Lucullus
Lu-cul'lus, (Lucius Licinius,) a celebrated Roman
general, born of a patrician family about no B.C. In
the year 87 he went to Asia as quajstor under Sulla,
who gave him many proofs of his confidence. After an
absence of several years, during which the civil war between
Marius and Sulla raged at Rome, he returned, and
was elected consul in 74 B.C. In this year he obtained
the chief command in the war against Mithridates, whom
he defeated at Cyzicus in 73, and, after other victories,
drove him out of the kingdom of Pontus. He afterwards
defeated Tigranes of Armenia, whose capital he took
about 68 11.C The mutiny of his troops prevented his
final triumph over Mithridates, and he was superseded
by Pompey in the year 66. Cicero expressed the opinion
that so great a war was never conducted with more
prudence and courage. (" Pro Murama.") Lucullus then
retired from public affairs, and expended part of the
immense
fortune he had acquired in the East in building
magnificent villas, giving sumptuous entertainments, and
collecting expensive paintings and statues. He was a
liberal patron of learning and the arts. Sulla had dedicated
to him his Commentaries. Plutarch, after comparing
him with Cimon, says it is hard to say to which side the
balance inclines. He was living in 59, but was
not living in 56 B.C.
See
"
Lucullus," in Plutarch's " Lives ;" Cicero,
" Pro Lege
Manilia;" Johan Upmahck, "Dissertatio historic* de Lucullo,
1701 Dion Cassius,
"
History of Rome," books xxxv. and xxxvn, ;
Dkumann, "Geschiclue Roras," vol. iv. ;
" Nouvelle Blugrauhie
GiSiKSrale."
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Lucius Licinius Lucullus (c.118-57 B.C.), was an optimas
politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected
with Sulla Felix. In the culmination of over twenty years of
almost continuous military and government service, he became
the main conqueror of the eastern kingdoms in the course of
the Third Mithridatic War, exhibiting extraordinary
generalship abilities in diverse situations, most famously
during the siege of Cyzicus, 73-2 BC, and at the battle of
Tigranocerta in Armenian Arzanene, 69 BC. His command style
received unusually favourable attention from ancient
military experts, and his campaigns appear to have been
studied as exemplary of skillful generalship.[1]
Lucullus returned to Rome from the east with so much
captured 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. He also patronized the
arts and sciences lavishly, transforming his hereditary
estate in the Tusculan highlands into a 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. He died during the winter
of 57-56 B.C.[2] and was buried at the family estate near
Tusculum.
The sober and witty philosopher-historian, Lucius Aelius
Tubero the Stoic, labelled him "Xerxes in a toga".[3] After
his great personal foe Pompey heard this, he came up with
what he considered a very clever joke of his own, calling
Lucullus "Xerxes in a dress"...
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A Roman celebrated as the conqueror of Mithridates. He fought on the side of Sulla in the Civil Wars with the Marian
party, was praetor B.C. 77, and consul in 74. In the latter year he received the conduct of the war against
Mithridates, which he carried on for eight years with great success (see Mithridates), but being unable to bring the
war to a conclusion in consequence of the mutinous disposition of his troops, he was superseded in the command by
Acilius Glabrio, B.C. 67. Glabrio, however, never took the command; but in the following year (B.C. 66) Lucullus had
to resign the command to Pompey, who had been appointed by the Manilian law to supersede both him and Glabrio. On his
return to Rome, Lucullus devoted himself to a life of indolence and luxury, and lived in a style of extraordinary
magnificence. He died in B.C. 57 or 56. He was the first to introduce cherries into Italy, which he had brought with
him from Cerasus in Pontus.
The name of Lucullus became and has continued proverbial for extravagant and studied luxury. His gardens in the
suburbs of the city were extraordinary for their splendour; his villas at Tusculum and Naples were laid out with such
lavish disregard of expense in constructing fishponds (piscinae), cutting through hills and rocks, and throwing out
moles into the sea, that Pompey called him, in derision, "the Roman Xerxes." His domestic service was on a scale of
equal magnificence. A single dinner cost him $10,000.
Lucullus was not, however, a mere sensualist. He collected a fine library, which was open to the public; he enjoyed
the conversation of philosophers and scholars, and himself wrote a work on the history of the Marsic War, composed in
Greek. He was also the patron of the poet Archias, the friend of Cicero. His life was written by Plutarch, and in it
may be found many curious anecdotes of this very remarkable and interesting man.
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