Lucius Licinius Murena

Lucius Licinius Murena was Roman consul in 62 BC. His father had the same name.

At the end of the First Mithridatic War, he was left in Asia by Sulla in command of the two legions formerly controlled by Gaius Flavius Fimbria. Sulla had left Mithridates in control of his kingdom of Pontus, but Murena made a pre-emptive strike against what he alleged was re-armament by Mithridates, invading Pontus and thus triggering the Second Mithridatic War. After his forces lost a minor battle to Mithridates in 81, Murena retreated back to his province to regroup. Sulla then ordered for peace to be restored.

In the following Third Mithridatic War, he was for several years legate of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, in command of a legion.

In 65 BC he was praetor and made himself popular by the magnificence of the games provided by him. As administrator of Transalpine Gaul after his praetorship he gained the goodwill of both provincials and Romans by his impartiality.

In 62 BC he was elected consul, but before entering upon office he was accused of bribery by Servius Sulpicius Rufus, an unsuccessful competitor though a famous jurist (he attained the consulate ten years later), with the support of Marcus Porcius Cato the younger. Murena was defended by Marcus Licinius Crassus (afterwards triumvir), Quintus Hortensius, and Sulpicius' friend Cicero (Pro Murena), and acquitted, although it seems probable that he was guilty.

During his consulship he passed a law (lex Junia Licinia) which enforced more strictly the provision of the lex Caecilia Didia—that laws should be promulgated three nundinae before they were proposed to the comitia, and further enacted that, in order to prevent forgery, a copy of every proposed statute should be deposited before witnesses in the aerarium.

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