Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus (ca. 116- soon after 56 BC), younger brother of the more famous Lucius Licinius Lucullus, was a supporter of 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).

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Name and family

Born in Rome as Marcus Licinius Lucullus, he was later adopted by an otherwise unknown Marcus Terentius Varro (not the scholar).[1] As a result of the adoption, his full official name, as quoted in inscriptions, became M(arcus) Terentius M(arci) f(ilius) Varro Lucullus.[2] 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 Lucullus.

By birth, Marcus Lucullus was a member of a prominent plebeian family, the gens Licinia. He was the grandson of the consul (151 BC) Lucius Licinius Lucullus. His father, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, had reached the praetorship (104 BC) and could boast military successes in the oppression of the slaves in Lucania and Sicily during the Second Servile War, before his career was cut short when he was convicted of embezzlement in 101 BC. Moreover, through his mother, Caecilia Metella Calva, Marcus was closely related to two of the most influential men of his time. Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the dictator, married his mother's niece, Caecilia Metella Dalmatica, as his third wife. Sulla's close ally, the pontifex maximus and consul (80 BC) Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, was his cousin, a son of his mother's brother, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus.

[edit] First Public Activities

In the early 90s, young Marcus and his brother Lucius unsuccessfully prosecuted Servilius the Augur, who earlier had functioned as the prosecutor in the trial for embezzlement (de repetundis) that send their father, Lucius Licinius Lucullus (praetor 104) into exile to Lucania.[3]

[edit] Service under Sulla

When Sulla returned from the East in the spring of 83 BC to fight the Marians, Marcus Lucullus, like his brother Lucius, joined Sulla's forces. He served under his cousin, the proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, as a legatus in Northern Italy. At first, Marcus Lucullus was forced to retreat into the small town of Placentia, but once Metellus defeated the superior troops of the Marian general Gaius Norbanus, Marcus Lucullus broke the siege and defeated a detachment left behind by Norbanus.[4]

[edit] Priesthood

Probably at the suggestion of his his first cousin, the Pontifex Maximus Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, Marcus Lucullus was nominated for and elected to the Pontifical College. This may have happened when Sulla expanded the Pontifical College from 9 to 15 members in 81 BC.[5] Membership in one of the four major priestly colleges was an honor that was considered almost equal to winning a consulship,[6] and it boded well for Marcus Lucullus' future career.[7]

[edit] Aedileship

In 79 Marcus Lucullus was elected curule aedile together with his older brother Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who had recently returned from the Roman province of Asia.[8] Their aedileship was distinguished by games which Cicero much later still remembered for their splendor.[9] Among other things, they introduced revolvable backdrops for the temporary stage that they had built for theatrical performances, and in the arena, they were the first to pit an elephant against a steer.[10]

[edit] Judge

Elected praetor peregrinus, the praetor in charge of court cases involving non-Roman citizens, for 76, Marcus Lucullus presided over one cause célèbre, the trial against Gaius Antonius Hybrida (later Cicero's colleague as consul) who had enriched himself shamelessly as a legate of Sulla in Greece during the Mithridatic War. The prosecutor, the young Julius Caesar, won a conviction which was, however, overturned when Antonius appealed to the people's tribunes.[11]

Macedonia province within the Roman Empire, c. 120.
Macedonia province within the Roman Empire, c. 120.

[edit] Consul and Governor of Macedonia

As consul in 73 (along with Gaius Cassius Longinus), he passed a law that provided subsidized grain for indigent Roman citizens (lex Terentia et Cassia frumentaria)[12]. 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.

After that, he became governor (proconsul) of the important province of Macedonia. He used his tenure to lead a successful campaign against a neighboring tribe, the Thracian Bessi. In the course of this war, he advanced to the Danube and the west coast of the Black Sea where he conquered a number of Greek cities (Apollonia, Kallatis (Callatis), Tomi, and Istros) that had been bases of Mithridates VI The Great.[13] For these achievements, he was awarded a triumph which he held in 71 BC. At that occasion, he may have set up the colossal statue of Apollo, which he took from a temple on an island near Apollonia, in the Capitolium.[14]

Earlier in the same year, 71 BC, Marcus Lucullus also played a minor role in the defeat of Spartacus' slave army. He was prematurely recalled from his post in Macedonia in order to assist with the suppression of the rebellious slaves. At the time, Spartacus had just managed to force his way through Crassus' troops that had him cornered near Rhegium, across from Sicily, and made his way to 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.

[edit] Later Life and Death

In 66 or 65, Marcus Lucullus was put on trial by Gaius Memmius for his activities under Sulla but acquitted.[15] In 65, he spoke as one of the witnesses for the prosecution in the maiestas trial against the former people's tribune Gaius Cornelius whom the nobility considered a revolutionary; Cornelius was defended by Cicero.[16] In 63 BC, Marcus Lucullus opposed the attempt of Catilina to kill the consuls, among them Cicero, and overthrow the government. In the following year, he served as the main witness for the defense in the trial against his friend, the poet Licinius Archias, in which Cicero gave his famous speech in defense of Archias' claims to Roman citizenship. Later, in 58 and 57, Marcus Lucullus belonged to the group that worked behind the scenes to enable Cicero's return from exile. When his brother, 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 much later.[17]

[edit] See also

[edit] Ancient Sources

[edit] Secondary Literature

  • Arkenberg, J. S. "Licinii Murenae, Terentii Varrones, and Varrones Murenae." Historia 42 (1993) 326-51.
  • Bradley, Keith. Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN 0253312590
  • Broughton, T. Robert S. "Magistrates of the Roman Republic." Vol. 2. Cleveland: Case Western University Press, 1968, p. 118-19.
  • Gelzer, Matthias. Cicero. Ein biographischer Versuch. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1969 (repr. 1983). ISBN 3-515-04089-7.
  • Gelzer, Matthias. Caesar. Der Politiker und Staatsmann. 6th ed. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1960 (repr. 1983). ISBN 3-515-03907-4.
  • Keaveney, Arthur. Lucullus. A Life. London/New York: Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0-415-03219-9.
  • Mommsen, Theodor, "The History of Rome, Books I-V", project Gutenburg electronic edition, 2004. ISBN 0-415-14953-3.
  • Strachan-Davidson, J. L. (ed.), Appian, Civil Wars: Book I, Oxford 1902.
  • Taylor, Lily Ross. "Caesar's Colleagues in the Pontifical College." American Journal of Philology 63 (1942) 385-412.
  • Ward, Allen M. "Politics in the Trials of Manilius and Cornelius." Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 101 (1970), pp. 545-556.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Keaveney 8; Arkenberg 333
  2. ^ i.e., Marcus Terentius, son of Marcus, Varro Lucullus
  3. ^ Cic.Acad.2.1; Plut. Luc. 1; Keaveney 4-6; on the debate over the exact date see id. 6, n. 14
  4. ^ Mommsen, History of Rome bk. 4
  5. ^ thus Jörg Rüpke, Vitae Sacerdotum, under [DNr2602] M. Terentius M. f. Varro Lucullus (http://www.uni-erfurt.de/vergleichende_religionswissenschaft/bio.htm); certainly before 76 BC, see Taylor, "Caesar's Colleagues" 411
  6. ^ Mommsen, Staatsrecht I 583
  7. ^ Vitae sacerdotum
  8. ^ Plutarch, Lucullus 1.6
  9. ^ Cic.De off. 2.57
  10. ^ Plin.Nat. Hist. 8.19; Keaveney 36
  11. ^ Asconius p. 84 Clark; Gelzer, Caesar 21
  12. ^ LacusCurtius • The Roman Welfare System (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)
  13. ^ Sall. Hist. 4.18 M.; J. Harmatta, Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians: http://www.kroraina.com/sarm/jh/jh1_6.html
  14. ^ Strabo, Geography 7.6.1; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 4.92 and 34.38
  15. ^ Plutarch, Lucullus 37
  16. ^ Gelzer, Cicero 62-63, Ward
  17. ^ Plutarch, Lucullus 43
Preceded by
Marcus Aurelius Cotta and Lucius Licinius Lucullus		 Consul of the Roman Republic
with Gaius Cassius Longinus
73 BC		 Succeeded by
Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus and Lucius Gellius Publicola