Lucius Licinius Lucullus (born c. 144 BC) was a politician and a general of the Roman Republic. He was the eldest son of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, the consul of 151 BC. He, however, did not achieve the political success of his father and failed to hold the consulship, reaching only the position of praetor in 104 BC. During his praetorship he first successfully put down the Vettian Revolt, a minor slave revolt in Campania, before being sent to take command in Sicily during the Second Servile War. He was later relieved of his command and prosecuted for embezzlement upon his recall to Rome. Being convicted, he was banished from the city and lived the remainder of his life in exile. He is the father of the more famous Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who defeated Mithridates and Tigranes in the Third Mithridatic War.
Family
The first recorded Lucullus is an L. Licinius Lucullus who held the junior magistracy of Curule Aedile in 202 BC, and his descendants were to play a relatively obscure part in history until Lucullus' father became the first member of the family to be elected to the consulship in 151 BC, thereby officially ennobling his family. While consul the elder Lucullus was sent to continue the war against the Celtiberians in Hispania, however, his predecessor made peace and ended the war before his arrival, thereby depriving him of the opportunity for obtaining booty, through which he had hoped to make his family fortune. He therefore proceeded to make war on the neighbouring Vaccaei tribe, without any pretext or authorisation from the Senate, and with the sole aim of plundering their towns and lands for his own enrichment. Upon his return to Rome the elder Lucullus had succeeded in making himself and his family wealthy, and therefore influential, and was never prosecuted for his illegal conduct.
His son, also Lucius Licinius Lucullus, was born around 144 BC and, sometime around 119 BC, married Caecilia Metella, the daughter of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus. She was also the sister of Metellus Numidicus and Metellus Dalmaticus, two of the leading optimates of their day. This political marriage brought the Luculli the support and influence of the powerful Caecilii Metelli family which would help their own rise to prominence. From this marriage Lucullus had two sons, Lucius and Marcus, born around 118/117 BC and 116 BC. However, despite being politically beneficial the match was an unhappy one, with Metella engaging in numerous scandalous affairs which led to an eventual divorce. Plutarch refers to her as having "the bad name of a dissolute woman".
The Vettian Slave Revolt
Lucullus was elected as one of the praetors for 104 BC, probably Praetor Peregrinus, the magistrate responsible for hearing appeals and judicial cases in Italy outside of the city of Rome. During his praetorship a young Roman knight (Eques), Titus Minucius Vettius, led a slave revolt around the city of Capua in Campania.
Vettius had fallen in love with a beautiful young slave girl and, promising to pay her owner the huge sum of seven Attic talents, had been permitted to take her. However, when the time within which it had been agreed that payment would be made expired, Vettius was unable to fulfil his promise. A further extension of his credit was agreed but, when this again ran out, Vettius panicked. Kidnapping and murdering all his creditors, as well as the girl's owner, he then armed his slaves and declared himself the King of Campania, proclaiming that all slaves who deserted their masters to join him would be free. Soon an army of seven-hundred escaped slaves were terrorising the Campanian countryside, killing all those who refused to join them.