Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus

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Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus
Born
Marcus Licinius Lucullus

116 BC[1]
Diedsoon after 56 BC
NationalityRoman
OfficeConsul (73 BC)
Governor of Macedonia (72 BC)
Parent

Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus (116 – soon after 56 BC), younger brother of the more famous

Lucius Cornelius Sulla and consul of ancient Rome in 73 BC. As proconsul of Macedonia in 72 BC, he defeated the Bessi in Thrace and advanced to the Danube and the west coast of the Black Sea. In addition, he was marginally involved in the Third Servile War (a.k.a. Spartacus' War
).

Biography

Name and family

Born in

adopted by an otherwise unknown Marcus Terentius Varro (not the scholar Varro Reatinus).[2] As a result of the adoption, his full official name, as quoted in inscriptions, became M(arcus) Terentius M(arci) f(ilius) Varro Lucullus.[3] Literary texts usually refer to him as M. Lucullus or simply Lucullus which in the case of Appian, Civil Wars 1.120, for example, caused confusion with Marcus' more famous brother, Lucius Licinius Lucullus
.

First public activities

In the early 90s BC, young Marcus and his brother Lucius unsuccessfully prosecuted Servilius the Augur. This man had earlier functioned as the prosecutor in the trial for embezzlement (de repetundis) that sent their father, Lucius Licinius Lucullus into exile to Lucania.[4]

Service under Sulla

When Sulla returned from the East in the spring of 83 BC to fight the

Gnaeus Papirius Carbo’s legate Quinctius of which his troops killed 1,800 men.[6]

Priesthood

Probably at the suggestion of his first cousin, the

Pontifical College. This may have happened when Sulla expanded the Pontifical College from 9 to 15 members in 81 BC.[7] Membership in one of the four major priestly colleges was an honor that was considered almost equal to winning a consulship,[8] and it boded well for Marcus Lucullus' future career.[9]

Aedileship

Even though he was not even present at the elections of 80 BC, Marcus Lucullus was elected to serve as

curule aedile for 79 BC together with his older brother Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who had recently returned from the Roman province of Asia.[10] Their aedileship was distinguished by games which Cicero much later still remembered for their splendor.[11] Among other things, the brothers introduced revolving backdrops for the temporary stage that they had built for theatrical performances. Moreover, they were the first to pit an elephant against a steer in the arena.[12]

Judge

Elected praetor peregrinus, the praetor in charge of court cases involving non-Roman citizens, for 76 BC, Marcus Lucullus presided over one cause célèbre, the trial against Gaius Antonius Hybrida (later Cicero's colleague as consul). Antonius had enriched himself shamelessly as a legate of Sulla in Greece during the First Mithridatic War. The prosecutor, the young Julius Caesar, won a conviction. Antonius managed, however, to have his conviction overturned by appealing to the people's tribunes. because, as he said, he could not get a fair trial in Rome against a Greek man.[13]

Apart from this, the praetor Marcus Lucullus is credited with an edict against armed gangs of slaves that authorized victims to demand compensation of four times the amount of their damages from the slaves' owners.[14]

Macedonia province within the Roman Empire, c. 120.

Consul and governor of Macedonia

As consul in 73 BC (along with Gaius Cassius Longinus), he passed a law that provided subsidized grain for indigent Roman citizens (lex Terentia et Cassia frumentaria).[15] His name also appears on a famous inscription (IG VII, 413), a letter that informs the inhabitants of Oropos in Greece that the senate has passed a decree in their favour regarding their dispute with Roman tax farmers.

Marble slab telling about the conquest of Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus against the western Black Sea Greek provinces, 1st century BC. Exhibit of Burgas Archaeological Museum

After his consulship, Marcus Lucullus became governor (proconsul) of the important province of

Istros.[16] For these achievements, he was awarded a triumph which he held in 71 BC.[17] Part of the booty from this campaign was a colossal statue of Apollo that Marcus Lucullus took from a temple on an island near Apollonia. It may have been on the occasion of his triumph that he set it up in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.[18]

Earlier in the same year, 71 BC, Marcus Lucullus also played a minor role in the defeat of

Brundisium
, across from Greece, presumably to sail from there to Greece or Illyrium. Yet when he received the news that Marcus Lucullus and his troops had already landed in Brundisium, he turned around and faced Crassus' pursuing army for the final and decisive battle of the war.

Later life and death

In 70 BC, Marcus Lucullus helped Cicero achieve his famous prosecution of

Gaius Cassius Longinus Varus
, among others).

In 66 or 65 BC, Marcus Lucullus was put on trial by

In 63 BC, Marcus Lucullus opposed the attempt of

Lucius Lucullus, lost his mental powers, Marcus Lucullus became his legal guardian; he buried him at his Tusculan estate in 56 BC. Marcus Lucullus himself died not long after.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Sumner, p. 114.
  2. ^ Keaveney 8; Arkenberg 333.
  3. ^ i.e., Marcus Terentius, son of Marcus, Varro Lucullus, cf. 'CIL' 1(2).719 = 11.6331.
  4. ^ Cic.Acad.2.1; Plut. Lucullus 1; Keaveney 4-6; on the debate over the exact date see id. 6, n. 14.
  5. ^ Oros. 5.20.3; Mommsen, History of Rome bk. 4, p. 87.
  6. ^ Liv. Per. 88; Vell. Pat. 2.28.1; Plut. “Sulla” 27.7-8; Plut. "Lucullus" 37.1 (there Lucullus' title is quaestor, not legate); Appian. “B.C.” 1.92; Broughton, “MRR” 2.65.
  7. ^ thus Jörg Rüpke, Vitae Sacerdotum, under [DNr2602] M. Terentius M. f. Varro Lucullus certainly before 76 BC, see Taylor, "Caesar's Colleagues" 411
  8. ^ Mommsen, Staatsrecht I 583
  9. ^ "Vitae sacerdotum". Archived from the original on Jun 23, 2007. Retrieved Mar 15, 2023.
  10. ^ Plutarch, Lucullus 1.6
  11. ^ Cic.De off. 2.57
  12. ^ Plin.Nat. Hist. 8.19; Keaveney 36
  13. ^ Asconius p. 84 Clark; Q. Cic. Comm. Pet. 8; Plut. Caes. 4; Gelzer, Caesar 21
  14. ^ Cic. "Tull." 8-11; Gelzer, "Caesar" 34-35.
  15. ^ "LacusCurtius • The Roman Welfare System (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved Mar 15, 2023.
  16. ^ "J. Harmatta - 1.6". www.kroraina.com. Retrieved Mar 15, 2023.
  17. ^ Cicero, Pis. 44; Eutrop. 6.10.1.
  18. ^ Strabo, Geography 7.6.1; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 4.92 and 34.38.
  19. ^ Plutarch, Lucullus 37.
  20. ^ Gelzer, Cicero 62-63, Ward.
  21. ^ Plutarch, Lucullus 43.

Sources

Ancient sources

Secondary literature

External links

Preceded by
Roman consul
73 BC
With: Gaius Cassius Longinus
Succeeded by