ὁ δὲ Λούκουλλος ἀναβὰς εἰς Ῥώμην πρῶτον μὲν κατέλαβε τὸν ἀδελφὸν Μᾶρκον ὑπὸ Γαΐου Μεμμίου κατηγορούμενον ἐφʼ οἷς ἔπραξε ταμιεύων Σύλλα προστάξαντος. ἐκείνου δʼ ἀποφυγόντος ἐπὶ τοῦτον αὐτὸν ὁ Μέμμιος μεταβαλόμενος παρώξυνε τὸν δῆμον, καὶ ὡς πολλὰ νενοσφισμένῳ καὶ μηκύναντι τὸν πόλεμον ἔπεισεν αὐτῷ μὴ δοῦναι θρίαμβον.
Now when Lucullus had returned to Rome, he found, in the first place, that his brother Marcus was under prosecution by Gaius Memmius for his acts as quaestor under the administration of Sulla. Marcus, indeed, was acquitted, but Memmius then turned his attack upon Lucullus, and strove to excite the people against him. He charged him with diverting much property to his own uses, and with needlessly protracting the war, and finally persuaded the people not to grant him a triumph.
ἐλθόντος δʼ εἰς ἀγῶνα τοῦ Λουκούλλου μέγαν οἱ πρῶτοι καὶ δυνατώτατοι καταμίξαντες ἑαυτοὺς ταῖς φυλαῖς πολλῇ δεήσει καὶ σπουδῇ μόλις ἔπεισαν τὸν δῆμον ἐπιτρέψαι θριαμβεῦσαι, οὐχ, ὥσπερ ἔνιοι, μήκει τε πομπῆς καὶ πλήθει τῶν κομιζομένων ἐκπληκτικὸν καὶ ὀχλώδη θρίαμβον, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μὲν ὅπλοις τῶν πολεμίων οὖσι παμπόλλοις καὶ τοῖς βασιλικοῖς μηχανήμασι τὸν Φλαμίνειον ἱππόδρομον διεκόσμησε· καὶ θέα τις ἦν αὐτὴ καθʼ ἑαυτὴν οὐκ εὐκαταφρόνητος·
Lucullus strove mightily against this decision, and the foremost and most influential men mingled with the tribes, and by much entreaty and exertion at last persuaded the people to allow him to celebrate a triumph; not, however, like some, a triumph which was startling and tumultuous from the length of the procession and the multitude of objects displayed. Instead, he decorated the circus of Flaminius with the arms of the enemy, which were very numerous, and with the royal engines of war; and this was a great spectacle in itself, and far from contemptible.
ἐν δὲ τῇ πομπῇ τῶν τε καταφράκτων ἱππέων ὀλίγοι καὶ τῶν δρεπανηφόρων ἁρμάτων δέκα παρῆλθον, ἑξήκοντα δὲ φίλοι καὶ στρατηγοὶ τῶν βασιλικῶν, μακραὶ δὲ χαλκέμβολοι νῆες ἑκατὸν καὶ δέκα ἅμα παρεκομίσθησαν, αὐτοῦ τε Μιθριδάτου χρύσεος ἑξάπους κολοσσός, καὶ θυρεός τις διάλιθος, καὶ φορήματα εἴκοσι μὲν ἀργυρῶν σκευῶν, χρυσῶν δʼ ἐκπωμάτων καὶ ὅπλων καὶ νομίσματος δύο καὶ τριάκοντα.
But in the procession, a few of the mail-clad horsemen and ten of the scythe-bearing chariots moved along, together with sixty of the king’s friends and generals. A hundred and ten bronze-beaked ships of war were also carried along, a golden statue of Mithridates himself, six feet in height, a wonderful shield adorned with precious stones, twenty litters of silver vessels, and thirty-two litters of gold beakers, armour, and money.
ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἄνδρες παρεκόμιζον ἡμίονοι δʼ ὀκτὼ κλίνας χρυσᾶς ἔφερον, ἓξ δὲ καὶ πεντήκοντα κεχωνευμένον ἀργύριον, ἄλλοι δʼ ἑκατὸν ἑπτὰ νομίσματος ἀργυροῦ, μικρῷ τινι δεούσας ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ διακοσίας μυριάδας, ἐν δὲ δέλτοις ἀναγραφαὶ τῶν ἤδη δεδομένων χρημάτων ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ Πομπηΐῳ πρὸς τὸν πειρατικὸν πόλεμον καὶ τοῖς ἐπὶ τοῦ δημοσίου ταμείου, καὶ χωρὶς ὅτι στρατιώτης ἕκαστος ἐνακοσίας καὶ πεντήκοντα δραχμὰς ἔλαβεν. ἐπὶ τούτοις τήν τε πόλιν εἱστίασε λαμπρῶς καὶ τὰς περιοικίδας κώμας, ἃς οὐΐκους καλοῦσι.
All this was carried by men. Then there were eight mules which bore golden couches, fifty-six bearing ingots of silver, and a hundred and seven more bearing something less than two million seven hundred thousand pieces of silver coin. There were also tablets with records of the sums of money already paid by Lucullus to Pompey for the war against the pirates, and to the keepers of the public treasury, as well as of the fact that each of his soldiers had received nine hundred and fifty drachmas. To crown all, Lucullus gave a magnificent feast to the city, and to the surrounding villages called Vici.
τῆς δὲ Κλωδίας ἀπηλλαγμένος, οὔσης ἀσελγοῦς καὶ πονηρᾶς, Σερουϊλίαν ἔγημεν, ἀδελφὴν Κάτωνος, οὐδὲ τοῦτον εὐτυχῆ γάμον. ἓν γὰρ οὐ προσῆν αὐτῷ τῶν Κλωδίας κακῶν μόνον, ἡ τῶν ἀδελφῶν διαβολή· τἆλλα δὲ βδελυρὰν ὁμοίως οὖσαν καὶ ἀκόλαστον ἠναγκάζετο φέρειν αἰδούμενος Κάτωνα, τέλος δὲ ἀπεῖπεν.
After his divorce from Clodia, who was a licentious and base woman, he married Servilia, a sister of Cato, but this, too, was an unfortunate marriage. For it lacked none of the evils which Clodia had brought in her train except one, namely, the scandal about her brothers. In all other respects Servilia was equally vile and abandoned, and yet Lucullus forced himself to tolerate her, out of regard for Cato. At last, however, he put her away.
ἐλπίδας δὲ θαυμαστὰς τῇ βουλῇ παρασχών, ὡς ἐχούσῃ τὸν ἄνδρα τοῦτον ἀντίταγμα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Πομπηίου τυραννίδα καὶ τῆς ἀριστοκρατίας πρόμαχον ἀπὸ δόξης καὶ δυνάμεως ὁρμώμενον μεγάλης, ἐγκατέλιπε καὶ προήκατο τὴν πολιτείαν, εἴτε δυσκάθεκτον ἤδη καὶ νοσοῦσαν ὁρῶν εἴθʼ, ὥς φασιν ἔνιοι, μεστὸς ὢν δόξης καὶ πρὸς τὸ ῥᾷστον ἀναπίπτων τοῦ βίου καὶ μαλακώτατον ἐκ πολλῶν ἀγώνων καὶ πόνων οὐκ εὐτυχέστατον τέλος λαβόντων.
The Senate had conceived wondrous hopes that in him it would find an opposer of the tyranny of Pompey and a champion of the aristocracy, with all the advantage of great glory and influence; but he quitted and abandoned public affairs, either because he saw that they were already beyond proper control and diseased, or, as some say, because he had his fill of glory, and felt that the unfortunate issue of his many struggles and toils entitled him to fall back upon a life of ease and luxury.
οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἐπαινοῦσιν αὐτοῦ τὴν τοσαύτην μεταβολήν, τὸ Μαρίου πάθος μὴ παθόντος, ὃς ἐπὶ ταῖς Κιμβρικαῖς νίκαις καὶ τοῖς καλοῖς καὶ μεγάλοις ἐκείνοις κατορθώμασιν οὐκ ἠθέλησεν αὑτὸν ἀνεῖναι τιμῇ τοσαύτῃ ζηλωτόν, ἀλλʼ ἀπληστίᾳ δόξης καὶ ἀρχῆς νέοις ἀνδράσι γέρων ἀντιπολιτευόμενος εἰς ἔργα δεινὰ καὶ πάθη δεινότερα τῶν ἔργων ἐξώκειλε· βέλτιον δʼ ἂν καὶ Κικέρωνα γηρᾶσαι μετὰ Κατιλίναν ὑποστειλάμενον καὶ Σκηπίωνα Καρχηδόνι προσθέντα Νομαντίαν, εἶτα παυσάμενον·
Some commend him for making such a change, and thereby escaping the unhappy lot of Marius, who, after his Cimbrian victories and the large and fair successes which were so famous, was unwilling to relax his efforts and enjoy the honours won, but with an insatiate desire for glory and power, old man that he was, fought with young men in the conduct of the state, and so drove headlong into terrible deeds, and sufferings more terrible still. Cicero, say these, would have had a better old age if he had taken in sail after the affair of Catiline, and Scipio, too, if he had given himself pause after adding Numantia to Carthage;
εἶναι γάρ τινα καὶ πολιτικῆς περιόδου κατάλυσιν τῶν γὰρ ἀθλητικῶν ἀγώνων τοὺς πολιτικοὺς οὐδὲν ἧττον ἀκμῆς καὶ ὥρας ἐπιλιπούσης ἐλέγχεσθαι. οἱ δὲ περὶ τὸν Κράσσον καὶ Πομπήϊον ἐχλευάζον τὸν Λούκουλλον εἰς ἡδονὴν ἀφεικότα καὶ πολυτέλειαν αὑτόν, ὥσπερ οὐ τοῦ τρυφᾶν μᾶλλον τοῖς τηλικούτοις παρʼ ἡλικίαν ὄντος ἢ τοῦ πολιτεύεσθαι καὶ στρατηγεῖν.
for a political cycle, too, has a sort of natural termination, and political no less than athletic contests are absurd, after the full vigor of life has departed. Crassus and Pompey, on the other hand, ridiculed Lucullus for giving himself up to pleasure and extravagance, as if a luxurious life were not even more unsuitable to men of his years than political and military activities.
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