58 Facts About Lucullus

Lucius Licinius Lucullus was a Roman general and statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

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, husbandry and even aquaculture projects, which shocked and amazed his contemporaries by their magnitude.

Lucullus patronised the arts and sciences lavishly, transforming his hereditary estate in the highlands of Tusculum into a hotel-and-library complex for scholars and philosophers.

Lucullus built the famous horti Lucullani on the Pincian Hill in Rome, and became a cultural innovator in the deployment of imperial wealth.

Lucullus's achievements led Pliny the Elder to refer to him as "Xerxes in a Toga".

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.

Lucullus was the youngest child of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus, and half-sister of two of the most important influential senators, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus and Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus, the latter of which was the father of Sulla's third wife Caecilia Metella.

Lucullus arrived in Greece and took over from Quintus Bruttius Sura who had been able to stop the Mithridatic invasion in northern Greece.

When Sulla arrived with the main army, Lucullus served him as a quaestor again; he minted money that was used during the war against Mithridates in southern Greece.

The money Lucullus minted, as per Roman custom, bore his name: the so called Lucullea.

Lucullus 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.

Lucullus initially made Crete, and is said to have won over the cities to the Roman side.

Lucullus' arrival seems to have put a belated end to this terrible conflict, as the first official Roman presence there since the departure of the proconsul Caius Claudius Pulcher, who presided over its initial administrative incorporation into the Roman Republic in 94 BC.

Lucullus then sailed to Egypt to try and secure ships from king Ptolemy IX Soter II.

From Alexandria Lucullus sailed to Cyprus; evading the Cilician pirates, he went to Rhodos.

Lucullus then secured Cnidus and Cos, drove the Mithridatic military from Chios, and attacked Samos.

From Lecton Lucullus sailed to Tenedos where the Mithridatic fleet lay in wait.

Lucullus tried to lessen the burden that these impositions created.

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.

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.

Lucullus returned in 80 BC and was elected curule aedile for 79, along with his brother Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, and gave splendid games.

In 74 BC, Lucullus served as consul along with Marcus Aurelius Cotta, the half-brother of Aurelia the mother of Julius Caesar.

Lucullus supported a plea from Pompey, campaigning against the rebel Sertorius on the Iberian peninsula, for funds and reinforcements.

Lucullus was probably involved in the decision to make Cyrene into a Roman province.

Lucullus got himself the command of the Third Mithridatic War against Mithridates VI of Pontus.

On his way to Cilicia, his proconsular province, Lucullus landed his legion somewhere in Asia province.

Lucullus had to fight Mithridates by land and sea therefore he assembled a large army and raised a fleet amongst the Greek cities of Asia.

Since Mithridates had superior numbers Lucullus refused to give battle, he decided to starve his enemy into submission.

Lucullus blockaded Mithridates' huge army on the Cyzicus peninsula and let famine and plague do his work for him.

The Pontic fleet tried to sail east into the Aegean, but Lucullus led his fleet against them.

Lucullus captured a detachment of 13 ships between the island of Tenedos and the mainland harbour of the Achaeans.

The main Pontic force had drawn their ships to shore at a site difficult of approach, the small island of Neae between Lemnos and Scyros; Lucullus then sent infantry by land across Neae to their rear, killing many and forcing the rest back to sea.

Lucullus sunk or captured 32 ships of the royal fleet.

Lucullus finished off the Mithridatic army in Bithynia and then moved through Galatia into Pontus.

Lucullus was wary of drawing into a direct engagement with Mithridates, due to the latter's superior cavalry.

However, after several small battles and many skirmishes, Lucullus finally defeated him at the Battle of Cabira.

Lucullus did not pursue Mithridates immediately, but instead he finished conquering the kingdom of Pontus and setting the affairs of Asia into order.

Mithridates had fled to Armenia and, in 71 BC, Lucullus sent his brother-in-law Appius Claudius Pulcher as envoy to the Armenian king-of-kings Tigranes II to demand the surrender of the Pontic king.

Keaveney argues against such an interpretation, arguing that Lucullus was acting as a typical philhellene with no empathy towards the sensibilities of non-Greeks.

Lucullus began a siege of the new Armenian imperial capital of Tigranocerta in the Arzenene district.

Tigranes retired to the northern regions of his kingdom to gather another army and defend his hereditary capital of Artaxata, while Lucullus moved off south-eastwards to the kingdom of the Corduene on the frontiers of the Armenian and Parthian empires.

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.

Lucullus was left with no choice but to retreat to Pontus and Cappadocia and did so in the spring of 67 BC.

Memmius delivered at least four speeches de triumpho Luculli Asiatico, and the antagonism towards Lucullus aroused by the Pompeians proved so effective that the enabling law required to hold a triumph was delayed for three years.

Lucullus used the vast treasure he amassed during his wars in the East to live a life of luxury.

Lucullus finally held his triumph in 63 BC thanks in small part to the political manoeuvering of both Cato and Cicero.

Lucullus's triumph was remembered mostly due to his covering the Circus Flaminius with the arms of the enemies he had faced during the campaign.

Lucullus displayed to the Roman public a golden statue of Mithridates VI, standing two meters tall, along with his jewel-encrusted shield, silver vessels, and golden chalices.

However, Lucullus outsmarted them, and succeeded in getting Pompey and Cicero to allow that he specify which room he would be dining in.

Lucullus 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, Cicero and Pompey found themselves a short time later dining upon a most unexpectedly luxurious meal.

Lucullus was extremely well educated in Latin and Greek, and showed a keen interest in literature and philosophy from earliest adulthood.

Lucullus established lifelong friendships with the Greek poet Archias of Antioch, who migrated to Rome around 102 BC, and with one of the leading academic philosophers of the time, Antiochus of Ascalon.

Plutarch reports that Lucullus lost his mind towards the end of his life, intermittently developing signs of insanity as he aged.

Lucullus's tomb has been located near his villa in Tusculum.

Lucullus divorced her about the year 66 BC, on his return to Rome after friction in Asia with her brother, Publius Clodius Pulcher.

Lucullus then married Servilia, the daughter of Livia and Quintus Servilius Caepio, sister of Servilia Major, and half-sister of Cato the Younger; notorious for her loose morals, Servilia cheated on him, but he forced himself to stay with her out of respect for her half-brother Cato.

When Lucullus died he made Cato the guardian of the boy.