Lucius Licinius Lucullus (117 – 56 BCE), is a somewhat forgotten figure. He lived in interesting times, which is why many mentions of him have been preserved by various authors. A great commander, and at the same time a person who was unable to win over the soldiers. This is how Cassius Dio characterized him in his “Roman history”:
[…] Lucullus, who had proved himself most skilful of all men in generalship, who was the first Roman to cross the Taurus with an army for warfare, and who had vanquished two powerful kings and would have captured them if he had chosen to end the war quickly, was unable to control his men, and that they were always revolting and finally deserted him. For he required a great deal of them, was difficult of access, strict in his demands for work, and inexorable in his punishments; he did not understand how to win over a man by persuasion, or to attach him by mildness, or to make a friend of him by conferring honours or bestowing wealth […]
– Cassius Dio, Roman history, 36.16
