Lucullus
Lucullus | |
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Lucius Licinius Lucullus (
Lucullus returned to Rome from the east with so much captured booty that the vast sums of treasure, jewels, priceless works of art, and slaves could not be fully accounted for. On his return Lucullus poured enormous sums into private building projects,
The conquest agnomen of Ponticus is sometimes incorrectly appended to his name in modern texts. In ancient sources it is attributed only to his consular colleague Marcus Aurelius Cotta after the latter’s capture and brutal destruction of Heraclea Pontica during the Third Mithridatic War.
Contemporary sources
Lucullus was included in the biographical collections of Roman leading generals and politicians, originating in the biographical compendium of famous Romans published by his contemporary Marcus Terentius Varro. Two biographies of Lucullus survive today, Plutarch's Lucullus in the famous series of Parallel Lives, in which Lucullus is paired with the Athenian aristocratic politician and Strategos Cimon, and # 74 in the slender Latin Liber de viris illustribus, of late and unknown authorship, the main sources for which appear to go back to Varro and his most significant successor in the genre, Gaius Julius Hyginus.
Family and early career
Lucullus was a member of the prominent gens Licinia, and of the family, or stirps, of the Luculli, which may have been descended from the ancient nobility of Tusculum. He was grandson of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, consul in 151 BC, and son of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, praetor in 104 BC, who was convicted for embezzlement during his Sicilian command (104/3) and exiled in c. 102 BC.[citation needed]
The family of his mother Caecilia Metella (born c. 137 BC), was a powerful
Lucullus possibly served as military tribune in 89 BC; Plutarch notes that he served as an officer under Sulla during the Social War before his quaestorship.[6] He wrote a history of the war in Greek.[7]
The longest Quaestura, 88–80 BC
Lucullus was elected
In autumn of the same year Sulla sent Lucullus ahead to Greece to assess the situation while he himself oversaw the embarkation of his army. Lucullus arrived in Greece and took over from
When Sulla arrived with the main army, Lucullus served him as a quaestor again; he minted money that was used during the war against
As the Roman siege of Athens was drawing towards a successful conclusion, Sulla's strategic attention began to focus more widely on subsequent operations against the main Pontic forces, and combating Mithridates' control of the sea lanes. He sent Lucullus to collect such a fleet as might be possible from Rome's allies along the eastern Mediterranean seaboard, first to the important but currently disturbed states of Cyrene and Ptolemaic Egypt.[11] Lucullus set out from the
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.[13]
The aftermath of the First Mithridatic War
Lucullus is noted for his magnanimous administration of Asia province; he managed to calm Rome's resentful, near rebellious, Asian subjects and establish a modicum of peace. When Asia's Roman governor, Lucius Licinius Murena, started and fought the brief, so-called Second Mithridatic War (83-81 BC), Lucullus was not involved.[14]
Mytilene, capital of the island of Lesbos, rebelled during Lucullus administration of Asia. Lucullus tried to solve the conflict through diplomacy, but eventually he launched an attack on the city state, defeated her militia in a pitched battle in front of her walls and started a siege. After some time Lucullus pretended to give up on the siege and sailed away. When the Mytileneans entered the remnants of his camp, Lucullus ambushed them, killing 500 of the enemy and enslaving 6,000.[15]
Return to the west, 80–74 BC
Lucullus returned in 80 BC and was elected
The most obscure part of Lucullus' public career is the year he spent as
In these respects his early career demonstrates a generous and just nature, but also his political traditionalism in contrast to contemporaries such as Cicero and Pompey, the former of whom was always eager to avoid administrative responsibilities of any sort in the provinces, while Pompey rejected every aspect of a normal career, seeking great military commands at every opportunity which suited him, while refusing to undertake normal duties in peaceful provinces.
Two other notable transactions took place in 76 or 75 BC following Lucullus' return from Africa: his marriage to Claudia, the youngest daughter of
Sulla dedicated his memoirs to Lucullus, and upon his death made him guardian of his son Faustus and daughter Fausta, preferring Lucullus over Pompey.[19]
Consulship
In 74 BC, Lucullus served as consul along with
Initially, he drew
The Eastern Wars, 73–67 BC
On his way to
The Pontic fleet tried to sail east into the
Lucullus finished off the Mithridatic army in Bithynia and then moved through
Mithridates had fled to Armenia and, in 71 BC, Lucullus sent his brother-in-law Appius Claudius Pulcher (later consul in 54 BC) as envoy to the Armenian king-of-kings Tigranes II to demand the surrender of the Pontic king. In the letter conveyed by Appius, Lucullus addressed Tigranes simply as "king" (basileus), something received as an insult, and probably intended as such in order to provoke the proud Armenian monarch to war. Keaveney argues against such an interpretation, arguing that Lucullus was acting as a typical philhellene with no empathy towards the sensibilities of non-Greeks.[31][failed verification] However, this is refuted by Lucullus' conduct during his administration of Africa (c. 77–75 BC), the period of his career most conspicuously missing from the Greek biography by Plutarch.
In 69 BC, Lucullus invaded
In the summer of 68 BC Lucullus resumed the war against Tigranes, crossing the Anti-Taurus Range in a long march through very difficult mountain country directed at the old Armenian capital Artaxata. A major battle took place near the River Arsanias, where Lucullus once again routed the Armenian royal army.[34] However, he had misjudged the time needed for a campaign so far into the Armenian Tablelands, where the good weather was unusually short lived, and when the first snows fell around the time of the autumn equinox his army mutinied and refused to advance any further. Lucullus led them back south to the warmer climes of northern Mesopotamia and had no trouble from his troops there despite setting them the difficult task of capturing the great Armenian fortress of Nisibis, which was quickly stormed and made the Roman base for the winter of 68–67 BC.
That winter Lucullus left his army at Nisibis and, taking a small, but apparently highly mobile, escort, journeyed to Syria in an attempt to permanently exclude Tigranes from all his southern possessions. Syria had been an Armenian province since 83 BC. About a decade later the dispossessed
Despite his continuous success in battle, Lucullus had still not captured either one of the monarchs. In 66 BC, with the majority of Lucullus' troops now openly refusing to obey his commands, but agreeing to defend Roman positions from attack, the senate sent Pompey to take over Lucullus' command, at which point Lucullus returned to Rome.
Final years, 66–57 BC
The opposition to him continued on his return. In his absence Pompey had shamefully usurped control over Sulla's children, contrary to the father's testament, and now in Pompeius' absence the latter's intimate and hereditary political ally Gaius Memmius[35] co-ordinated the opposition to Lucullus' claim to a triumph. Memmius delivered at least four speeches de triumpho Luculli Asiatico,[36] and the antagonism towards Lucullus aroused by the Pompeians proved so effective that the enabling law (lex curiata) required to hold a triumph was delayed for three years. In this period Lucullus was forced to reside outside the pomerium, which curtailed his involvement in day-to-day politics centred on the Forum.
Instead of returning fully to political life (although, as a friend of Cicero, he did act in some issues[37]) 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.[38]
He used the vast treasure he amassed during his wars in the East to live a life of luxury. He had several known luxurious villas:
- the Gardens of Lucullus in Rome
- the vast Villa of Lucullus near Naples
- the famous one near Tusculum
- one on the promontory of Misenum[39]
- one on the island of Bay of Naples.
The
He finally held his triumph in 63 BC thanks in small part to the political maneuvering of both Cato and Cicero. His triumph was remembered mostly due to his covering the Circus Flaminius with the arms of the enemies he had faced during the campaign.[43]
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 communicate with his slaves regarding any preparation of the meal for his guests. However, Lucullus outsmarted them, and succeeded in getting Pompey and Cicero to allow that he specify which room he would be dining in. He ordered that his slaves serve him in the Apollo Room, knowing that his service staff was schooled ahead of time as to the specific details of service he expected for each of his particular dining rooms: as the standard amount specified to be outlaid for any given dinner in the Apollo room was the large sum of 50,000 drachmae,[44] Cicero and Pompey found themselves a short time later dining upon a most unexpectedly luxurious meal.
On another occasion, the tale runs that his steward, hearing that he would have no guests for dinner, served only one not especially impressive course. Lucullus reprimanded him saying, "What, did not you know, then, that today Lucullus dines with Lucullus?"[45]
Among Lucullus' other contributions to fine dining, he was responsible for bringing the
Among the various edible plants associated with Lucullus is a cultivar of the vegetable
Lucullus and higher learning
Lucullus was extremely well educated in Latin and Greek, and showed a keen interest in literature and philosophy from earliest adulthood. He established lifelong friendships with the Greek poet Archias of (Syrian) Antioch, who migrated to Rome around 102 BC, and with one of the leading academic philosophers of the time, Antiochus of Ascalon.
During his long delay in the royal palace at Alexandria in the summer of 86 BC Lucullus witnessed the beginning of the major schism in the Platonic Academy in the 1st century BC, the so-called Sosos Affair. His friend and companion Antiochos of Ascalon received, evidently from the Library of Alexandria, a copy of a work by the scholarch of the Academy, Philo of Larissa, so radical in its sceptical stance that Antiochos was sufficiently disturbed to doubt the attribution of authorship to his old teacher. But more recent pupils of Philo, chiefly Herakleitos of Tyre, were able to assure him of the book's authenticity. Antiochos and Herakleitos dissected it at length in Lucullus' presence, and in the ensuing weeks while the Roman party continued to await the arrival of the king from the south, Antiochos composed a vigorous polemic against Philo entitled Sosos, which marked his definitive break with Philo's so-called "Sceptical Academy", and the beginning of the separate, more conservative, school eventually called the Old Academy.[47]
Decline and death
Plutarch reports that Lucullus lost his mind towards the end of his life, intermittently developing signs of insanity as he aged. Plutarch, however, seems to be somewhat ambivalent as to whether the apparent madness was actually the result of the administration of a purported love potion or other explicable cause, hinting that his alleged precipitous mental decline (and his concomitant withdrawal from public affairs) may have been at least in part conveniently feigned in self-protection against the rise to power of his political opponents, such as the popular party, during a time in which the political stakes were often life and death.[48] Lucullus' brother Marcus oversaw his funeral.
His tomb has been located near his villa in Tusculum.[49]
Marriages
Lucullus married Clodia, (one of the daughters of Appius Claudius Pulcher the consul of 79 BC) at the earliest 76 BC. With her he had a daughter and possibly a homonymous son.[50] He divorced her about the year 66 BC, on his return to Rome after friction in Asia with her brother, Publius Clodius Pulcher.
See also
References
- ^ "The bust in the Hermitage, No. 77, published in Arch. Zeit. 1875, PI. Ill, is not a portrait of L. Licinius Lucullus or even of an admiral, but of a lictor. The relief at the base represents a lictor's axe, and the costume is that of the lictors on the Arch of Trajan at Beneventum," observed G. Hauser, in Jahrbuch der Oesterreichisches Archiv I. 10 1907, pp. 153–56, reported in American Journal of Archaeology 12 1908, p 236.
- ^ The only comprehensive discussion of his birthdate is that of Sumner 1973, pp. 113–14 who settles on 118 BC as the most likely year, with 117 a marginal possibility.
- ^ Cassius Dio XXXVI. In captured correspondence of Mithradates VI Eupator, Lucullus was rated as the outstanding general since Alexander (Cicero Acad.Pr.II)
- ^ Bennett 1972, p. 314
- ^ Plut. Luc. 1.1–6.
- ^ Broughton 1952, p. 35. Citing Plut. Luc. 2.1.
- JSTOR 41233871.
- ^ Appian R.Em. I, 57 records the bare facts without giving names. The suggestion that this quaestor was Lucullus was first made by Ernst Badian ('Waiting for Sulla', JRS 52 (1962), p. 54), and has found wide acceptance.
- ^ Lee Fratantuono, Lucullus, pp 20-21; Lynda Telford, Sulla: A Dictator Reconsidered, pp 117-18; Philip Matyszak, Mithridates the Great, p. 55.
- ^ Lee Fratantuono, Lucullus, p. 20; Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, II. 1-2.
- ^ Plut.Luc.2.2
- ^ a b Plut.Luc.2.3
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 2.1-4.5
- ^ Lee Fratantuono, Lucullus, Life and Campaigns of a Roman Conqueror, p. 36.
- ^ Lee Fratantuono, Lucullus, Life and Campaigns of a Roman Conqueror, pp. 36-37.
- ^ Plut.Luc.1.6, Granius Licinianus 32F
- ^ Acad.Prior II 1
- ^ Liber de viris illustribus 74.3
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 4.5
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 5.1
- ^ Lee Fratantuono, Lucullus, p. 49; John Leach, Pompey the Great, p. 55; B. Marshall and J.L. Beness, Athenaeum 65 (1987), pp 360-78.
- ^ Lee Fratantuono, Lucullus, pp 45-46. Enabling Pompey to continue fighting Sertorius, and keeping Pompey from returning to Rome and interfering with Lucullus's plans; Lucullus feared Pompey would usurp the command against Mithridates of Pontus.
- ^ Lee Fratantuono, Lucullus, p. 47
- ^ Anise K. Strong: Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 5.2–6.5
- ^ a b Lee Fratantuono, Lucullus, pp 52-55; Appian, Mithridatica, XI.72.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 7.1–36.7 – an account of his whole governorship, by far the bulk of Plutarch's Life of Lucullus
- ^ Appian, Mithridatica, XI.72; Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 8.
- ^ Keaveney 1992, p. 85.
- Orosius6.2.21–22.
- ^ Keaveney 1992, pp. 99–102.
- ^ Plutarch Camillus 19.11, Lucullus 27.8–9
- ^ See Roman calendar, sub-heading Conversion of pre-Julian dates
- ^ Steel 2013, p. 141.
- ^ That is, C. Memmius L. f. (tr.pl.66, pr.58) a notable orator and patron of the "modern" poets. He had married Sulla's daughter Fausta c. 70 BC, while his homonymous first-cousin C. Memmius had been the husband of Pompey's sister until killed in battle in Spain in 75.
- ^ Servius, ad Aeneid I.161, quotes from a written version of the fourth. There may have been more.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 42.4-43.3
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 38.1–39.3
- ^ Tacitus Annals 6.50
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 38.2–41.6
- ^ Pliny Natural History: Book IX p. 279
- ^ Velleius Paterculus, Roman History Book II, 33
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, p. 37.
- ^ According to Plutarch's Life of Lucullus. Plutarch goes on to say that Pompey and Cicero were less impressed about the total amount of the expense for the meal than that Lucullus could and would drop such a sum in such a quick and easy routine manner.
- ^ "Quid ais, inquit iratus Lucullus, au nesciebas Lucullum hodie cenaturum esse apud Lucullum?", Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 41.1–6
- ^ Tom Holland, Rubicon, p.189. Sour cherry: Jerome: epistle XXXI ad Eustochium.
- ^ Cic.Acad.Pr.II, cf. Barnes 1981:205
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus.
- ^ The Villa and Tomb of Lucullus at TusculumAuthor(s): George McCracken American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1942), pp. 325-340
- ^ ISBN 9780191528293.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Lucullus, 38.1
- Servilia and her Family- page: 96
Ancient sources
- Plutarch, Lucullus, also the lives of Kimon, Sulla, Pompeius, Cicero, Cato
- Ziegler, Konrat (ed.) Plutarchi Vitae Parallelae, Vol.I, Fasc.1 (Teubner, Leipzig, 4th edition, 1969), I: ΘΗΣΕΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΡΩΜΥΛΟΣ, II: ΣΟΛΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΠΛΙΚΟΛΑΣ, III: ΘΕΜΙΣΤΟΚΛΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΚΑΜΙΛΛΟΣ, IV: ΑΡΙΣΤΕΙΔΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΚΑΤΩΝ, V: ΚΙΜΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΛΕΥΚΟΛΛΟΣ.
- Liber de viris illustribus, 74
- Cassius Dio Roman History, book XXXVI
- Appian Roman History, book XII: Mithridateios
- Cicero Lucullus, also known as Academica Prior, book II
- Cicero pro Archia poeta 5-6, 11, 21, 26, 31
- Cicero de imperio Cn. Pompei 5, 10, 20-26
- Cicero pro L. Murena 20, 33-34, 37, 69
- Cicero pro A. Cluentio Habito 137
- Cicero ad Atticum, I 1.3, 14.5, 16.15, XIII 6
- Julius Frontinus Stratagems, II 1.14, 2.4 (Tigranocerta), II 5.30 (Pontic assassination attempt 72 BC), II 7.8 (Macedonian cavalry during Cabira campaign), III 13.6 (swimming messenger at siege of Cyzicus)
- Paulus Orosius bk.VI
- Eutropius bk.VI
- Annaeus Florus
- Malcovati, Henrica (ed.) Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, Liberae Rei Publicae (Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum, Torino, 1953; 4th edition, 1976), 307-9 (Orator #90)
- Memnon, history of Herakleia Pontike, 9th century epitome in the ΒΙΒΛΙΟΘΗΚΗ of Photius of Byzantium (codex 224)
- ed. René Henry Photius Bibliotheque, vol.IV: Codices 223-229 (Budé, Paris, 1965), 48-99: Greek with French translation
- ed. Karl Müller FHG (Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum), vol.III, 525ff.: Greek with Latin translation
- ed. Felix Jacoby FGrH 434 (Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, commenced 1923): Greek text, critical commentary in German
- Phlegon of Tralles, fragments
- ed. Müller FHG, III, 602ff.
- ed. Jacoby FGrH 257
- English translation and commentary by William Hansen, Phlegon of Tralles' Book of Marvels (University of Exeter Press, 1996)
- Inscriptions.
- ILS 60 (Latin career elogium from Arretium)
- SIG3 743, AE 1974, 603 (both Greek from Hypata, as quaestor in late 88)
- SIG3 745 (Greek from Rhodes, when pro quaestore, 84/3)
- Ins.Délos 1620 (Latin statue base titulus from Delos when pro quaestore, 85/80)
- BE 1970, p. 426 (two Greek tituli when imperator, 72/66, from Andros and Klaros)
Modern works
Early books
- OCLC 45791363.
- Eckhardt, Kurt (1909-12-01). "Die armenischen Feldzüge des Lukullus: Einleitung". Klio (in German). 9 (9): 400–412. S2CID 193828877.
- Eckhardt, Kurt (1910a). "Die armenischen Feldzüge des Lukullus: Das Kriegsjahr 69". Klio (in German). 10 (10): 72–115. S2CID 202161854.
- Eckhardt, Kurt (1910b). "Die armenischen Feldzüge des Lukullus: Das Kriegsjahr 68". Klio (in German). 10 (10): 192–231. S2CID 194418853.
- Gelzer, Matthias (1926). Wikisource. . Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (in German). Vol. 13. Stuttgart: Butcher. pp. 376–414 – via
- Stern, Martin (1922). Lucullus und die mithridatische Offensive in der Propontis (Thesis) (in German). OCLC 73020803.
- Villoresi, Mario (1939). Lucullo (in Italian). Firenze. )
Recent books
- Antonelli, Giuseppe (1989). Lucullo (in Italian). Rome. )
- Broughton, Thomas Robert Shannon (1952). The magistrates of the Roman republic. Vol. 2. New York: American Philological Association.
- Glucker, John (1978). Antiochus and the late Academy. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. OCLC 5327099.
- Keaveney, Arthur (1992). Lucullus: a life. London: Routledge. OCLC 51921753.
- van Ooteghem, J (1959). Lucius Licinius Lucullus (in French). Bruxelles. )
- Steel, Catherine (2013). End of the Roman Republic 146 to 44 BC: Conquest and Crisis. Edinburgh University Press.
- Tröster, Manuel (2008). Themes, character, and politics in Plutarch's Life of Lucullus: the construction of a Roman aristocrat. Stuttgart: Steiner. OCLC 184820704.
Journal articles
- Badian, Ernst (1970). "Lucullus (2)". In Hammond, NGL; Scullard, HH (eds.). Oxford Classical Dictionary (2nd ed.). p. 624.
- Bennett, William H (1972). "The Date of the Death of Lucullus". The Classical Review. 22 (3): 314. S2CID 162628708.
- Dix, Kieth (2000). "The library of Lucullus". Athenaeum. 88: 441–464.
- Hillman, Thomas P (1993). "When Did Lucullus Retire?". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 42 (2): 211–228. JSTOR 4436286.
- Jones, C. P. (1982). "Plutarch, Lucullus 42, 3–4". Hermes. 110 (2): 254–256. JSTOR 4476263.
- McCracken, George (1942-07-01). "The Villa and Tomb of Lucullus at Tusculum". American Journal of Archaeology. 46 (3): 325–340. S2CID 191408920.
- Sumner, GV (1973). The Orators in Cicero's Brutus. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4875-7402-4.
- Tatum, WJ (1991). "Lucullus and Clodius at Nisibis (Plutarch, Lucullus 33–34)". Athenaeum. 79. Pavia: 569ff.