in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1970.
Dix, T.Keith. "The Library of Lucullus", Athenaeum 88 (2000), 441-464
External links
Bust of Lucullus
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