Note 424 — LIFE OF LUCULLUS. (continued 2)

This Caius Memmius was tribune of the Plebs in the year B.C. 66, in which year Lucullus returned to Rome. Memmius was not satisfied with prosecuting M. Lucullus; he revenged himself for his failure by debauching his wife, to which Cicero alludes in the following passage (Ad Attic. i. 18): "C. Memmius has initiated the wife of M. Lucullus in his own sacred rites. Menelaus (M. Lucullus) did not like this, and has divorced his wife. Though that shepherd of Ida insulted Menelaus only; this Paris of ours has not considered either that Menelaus or Agamemnon should be free." Cicero is here alluding to the opposition which Memmius made to the triumph of L. Lucullus. Memmius was a man of ability, but of dissolute habits. He was accused of bribery at the consular election, and being convicted, retired to Athens. Several letters of Cicero to him are still extant. Lucretius dedicated his poem to Memmius. See the Note of Manutius on Cicero, Ad Familiares, xiii. 1.

Orelli (Onomastic. C. Memmius Gemillus) refers to Cicero, Pro Balbo, c. 2, to show that this Memmius was quæstor under Pompeius in his Spanish campaign. But according to Plutarch, a Memmius fell in battle in this war (Life of Sertorius, c. 21).