Van Hoof, Lieve

English

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

M. Tröster: Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus 2008-4-143Tröster, Manuel: Themes, Character, and Politicsin Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus. The Construction ofa Roman Aristocrat. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Ver-lag 2008. ISBN: 978-3-515-09124-4; 206 S.Rezensiert von: Lieve Van Hoof, Postdoctoral Re-search Fellow of the Research Foundation – Flan-ders, Belgium / Visiting Member of the CorpusChristi Classics Centre, OxfordLucullus, consul in 74 B.C., has received muchless scholarly attention than more famous figuresof the late Roman Republic such as Sulla, Pompeyand Caesar. With this book, based on his doctoralthesis, Manuel Tröster aims to give Lucullus theplace he deserves amongst the elite of his times.His careful study of the available sources showsa picture of Lucullus as „an ambitious politicianand general who pursued his personal objectives ofpower and prestige by adopting a variety of tech-niques, including both coalition-building with fel-low aristocrats and regular appeals to the multi-tude“ (p. 155). As such, this interpretation of-fers a welcome complement to the traditional im-age of Lucullus as a conservative member of theoptimates whose eventual failure is to be ascribedto his love of luxury and his inability to woo thebulk of his soldiers as well as the multitude of citi-zens in Rome. According to Tröster, this interpre-tation, adopted by most modern scholars, presentsan image of Lucullus that „has been distorted quitesignificantly by the propaganda of his politicaladversaries, to a certain degree by his own self-fashioning, and finally by Plutarch’s adaptation ofthe material to his biographical purpose“ (p. 158);he himself, on the other hand, sets out to give ahistorically accurate account of his subject. Somereaders will no doubt object to Tröster’s return to (aform of) Quellenforschung as well as to his searchfor (a particular form of) ‚the truth‘. Yet all willagree that Tröster’s approach is thorough and pre-cise, and significantly advances our understandingof the historical figure of Lucullus in his politicaland historical context.The book consists in an introduction, five chap-ters, and a conclusion. In his introduction, Trösterpresents a brief but critical survey of modern schol-arship on Lucullus and of the relevant ancientsources. Special attention is given to Plutarch’sLife of Lucullus: Tröster not only introduces thereader to the aims and nature of Plutarch’s ParallelLives, he also offers acute observations on relativechronology, especially opposing the Life of Lucul-lus to the later Life of Pompey.The main part of the book discusses Lucullus’life (and Life) thematically. Chapter two dealswith Lucullus’ Hellenism. In Tröster’s view, thisdoes not originate in genuine philhellenism onLucullus’ part, nor in fabrication on Plutarch’s;rather, should it be understood as a propagandatool in Lucullus’ military actions in the East andpolitical agenda in Rome. If philhellenism wasthus used as an argument to promote Lucullus,his adversaries would associate him primarily withluxury. In the third chapter, Tröster demonstrateshow Lucullus’ lavish lifestyle found its place in theexempla tradition which then influenced the opin-ion of later writers, both ancient and modern. Thenext three chapters focus on Lucullus’ activities indifferent spheres. Chapter four looks at Lucullusas a Roman politician. Taking into account recentpublications on the political scene in the late Re-public, Tröster argues against the view of Lucul-lus as a conservative nobleman whose power baselay exclusively with the senate. Instead, he showshow Lucullus sometimes capitalized on the multi-tude in order to oppose his aristocratic peers. Fur-thermore, this chapter also discusses Lucullus’ re-lationship with Pompey, and contains some inter-esting confrontations between Plutarch’s presenta-tion of affairs in the Life of Lucullus and in thatof Pompey. The next chapter examines Lucullusas a military leader. According to Tröster, „thedefects in his leadership on the one hand and thelegionaries’ intractability on the other are consid-erably overdrawn in the sources“ (p. 105). Thesixth chapter, finally, studies Lucullus’ activities inmatters of foreign affairs. It shows how Lucullusbuilt out a wide network of personal connectionsin the East, which also boosted his political powerat home. The chapter contains some of the mostinteresting sections of the book, including the oneswhere Tröster uses epigraphic material and the oneon Pompey’s subsequent efforts to favour differentEastern friends than those favoured by Lucullus;the section on aristocrats and intellectuals, how-ever, although potentially one of the most fascinat-ing topics to be discussed, is not only brief, butalso leaves one wondering what its point is.The conclusion sums up the results of Tröster’sexamination once more, and as such lays bare bothits merits and its limits. It starts off with a discus-sion of Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus. Tröster statesthat „it would be misleading to suppose that he© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved.(sc. Plutarch) encountered accurate and completeinformation in his sources before going on to re-model and rearrange this material to suit his ownagenda“ (S. 151-152). First of all, this claim sug-gests that the sources available to Plutarch wereoften biased either against or in favour of Lucul-lus. Throughout his book, Tröster argues this pointvery convincingly, and it is, I think, one of thebook’s most important and innovative aspects. Atthe same time, however, Tröster’s claim also illus-trates how he searches to construct what he callsan accurate historical account, that is, one in whichany trace of propaganda has been wiped out. Forone thing, this betrays a conception of historicaltruth which, as I said before, many twentieth andtwenty-first century readers will object to. The as-sumption is all the more striking, however, giventhat Tröster’s interpretation, more than any previ-ous one, brings to the fore how Lucullus was a dif-ferent person to himself, to his supporters, and tohis opponents: Lucullus’ life, as well as his Life(written by Plutarch or by others, including Lucul-lus himself), is inseparable from what Tröster con-siders mere propaganda. More engagement withsome of the excellent work on identity publishedin the last decade or so would therefore have beenhelpful in providing a better framework. What Ialso missed – given statements like the one justquoted and Plutarch’s importance as a source forLucullus – is a discussion of Plutarch’s agenda,of his aims, strategies, and readership: althoughTröster repeatedly stresses the importance of tak-ing into account Plutarch’s agenda, he never re-ally discusses its implications for his reading of theLife of Lucullus. Notwithstanding the order of ti-tle and subtitle, then, Tröster’s book is not so muchabout Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus as about Lucul-lus himself. This does not mean, however, thatit is of no interest to scholars studying Plutarch’sLives. On the contrary, Tröster’s book offers a verygood starting point for studying Plutarch’s Life ofLucullus, offering the necessary historical back-ground that is all too often missing in Plutarch.But it is more than that, and therefore of interestto a much wider circle of classicists: it presents anew and more dynamic image of Lucullus in hishistorical context on the basis of detailed discus-sion and convincing arguments, and in constant di-alogue with previous scholars. As such, it will be-come a point of reference for any scholar studyingLucullus.HistLit 2008-4-143 / Lieve Van Hoof über Tröster,Manuel: Themes, Character, and Politics in Plut-arch’s Life of Lucullus. The Construction of a Ro-man Aristocrat. Stuttgart 2008. In: H-Soz-u-Kult17.11.2008.© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved.

REVIEW of Tröster M. (2005) Themes, Character, and Politics in Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus: The Construction of a Roman Aristocrat (Historia-Einzelschriften 201). Stuttgart.

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8085220/file/8085221

REVIEW of Tröster M. (2005) Themes, Character, and Politics in Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus: The Construction of a Roman Aristocrat (Historia-Einzelschriften 201). Stuttgart.

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