“ While Sulla was besieging Athens, Lucullus raised a fleet and drove Mithradates out of the Mediterranean. He won a brilliant victory off Tenedos, and had he been more of a patriot and less of a party man he might have ended a perilous war. In 84 peace was concluded with Mithradates. Sulla returned to Rome, while Lucullus remained in Asia, and by wise and generous financial reforms laid the foundation of the prosperity of the province. ”

“ He was a liberal patron of Greek philosophers and men of letters, and he collected a valuable library, to which such men had free access. He himself is said to have been a student of Greek literature, and to have written a history of the Marsian war in Greek, inserting solecisms to show that he was a Roman. He was one of the interlocutors in Cicero’s Academica, the second book (first edition) of which was called Lucullus. Sulla also entrusted him with the revision of his Memoirs. The introduction of the cherry-tree from Asia into Europe is attributed to him. ”

“ From this time, with the exception of occasional public appearances, he gave himself up to elegant luxury, with which he combined a sort of dilettante pursuit of philosophy, literature and art. As a general he does not seem to have possessed the entire confidence of his troops, owing probably to his natural hauteur and the strict discipline which he imposed on them. ”