Note 442 — LIFE OF LUCULLUS. (continued 2)
George Long translation
See the Life of Cicero, c. 31, and Life of Cato, c. 34.
Cicero was banished B.C. 58, and Cato was sent to Cyprus in the same year. Lucullus probably did not survive beyond the year B.C. 56. He was older than Cn. Pompeius Magnus, who was born B.C. 106.
The character of Lucullus may be collected from Plutarch. He was a man of talent and of taste, a brave soldier, a skilful general and a man of letters. Cicero in the first chapter of the second book of the Academica Priora has passed a high eulogium on him. He was fond of wealth and luxury, but humane and of a mild temper. He was no match for the cunning of Pompeius, or the daring temper of Cæsar; and he was not cruel enough to have acted with the decision which the troublesome times required that he just lived to see. The loss of his History of the Marsic War is much to be lamented. It is singular that Sulla's Memoirs which he revised, and his own work, have not been preserved, for we must suppose that copies of them were abundant; and they were extant in Plutarch's time.
The history of the campaigns of Lucullus in Asia would have been interesting. It is worth recording that we are indebted to him for the cherry, which he brought from Cerasus (Plin. Hist. Nat. xv. 30) into Europe; the name of the fruit still records the place from which it was brought. As a collector of books, a lover of ornamental gardening and parks stocked with animals, and a friend to all the arts and sciences, Lucullus was of all the luxurious Romans the most magnificent and the most refined. He left a son by Servilia, whose name was probably Lucius. This son joined the party of Cato and M. Brutus. After the battle of Philippi B.C. 42, he was overtaken in the pursuit, and put to death at the command of M. Antonius. No children of this son are mentioned.
Marcus, the brother of Plutarch's Lucius Licinius, was consul B.C. 73. It is not known how long he survived his brother, but he died before the commencement of the second Civil War (Vell. Paterc. ii. 49), that which broke out between Cæsar and Pompeius B.C. 50.