Tigranes refused to give Mithridates up to the Romans, so Lucullus returned to Pontus and from there to Armenia (69). After Tigranes' general Mithrobarzanes was defeated, Tigranes abandoned Tigranocerta, the city he'd founded, and retreated to the Taurus mountains. Lucullus sent out detachments to prevent Tigranes' levies joining him. At the same time Tigranes was attacked and defeated while on the march. When Lucullus laid siege to Tigranocerta, Tigranes attempted to lift the siege but was defeated and most of his men were killed despite their outnumbering the Romans by more than 20 to 1.
Mithridates and Tigranes raised a fresh army and made an alliance with the king of Parthia. Lucullus wanted to invade Parthia but his troops mutinied and flatly refused to go any further. Lucullus continued his campaign against Tigranes (68) by besieging Artaxata, the capital of Armenia. Once again Tigranes tried to relieve the siege and was defeated. Although Lucullus wanted to penetrate deeper into Armenia, his troops insisted on turning back because of the bad weather in the mountains, and so Lucullus returned to the plains and took the city of Nisibis, which was held by Tigranes' brother.
Lucullus' soldiers were already tired of campaigning, and listened to Publius Clodius, Lucullus' brother-in-law, who was spreading disaffection out of resentment at not receiving the position he felt was his due. Mithridates returned to Pontus to raise fresh troops. Lucullus tried to prevent him from joining up with Tigranes, but was unable to do anything when his troops refused to follow him. All he could do was wait until Pompey arrived to take over the command (66).
Lucullus returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph. Amongst all the other booty, he introduced the cherry tree to Italy. Lucullus then by and large retired into a private life of extravagant banquets (hence the English word Lucullan), building villas, laying out gardens, founding a library, and engaging in philosophical debate with visiting Greeks. He suffered from some sort of mental impairment before his death in about 57, but it is not known whether this was due to age, disease, or a drug administered to him by one of his freedmen.
In his youth he had written a history of the Marsian War in Greek for a bet, but this has not survived. He appears as a character in Cicero's treatise on the Old Academy.
Ancient Sources
Ancient Sources:
Plutarch's Life of Lucullus
Appian: The War Against Mithridates
Cicero: Academicorum Priorum Liber Secundus
