Lucius, a Roman soldier killed at the siege of Jerusalem, by saving in his arms a man who jumped down from one of the walls. Josephus.——A brother of Marcus Antony. See: [Lucius Antonius].——A Roman general, who defeated the Etrurians, &c.——A relation of Julius Cæsar. A Roman ambassador, murdered by the Illyrians.——A consul, &c.——A writer, called by some Saturantius Apuleius. He was born in Africa, on the borders of Numidia. He studied poetry, music, geometry, &c., at Athens, and warmly embraced the tenets of the Platonists. He cultivated magic, and some miracles are attributed to his knowledge of enchantments. He wrote in Greek and Latin with great ease and simplicity; his style, however, is sometimes affected, though his eloquence was greatly celebrated in his age. Some fragments of his compositions are still extant. He flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.——A brother of Vitellius, &c.——A son of Agrippa, adopted by Augustus.——A man put to death for his incontinence, &c.——The word Lucius is a prænomen common to many Romans, of whom an account is given under their family names.
Lūcrētia, a celebrated Roman lady, daughter of Lucretius and wife of Tarquinius Collatinus. Her accomplishments proved fatal to her, and the praises which a number of young nobles at Ardea, among whom were Collatinus and the sons of Tarquin, bestowed upon the domestic virtues of their wives at home, were productive of a revolution in the state. While every one was warm with the idea, it was universally agreed to leave the camp and to go to Rome, to ascertain the veracity of their respective assertions. Collatinus had the pleasure to see his expectations fulfilled in the highest degree, and while the wives of the other Romans were involved in the riot and dissipation of a feast, Lucretia was found at home, employed in the midst of her female servants, and easing their labour by sharing it herself. The beauty and innocence of Lucretia inflamed the passion of Sextus the son of Tarquin, who was a witness of her virtues and industry. He cherished his flame, and he secretly retired from the camp, and came to the house of Lucretia, where he met with a kind reception. He showed himself unworthy of such a treatment, and in the dead of night he introduced himself to Lucretia, who refused to his intreaties what her fear of shame granted to his threats. She yielded to her ravisher when he threatened to murder her, and to slay one of her slaves, and put him in her bed, that this apparent adultery might seem to have met with the punishment it deserved. Lucretia, in the morning, sent for her husband and her father, and, after she had revealed to them the indignities she had suffered from the son of Tarquin, and entreated them to avenge her wrongs, she stabbed herself with a dagger which she had previously concealed under her clothes. This fatal blow was the signal of rebellion. The body of the virtuous Lucretia was exposed to the eyes of the senate, and the violence and barbarity of Sextus, joined with the unpopularity and oppression of his father, so irritated the Roman populace, that that moment they expelled the Tarquins for ever from Rome. Brutus, who was present at the tragical death of Lucretia, kindled the flames of rebellion, and the republican or consular government was established at Rome A.U.C. 244. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 57, &c.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 4, ch. 15.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 741.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 1.—Plutarch.—Augustine, City of God, bk. 1, ch. 19.——The wife of Numa. Plutarch.
Lŭcrētĭlis, now Libretti, a mountain in the country of the Sabines, hanging over a pleasant valley, near which the house and farm of Horace were situated. Horace, bk. 1, ode 17, li. 1.—Cicero, bk. 7, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 11.
Titius Lŭcrētius Carus, a celebrated Roman poet and philosopher, who was early sent to Athens, where he studied under Zeno and Phædrus. The tenets of Epicurus and Empedocles, which then prevailed at Athens, were warmly embraced by Lucretius, and when united with the infinite of Anaximander and the atoms of Democritus, they were explained and elucidated in a poem, in six books, which is called De rerum naturâ. In this poem the masterly genius and unaffected elegance of the poet are everywhere conspicuous; but the opinions of the philosopher are justly censured, who gives no existence of power to a supreme Being, but is the devoted advocate of atheism and impiety, and earnestly endeavours to establish the mortality of the soul. This composition, which has little claim to be called an heroic poem, was written and finished while the poet laboured under a violent delirium, occasioned by a philter, which the jealousy of his mistress or his wife Lucilia had administered. It is said that he destroyed himself in the 44th year of his age, about 54 years before Christ. Cicero, after his death, revised and corrected his poems, which had been partly written in the lucid intervals of reason and of sense. Lucretius, whose poem shows that he wrote Latin better than any other man ever did, would have proved no mean rival to Virgil, had he lived in the polished age of Augustus. The best editions of his works are that of Creech, 8vo, Oxford, 1695; that of Havercamp, 2 vols., 4to, Leiden, 1725; and that of Glasgow, 12mo, 1759. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 36.—Quintilian, bk. 3, ch. 1; bk. 10, ch. 1.——Quintus, a Roman who killed himself because the inhabitants of Sulmo, over which he was appointed with a garrison, seemed to favour the cause of Julius Cæsar. Cæsar, Civil War, bk. 1, ch. 18. He is also called Vespillo.——Spurius Tricipitinus, father of Lucretia wife of Collatinus, was made consul after the death of Brutus, and soon after died himself. Horatius Pulvillus succeeded him. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 58.—Plutarch, Publicola.——An interrex at Rome.——A consul.——Osella, a Roman, put to death by Sylla because he had applied for the consulship without his permission. Plutarch.
Lucrīnum, a town of Apulia.
Lūcrīnus, a small lake of Campania, opposite Puteoli. Some believe that it was made by Hercules when he passed through Italy with the bulls of Geryon. It abounded with excellent oysters, and was united by Augustus to the Avernus, and a communication formed with the sea, near a harbour called Julius Portus. The Lucrine lake disappeared on the 30th of September, 1538, in a violent earthquake, which raised on the spot a mountain four miles in circumference, and about 1000 feet high, with a crater in the middle. Cicero, bk. 4, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 10.—Strabo, bks. 5 & 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Propertius, bk. 1, poem 11, li. 10.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 161.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 15.
Caius Luctātius Catŭlus, a Roman consul with Marius. He assisted his colleague in conquering the Cimbrians. See: [Cimbricum bellum]. He was eloquent as well as valiant, and his history of his consulship, which he wrote with great veracity, convinces us of his literary talents. That history is lost. Cicero, On Oratory.—Varro, de Lingua Latina.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 2.——Caius Catulus, a Roman consul, who destroyed the Carthaginian fleet. See: [Catulus].
Lucullea, a festival established by the Greeks in honour of Lucullus, who had behaved with great prudence and propriety in his province. Plutarch, Lucullus.
Luculli horti, gardens of Lucullus, situate near Neapolis, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 1.——Villa, a country seat near mount Misenus, where Tiberius died. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 50.
Lucullus Lucius Licinius, a Roman celebrated for his fondness of luxury and for his military talents. He was born about 115 years before the christian era, and soon distinguished himself by his proficiency in the liberal arts, particularly eloquence and philosophy. His first military campaign was in the Marsian war, where his valour and cool intrepidity recommended him to public notice. His mildness and constancy gained him the admiration and confidence of Sylla, and from this connection he derived honour, and during his questorship in Asia and pretorship in Africa, he rendered himself more conspicuous by his justice, moderation, and humanity. He was raised to the consulship A.U.C. 680, and entrusted with the care of the Mithridatic war, and first displayed his military talents in rescuing his colleague Cotta, whom the enemy had besieged in Chalcedonia. This was soon followed by a celebrated victory over the forces of Mithridates, on the borders of the Granicus, and by the conquest of the Bithynia. His victories by sea were as great as those by land, and Mithridates lost a powerful fleet near Lemnos. Such considerable losses weakened the enemy, and Mithridates retired with precipitation towards Armenia to the court of king Tigranes his father-in-law. His flight was perceived, and Lucullus crossed the Euphrates with great expedition, and gave battle to the numerous forces which Tigranes had already assembled to support the cause of his son-in-law. According to the exaggerated account of Plutarch, no less than 100,000 foot and near 55,000 horse of the Armenians lost their lives in that celebrated battle. All this carnage was made by a Roman army amounting to no more than 18,000 men, of whom only five were killed and 100 wounded during the combat. The taking of Tigranocerta the capital of Armenia was the consequence of this immortal victory, and Lucullus there obtained the greatest part of the royal treasures. This continual success, however, was attended with serious consequences. The severity of Lucullus, and the haughtiness of his commands, offended his soldiers, and displeased his adherents at Rome. Pompey was soon after sent to succeed him, and to continue the Mithridatic war, and the interview which he had with Lucullus began with acts of mutual kindness, and ended in the most inveterate reproaches and open enmity. Lucullus was permitted to retire to Rome, and only 1600 of the soldiers who had shared his fortune and his glories were suffered to accompany him. He was received with coldness at Rome, and he obtained with difficulty a triumph which was deservedly claimed by his fame, his successes, and his victories. In this ended the days of his glory; he retired to the enjoyment of ease and peaceful society, and no longer interested himself in the commotions which disturbed the tranquillity of Rome. He dedicated his time to studious pursuits, and to literary conversation. His house was enriched with a valuable library, which was opened for the service of the curious, and of the learned. Lucullus fell into a delirium in the last part of his life, and died in the 67th or 68th year of his age. The people showed their respect for his merit by their wish to give him an honourable burial in the Campus Martius; but their offers were rejected, and he was privately buried, by his brother, on his estate at Tusculum. Lucullus has been admired for his many accomplishments, but he has been censured for his severity and extravagance. The expenses of his meals were immoderate; his halls were distinguished by the different names of the gods; and, when Cicero and Pompey attempted to surprise him, they were astonished at the costliness of a supper which had been prepared upon the word of Lucullus, who had merely said to his servant that he would sup in the hall of Apollo. In his retirement Lucullus was fond of artificial variety; subterraneous caves and passages were dug under the hills on the coast of Campania, and the sea water was conveyed round the house and pleasure grounds, where the fishes flocked in such abundance, that not less than 25,000 pounds worth were sold at his death. In his public character Lucullus was humane and compassionate, and he showed his sense of the vicissitudes of human affairs by shedding tears at the sight of one of the cities of Armenia, which his soldiers reduced to ashes. He was a perfect master of the Greek and Latin languages, and he employed himself for some time to write a concise history of the Marsic war in Greek hexameters. Such are the striking characteristics of a man who meditated the conquest of Parthia, and for a while gained the admiration of all the inhabitants of the east by his justice and moderation, and who might have disputed the empire of the world with a Cæsar or Pompey, had not, at last, his fondness for retirement withdrawn him from the reach of ambition. Cicero, For Archias, ch. 4; Quæstiones Academicæ, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Plutarch, Lives.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Strabo.—Appian, Mithridatic Wars, &c.—Orosius, bk. 6, &c.——A consul who went to Spain, &c.——A Roman put to death by Domitian.——A brother of Lucius Lucullus, lieutenant under Sylla.——A pretor of Macedonia.