Magnum ingenium L. Luculli, magnumque optimarum artium studium, tum omnis liberalis et digna homine nobili ab eo percepta doctrina, quibus temporibus florere in foro maxime potuit, caruit omnino rebus urbanis. Ut enim admodum adolescens, {5} cum fratre pari pietate et industria praedito, paternas inimicitias magna cum gloria est persecutus, in Asiam quaestor profectus, ibi permultos annos admirabili quadam laude provinciae praefuit: deinde absens factus aedilis, continuo praetor: licebat {10} enim celerius legis praemio: post in Africam: inde ad consulatum: quem ita gessit ut diligentiam admirarentur omnes, ingenium cognoscerent. Post ad Mithridaticum bellum missus a senatu non modo opinionem vicit omnium quae de virtute eius erat, sed {15} etiam gloriam superiorum. Idque eo fuit mirabilius, quod ab eo laus imperatoria non admodum exspectabatur, qui adolescentiam in forensi opera, quaesturae diuturnum tempus, Murena bellum in Ponto gerente, in Asiae pace consumpserat. . . . {20} In eodem tanta prudentia fuit in constituendis temperandisque civitatibus, tanta aequitas, ut hodie stet Asia Luculli institutis servandis et quasi vestigiis persequendis. CICERO, _Academica_, ii. 1. [Linenotes: 1-3. +ingenium+, +studium+, +doctrina+, subjects of +caruit+. 3-5. +quibus temporibus ... urbanis+ = _all this was divorced_ (+caruit+, lit. _was cut off from_) _from the business of the capital, at the season when he might have had a specially brilliant career in the forum_. --J. S. Reid. 6. +paternas inimicitias+ = _his father’s quarrel_. The first appearance of Lucullus in public life was as the accuser of the Augur Servilius who had procured the banishment of his father. 7-9. +in Asiam ... praefuit+, i.e. as Sulla’s quaestor in the first Mithridatic War, 88-84 B.C. and then till 80 B.C. in charge of the province of Asia (= orig. Kingdom of Pergamus, N.W. part of Asia Minor). 11. +legis praemio+ = _owing to a privilege conveyed by statute_. J. S. R. 13-14. +ad Mithridaticum bellum+, i.e. the 3rd M. War, which he carried on for eight years (74-66 B.C.) with great success, until superseded by Pompeius in 66 B.C. 19-20. +Murena ... gerente.+ Lic. Murena, anxious for distinction, provoked the disastrous 2nd Mithridatic War, 83-81 B.C., when by the peremptory orders of Sulla the peace was renewed. 23. +stet ... servandis+ = _persists in maintaining_ (lit. _stands by_) _the ordinances of L._--J. S. R.] +Reference.+ For _Character of Lucullus_, see Mommsen, vol. iv. pp. 337-8. Cf. also Vell. Paterc. ii. 32. B23 A. _A Soldier of Lucullus._