accumulated to a large and
splendid amount in his military command; for, even now, when luxury of
this kind has increased, the gardens of Lucullus are reckoned among
the most sumptuous of the imperial gardens.[429] But with respect to
his works on the sea-coast and in the neighbourhood of Neapolis, where
he suspended as it were hills by digging great tunnels,[430] and threw
around his dwelling-places circular pieces of sea-water and channels
for the breeding of fish, and built houses in the sea, Tubero the
Stoic,[431] on seeing them, called him Xerxes in a toga. He had also
country residences in the neighbourhood of Tusculum, and towers
commanding prospects,[432] and open apartments and ambulatories,
which Pompeius on visiting found fault with Lucullus, that he had
arranged his house in the best way for summer, but had made it unfit
to live in during the winter. On which Lucullus said, with a smile,
"You think, then, I have less sense than the cranes and storks, and do
not change my residence according to the seasons." On one occasion,
when a praetor was ambitious to signalize himself in the matter of a
public spectacle, and asked of Lucullus some purple cloaks for the
dress of a chorus, Lucullus replied, that he would see if he had any
and would give them to him; and the day after he asked the praetor how
many he wanted. The praetor said that a hundred would be enough, on
which Lucullus told him to take twice as many; in allusion to which
the poet Flaccus[433] has remarked, that he does not consider a man to
be rich, if the property that he cares not for and knows nothing about
is not more than that which he sees.

XL. The daily meals of Lucullus were accompanied with all the
extravagance of newly-acquired wealth; for it was not only by dyed
coverlets for his couches, and cups set with precious stones, and
choruses and dramatic entertainments, but by abundance of all kinds of
food and dainty dishes, curiously prepared, that he made himself an
object of admiration to the uninstructed. Now Pompeius gained a good
reputation in an illness that he had; for the physician had ordered
him to eat a thrush, and, on his domestics telling him that a thrush
could not be found in the summer season except at the house of
Lucullus, where they were fed, Pompeius would not consent to have one
got from there; but remarking to his physician, "What, if Lucullus
were not so luxurious, could not Pompeius live?" bade them get for him
somethi