older than his brother, he did not choose to hold a
magistracy by himself, but he waited till his brother was of the
proper age, and so far gained the public favour that his brother in
his absence was elected aedile jointly with him.

II. Though he was a young man during the Marsic war, he gave many
proofs of courage and prudence; but it was rather on account of the
solidity of his character and the mildness of his temper that Sulla
attached Lucullus to himself, and from the beginning he constantly
employed him in affairs of the greatest importance; one of which was
the matter relating to the coinage. It was Lucullus who superintended
the coining of most of the money in the Peloponnesus during the
Mithridatic war, and it was named Lucullean after him, and continued
for a long time to have a ready circulation, in consequence of the
demands of the war. Afterwards, Sulla, who was in possession of the
country about Athens,[323] but was shut out from supplies by sea by the
enemy, who had the command of it, sent Lucullus to Egypt and Libya to
get ships there. It was now the depth of winter, but still he set sail
with three Greek piratical ships, and the same number of Rhodian
biremes, exposing himself to a wide sea and to hostile vessels,
which, owing to their having the superiority, were cruising about in
great numbers and in all directions. However, he landed at Crete, and
made the people friendly to his cause; and, finding the Cyrenaeans in a
state of confusion, owing to continual tyrannies and wars, he
tranquillised and settled the state, by reminding the citizens of a
certain expression of Plato, which the philosopher had addressed to
them in a prophetic spirit. They asked him, as it appears, to draw up
laws for them, and to settle their democracy after the model of a
well-ordered polity; but he replied that it was difficult to legislate
for the Cyrenaeans while they were so prosperous. Nothing, indeed, is
more difficult to govern than a man who considers himself prosperous;
and, on the other hand, there is nothing more obedient to command than
a man when he is humbled by fortune. And it was this that made the
Cyrenaeans tractable to Lucullus in his legislation for them. Sailing
from Cyrene[324] to Egypt, he lost most of his vessels by an attack of
pirates; but he escaped himself, and entered Alexandria in splendid
style; for the whole fleet came out to meet him, as it was used to do
when a king entered the port, equippe