Im kinda obsessed with your vision of sullucullus, esp of like sulla unrequited love sullucullus (sorry for lightly stalking you to find this). Id love to hear any more thoughts you have on sulla or lucullus or their relationship
don't ever worry about going through my sullucullus tag. everyone is welcome to go through any of my tags. i tag for the people (rather inconsistently)
actually, i have way too many thoughts on sulla, lucullus and their relationship. tried to structure it a bit, but it's still a messy wall of text, sorry! since it's too long, i will put it under the cut. you're free to ask me more questions on the matter here or in dms, because i do love talking about my sullucullus vision a Lot :-)
i guess the cornerstone of my sullucullus is that: 1) it would never be what it is without the civil war, but 2) at the same time it cannot be what they want it to be due to the civil war and its aftereffects. also, just so you (and anyone else reading) know, even though i definitely rely on stuff (both sources and sci-lit) when making up my bullshit, some of it has no basis other than me thinking that it fits my specific vision of characters i am constructing😁👍
1) in my opinion, sulla would not love lucullus as much as he does in my narrative without there being an opportunity for lucullus to actually prove himself and his loyalty/devotion in the first place, namely the civil war. there's the commonly accepted notion (now unfortunately disproven by peter j. thonemann in his article 'the date of lucullus' quaestorship'. but the way everyone was almost unanimous in accepting it speaks volumes as well) that the quaestor who didn't ditch sulla in the year 88 was lucullus, there's the dangerous naval venture he undertook for sulla, and the infamous pitane incident ("he ranked the honourable treatment of sulla above every consideration of private or public advantage" is definitely a Way to put it. thanks plutarch luc. 3.7) in particular, which probably deserves its own post, but, long story short, him choosing to let go of mithridates made sulla's treaty with mithridates and the subsequent civil war of 83-82, sulla's dictatorship and res publica's overhaul possible in the first place. lucullus is someone sulla realized he could actually rely on, and this is why, in my narrative, he leaves him to collect taxes in asia and does not take him to italy to wage the civil war. yes, he wants someone reliable in terms of administration, but he also doesn't need to bind lucullus to himself by civil blood, since lucullus has already proven his loyalty above and beyond, but he also wants someone trustworthy to stay in the rear, because it's not like he knows for sure how the whole civil war thing will turn out for him, and, had it gone south, he'd still have someone who wouldn't ever sell him out to his enemies.
also this is where we should briefly touch upon the subject of sulla possibly sparing lucullus's feelings by not forcing him to partake in the civil war (which is a take i have seen in scholarship a few times). it could be a sweet (if, as always, hypocritical) piece of sulla's characterization, but what's important to my vision is that a) lucullus actually doesn't mind doing whatever for sulla (the pitane episode, hello?) and b) sulla doesn't want him there because he kind of considers lucullus to be almost an incarnation of everything Proper and Right about rome due to sulla's own specific ideas about what actually is proper and right about rome, and also due to sulla's feelings for lucullis, which happen to obfuscate the way he actually isn't all that similar to sulla's ideation. lucullus is dutiful and loyal, yes, but he is loyal to sulla specifically, and just so happens to share some of his ideas about how rome should be (due to how his uncle metellus numudicus has suffered from tribunes, and how his father pr. 104 was deprived of his command and exiled, all of which could possibly remind of the real prospects sulla was facing from year 88). beyond that, my lucullus really doesn't give much of a fuck about politicking, since he spends most of his career out of town waging wars, and not, you know, actively politicking, which he was in a great position to do as an heir of sulla. post-88 (especially post-82) sulla is, of course, all about politicking, so he can't even imagine how little the question of how res publica should be means to his presumably perfect roman lucullus. delusion really is at heart of my sullucullus, and it's mutual, since lucullus, too, doesn't really understand sulla, for he met him in the social war context, and sulla the valiant general is very different from sulla the retired and obviously unwell ex-master of all affairs, and the latter is much harder to idealize, even though lucullus would try his best.
2) this is where we can Finally touch upon how civil war doesn't only bring them together, but also does them part... in a sense. the lack of it obviously brings along disillusionment, mostly on lucullus's side, as i have already mentioned, but the bigger issue is that even though sulla deliberately removed himself from roman politics due to him thinking the restored system should run without his constant unmatched interference, he will never be able to remove his negative experiences since 88 from his own system. he doesn't regret what he did, he never assumes he was at fault for anything, but he has gone through the tribulations (as in having to wage war only relying on what little he has, or having to wage civil war with less manpower and legitimacy than his opponents), and so now he wants to live a totally different life, as in to excessively drink and party, because, you know, romans didn't have therapy, with people who don't want much from him (but him himself and his love, i guess), a stark contrast from most of his sullani, who joined him not for his 'saving the res publica from the mariani disease and fixing it' quest, but for their obviously selfish political ends, who he had to promote but who he despised, since, to me, he's the biggest hypocrite who refuses to acknowledge that he did what he did not only because he wanted to fix the res publica, but also (and mostly) because he specifically wanted to avenge himself, as in his dignity, which mariani kind of tried to demolish. and also because he actually developed a taste for violence, just like some of those sullani. so people like catilina and crassus discomfort him, the presumed valiant healer and savior of the res publica, on multiple levels.
the issue with lucullus in this context is that he, the prospective heir and perfect roman, should be out there, politicking and defending sullan res publica, but instead he wants to be around sulla, since his priority was always sulla, and, what is more surprising, sulla wants for lucullus to stay with him too, since, once again, he's hypocritical like that. in my narrative they'd probably spend a lovely time outside of (and without) rome around the year 79, sulla would maybe even get better, and they'd be really happy for a while, until rome, who hates to be anyone's third, comes knocking, maybe in the shape of lepidus and his campaign. but sulla would also be really bad at articulating how much lucullus actually means to him, saying something along the lines of "rome needs you more than i do", which, aside from being a big compliment, is him trying to adhere to his own vision, keeping his perfect roman lucullus where he should be (in rome) instead of where sulla selfishly wants him to be, while to lucullus it sounds like a dismissal aka a breakup, which, paired with his unease due to sulla's rather unwell state and its connotations, his own jealousy towards sulla's unworthy (in his haughty eyes) lovers, and, most importantly, his habit to prioritize sulla's wishes above his own, makes him actually go back to rome and work his job as first aedile and then praetor. and the relationship they could have had because they do, in fact, want to be with each other, kind of collapses on itself while lucullus works a job and sulla fucking dies. the end😁👍
hi...sullucullus for that ask game? i am very curious about these creatures
Thank you for your ask! It is always a pleasure to talk about my creatures <3
1. What made you ship it?
Funnily enough, Keaveney's Lucullus bio with all the "odd relationship" that was "destined to endure until the day Sulla died" lines. And also Mccullough, maybe, but to a much lesser extent, for she really did Lucullus (both of them, to be fair) dirty. Also at that point I more or less knew it's somewhat of a widely accepted ship in the fandom, so I thought digging it would be fun. And it was!
2. What are your favorite things about the ship?
First and foremost, it is how fascinating it is for me to explore their respective characters (and what civil war entails for them and other people) through the lens of this relationship. It is how they choose each other when it matters the most, and how these choices backfire down the line. It is how it is not only the matter of choice, but also the matter of fate - like, of course the man who had built the first ever shrine to Felicitas was Lucullus's grandfather (and of course he was a selfish asshole while building said shrine), so it's only logical Sulla Felix and Lucullus should end up like this. They might not be perfect for each other, generally speaking, but they are what the other truly needs in this turbulent age, and too much has been sacrificed to back down anyway, so I guess this kind of dynamic is something I find appealing as well. The fact they're far from a perfect match outside of civil war context is yet another fun thing to play around with :-)
3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?
Dunno how unpopular it is, but after a few months of thinking I have convinced myself that there will be no good ending for them. Lucullus would be upset to see Sulla at his old party guy stage, and Sulla would fail to understand just how much some of these things matter to Lucullus. To me, they've never truly known each other, and after there's nothing bigger looming at the horizon, it will become quite obvious. It doesn't mean there was no love there, of course. But that last one is a popular opinion, I guess...
