LUCULLUS, LUCIUS LICINIUS, surnamed Ponticus, (c. im-56 B.C.), Roman general, was the son of Lucius Licinius Lucullus and a sister of Metellus Numidicus. He joined the party of Sulla early in life, and after service in the Social war (90) went with Sulla as quaestor to Greece and Asia in 88. While Sulla besieged Athens Lucullus raised a fleet and drove Mithri dates out of the Mediterranean, winning a great victory off Tenedos. Lucullus was praetor in 77, with the province of Africa to follow, and consul in 74. In the allotment of provinces he drew Cisalpine Gaul, but contrived to exchange it for Cilicia, while his colleague Cotta took Bithynia, the two provinces be tween them involving the joint command against Mithridates (q.v. for further information about this campaign). Lucullus' first season was mainly occupied in relieving Cyzicus, besieged by Mithridates, who had heavily beaten Cotta. Most of 73 and 72 were taken up in clearing the sea and the coast of Pontus, but an expedition up country to Cabeirus led to a major success, and Mithridates fled to Tigranes in Armenia. Lucullus left the final reduction of the Pontic kingdom to his lieutenants while he attended to the administration of Asia, which the combined exac tions of Sulla and the publicani had left in a desperate condition. By drastically limiting interest rates he cleared the province of debt; but his reforms left a legacy of unpopularity for him at Rome, where the capitalist interests set themselves to destroy his reputation. Similarly his strict discipline and his moderation after victory made for trouble with the army.
In 7o B.C. Lucullus sent to Tigranes to demand the surrender of Mithridates. Tigranes refused, and Lucullus, with a small
force, crossed the Euphrates and struck direct for Tigranocerta, the new capital (69). Tigranes fled, and returned with a vast army to raise the siege, but was defeated. Lucullus captured the city and dispersed its inhabitants, and wintered on the Tigris. The rest of his campaign is anti-climax. Mithridates and Lucullus were both negotiating with Parthia; Lucullus attempted to force Parthia's hand, but his troops refused to go on, so he turned north for Artaxata, won another victory, and again his troops mutinied. So he returned, took Nisibis and wintered there. The next year (67) things were worse; it was now known that he was to be superseded; he could exert no authority; he could only watch Mithridates regaining Pontus and Tigranes overrunning Cappa docia. It was left for Pompey to reap where Lucullus had sown. On his return to Rome he was attacked by the popular party, who succeeded in delaying, though they could not prevent his triumph. He was very rich, and politics were not attractive. He retired into that elegant leisure, that luxury refined by good taste and tempered by philosophy, for which he has become pro verbial. He is one of the interlocutors in Cicero's Academica, he had a great library, and wrote a history in Greek. His occasional interventions in public affairs were not very successful.
See Plutarch, Lucullus; Appian, Mithridatic War; C.I.L. 1., 292 ; many allusions in Cicero ; G. Boissier, Cicero and his friends (Eng. trans., 5897) ; W. Drumann, Geschichte Roms (1899) ; and authorities under MITHRIDATES VI., of Pontus.