LUCULLUS.
61. And Nicolaus the Peripatetic, in the tenth book of his
History, and again in the twentieth book, says that Lucullus,
when he came to Rome and celebrated his triumph, and gave
an account of the war against Mithridates, ran into the most
unbounded extravagance, after having previously been very
moderate; and was altogether the first guide to luxury, and
the first example of it, among the Romans, having become
master of the riches of two kings, Mithridates and Tigranes.
And Sittius, also, was a man very notorious among the
Romans for his luxury and effeminacy, as Rutilius tells us;
for as to Apicius, we have already spoken of him. And
almost all historians relate that Pausanias and Lysander were
very notorious for their luxury; on which account Agis said
of Lysander, that Sparta had produced him as a second Pausanias.
But Theopompus, in the tenth book of his History of
the Affairs of Greece, gives exactly the contrary account of
Lysander, saying that "he was a most laborious man, able
to earn the goodwill of both private individuals and monarchs,
being very moderate and temperate, and superior to all the
allurements of pleasure; and accordingly, when he had become
master of almost the whole of Greece, it will be found
that he never in any city indulged in amatory excesses, or in
unreasonable drinking parties and revels."
62. But luxury and extravagance were so very much practised among the ancients, that even Parrhasius the painter always wore a purple robe, and a golden crown on his head, as Clearchus relates, in his Lives: for he, being most immoderately luxurious, and also to a degree beyond what was becoming to a painter, laid claim, in words, to great virtue, and inscribed upon the works which were done by him—
Parrhasius, a most luxurious man,
And yet a follower of purest virtue,
Painted this work.
But some one else, being indignant at this inscription, wrote by the side of it, [Greek: rhabdodiaitos] (worthy of a stick). Parrhasius also put the following inscription on many of his works:—
Parrhasius, a most luxurious man,
And yet a follower of purest virtue,
Painted this work: a worthy citizen
Of noble Ephesus. His father's name
Evenor was, and he, his lawful son,
Was the first artist in the whole of Greece.
