Lucius Licinius Lucullus Ponticus

[ungoliant]

hello, this is my first posting here.

 

i'd like to take this opportunity to sing the praises of a roman general with few equals. a general with the genius, abilities, and accomplishments that many other more famous romans also had. but a man who was forgotten in his day and even unto now.

 

his name is Lucius Licinius Lucullus Ponticus.

 

there should be no poll of greatest roman general that does not include him. here is a short bio of him, taken from http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/people/a/uc_lucullus.htm

 

he was an important second to sulla in his victory over mithridates, organizing sulla's navy. he made war upon mithridates as consul, and defeated him handily, forcing mithridates to flee to armenia. he eased the debt upon asia levied by sulla and managed to get the outstanding sum paid. following mithridates into armenia, lucullus defeated the grand army of tigranes, king of armenia, and his fearsome cataphract heavy cavalry several times. he had both tigranes and mithridates at his mercy, but his troops, many of whom were set to muster out, refused to continue fighting. he was forced to abandon his campaigns at the threshold of victory, leaving the mopping up to pompey who arrived to replace him. he returned to rome and was rewarded a triumph. the booty he had acquired in asia made him one of the richest men in roman history and his veterans among the richest as well.

 

in war he was a master of strategy and tactics, an expert in surprise, logistics, and propaganda. he made very few mistakes.

 

a forgotten man who was truly one of the greatest roman generals ever.

[Favonius Cornelius]

Good call ungoliant, he is one of my favs actually. Forgotten because he retired peaceably an absurdly rich man. A true act of sanity.

[Germanicus]

Yeah, I agree with him being largely overlooked and certainly a great general in his own right. I guess his problems stemmed from

1:-Being unpopular with his men.

2:-Living in the same time period as Pompey

3:-Essentially giving up back at Rome after Pompey swept in to mop up what Lucullus started in the east. Becoming so shattered that he devoted the rest of his days to depravity and dinner parties.

[Hamilcar Barca]

Many great Roman generals of the late republic tend to fade in obscurity owing to the prominence that Marius, Sulla and the triumvirates held during this time. In a similar thread I noted that the poll I conducted regarding the greatest Roman general of all time was premature and horribly incomplete. This is owing to the fact that Rome produced copious amounts of military talent that can hardly be confined to a 10 poll list. Even a 50 poll list would probably come up short as I can think of countless Romans whose brilliance so often goes undermentioned, Lucullus of course been among them

[Guest Homo islandicus]

I was wandering if Lucullus was the roman general that occupied the greek colonies on the Black Sea Coast of Bulgaria. It obvious people in the village of Mesambria their gates for the romans but other villages such a Appolonia, todays Sozopol did not open their gates and were therefore destroyed.

This happend in 72 BC. I would like know as much as possible about Lucullus stay in Bulgaria

[sullafelix]

I was wandering if Lucullus was the roman general that occupied the greek colonies on the Black Sea Coast of Bulgaria. It obvious people in the village of Mesambria their gates for the romans but other villages such a Appolonia, todays Sozopol did not open their gates and were therefore destroyed.

This happend in 72 BC. I would like know as much as possible about Lucullus stay in Bulgaria

 

It sounds likely but I can't make the dates match. He wasn't a million miles away though in Armenia (pontus then) and then came right back towards the narrow mouth of the black sea. I wouldn't be surprised if he was there and in fact I would be stunned to find that there was another general of that name then. It is ost likely him. Tell me what your evidence is and I will probably be able to confirm it for you

[Tobias]

Lucullus is rather indicative of the times that theses romans lived in. By the time of Sulla and Marius and later Pompey and Caesar, the republican system was clearly breaking down as the rival generals sought more power, and unscrupulous individuals such as Pompey had no problem in taking as much credit as they could from individuals such as Lucullus. It's true that most knew that Lucullus did all the hard work, but a lot of people amoung the general populance may have believed in Pompey's greatness all the same; a slightly artificial image.

Edited November 15, 2005 by Tobias

[Guest Homo islandicus]

I was wandering if Lucullus was the roman general that occupied the greek colonies on the Black Sea Coast of Bulgaria. It obvious people in the village of Mesambria their gates for the romans but other villages such a Appolonia, todays Sozopol did not open their gates and were therefore destroyed.

This happend in 72 BC. I would like know as much as possible about Lucullus stay in Bulgaria

 

It sounds likely but I can't make the dates match. He wasn't a million miles away though in Armenia (pontus then) and then came right back towards the narrow mouth of the black sea. I wouldn't be surprised if he was there and in fact I would be stunned to find that there was another general of that name then. It is ost likely him. Tell me what your evidence is and I will probably be able to confirm it for you

 

 

It

[Querelle]

In sweden you can still buy pickled fish called Lucullus, so he isn't completely disregarded in our times. Yet that is - since competition is severe from the ABBA, the modern day swedish pompey of pickled fish. -_-

[Favonius Cornelius]

In sweden you can still buy pickled fish called Lucullus, so he isn't completely disregarded in our times. Yet that is - since competition is severe from the ABBA, the modern day swedish pompey of pickled fish. -_-

 

Heh, is it a coincidence, or is it really named after the man? Pardon, I don't know much about the fish.

[Pantagathus]

Pompey didn't do squat... I also believe that Lucullus was the hero of the final chapters of the wars with Mithridates.

 

It's just obvious that his political drive was not as strong as many of his contemporaries.

[Querelle]

[

 

Heh, is it a coincidence, or is it really named after the man? Pardon, I don't know much about the fish.

 

The banqueting of his latter days actually coined the term lucullan, for tasty dishes and the appreciation thereof. In swedish this is lucullisk and hence the fish (probably named in the 1940s or so).

 

Anyway I just read a summary on his career and he seemed a nice man. More good roman than greedy politician.

 

Brought first cherry trees to Italy

[P.Clodius]

Ahhh yes, this was the start of my namesakes carrier of agitation. hehehe