The family of his mother Caecilia Metella (born c. 137 BC) was one of the most powerful of the plebeian "nobilitas", and was at the height of its success and influence in the last quarter of the 2nd century BC when Lucullus was born. She was the youngest child of Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus (consul 142 and censor 115–14), and half-sister of two of the most important members of the Optimates of their time, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus (consul 109 and censor 102), and Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus (consul 119 and Pontifex Maximus), who was the father of Sulla's third wife Caecilia Metella.