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Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus
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Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus
Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus (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).
Born in Rome as Marcus Licinius Lucullus, he was later adopted by an otherwise unknown Marcus Terentius Varro (not the scholar Varro Reatinus). As a result of the adoption, his full official name, as quoted in inscriptions, became M(arcus) Terentius M(arci) f(ilius) Varro Lucullus. 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.
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.
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 propraetor 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. At Fidentia, he commanded 15 cohorts (c. 3,600 men) and managed to defeat a superior force of 50 cohorts (12,000 men) under Gnaeus Papirius Carbo’s legate Quinctius of which his troops killed 1,800 men.
Probably at the suggestion of 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. Membership in one of the four major priestly colleges was an honor that was considered almost equal to winning a consulship, and it boded well for Marcus Lucullus' future career.
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. Their aedileship was distinguished by games which Cicero much later still remembered for their splendor. 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.
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.
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.
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Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus
Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus (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).
Born in Rome as Marcus Licinius Lucullus, he was later adopted by an otherwise unknown Marcus Terentius Varro (not the scholar Varro Reatinus). As a result of the adoption, his full official name, as quoted in inscriptions, became M(arcus) Terentius M(arci) f(ilius) Varro Lucullus. 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.
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.
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 propraetor 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. At Fidentia, he commanded 15 cohorts (c. 3,600 men) and managed to defeat a superior force of 50 cohorts (12,000 men) under Gnaeus Papirius Carbo’s legate Quinctius of which his troops killed 1,800 men.
Probably at the suggestion of 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. Membership in one of the four major priestly colleges was an honor that was considered almost equal to winning a consulship, and it boded well for Marcus Lucullus' future career.
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. Their aedileship was distinguished by games which Cicero much later still remembered for their splendor. 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.
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.
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.