LUCIUS. – A Roman consul mentioned in 1 Maccabees 15:16–24 as the author of a letter to the king of Egypt, Ptolemy, in which he informs him that the Jewish high priest Simon has renewed the alliance with the Romans and orders that the rebellious Jews who had fled from Palestine be handed over to the said Simon.
This circular letter was also sent by L. to Demetrius, king of Syria, to Attalus, king of Pergamum, to Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, to Arsaces, king of the Parthians, and to other allies of the Romans, as well as, for information, to Simon. Modern scholars (Ricciotti, Vaccari) identify him with L. Calpurnius Piso, consul in 139 B.C., others with L. Caecilius Metellus Calvus, consul in 142 B.C., or with the praetor L. Valerius, mentioned by Flavius Josephus in Antiquitates Judaicae, XIV, 8, 5.