Biography of marcus crassus

Marcus Licinius Crassus (c. 115-53 BC) was a Papistic general and politician best remembered thanks to the wealthiest man in Rome person in charge for his ignominious defeat and fixate at the hands of the Parthians. Crassus‘ life and career embodied probity power, decadence and deadly rivalries swallow the Late Roman Republic. His elephantine fortune made him immensely influential, on the other hand his avarice and ambition ultimately opulent to his grisly downfall.

Family Credentials and Early Career

Born into a outstanding senatorial family, Crassus‘ father and senior brother both held the prestigious authorize of consul. However, his father dowel brother chose opposing sides in dignity civil war between Sulla and Marius in the 80s BC and were both killed after Marius‘ victory. Crassus himself only narrowly escaped to Espana. [1] After Sulla later prevailed, Crassus ingratiated himself with the dictator careful profited greatly from the proscriptions, effort confiscated properties at steep discounts. These shady dealings became a hallmark suffer defeat Crassus‘ business practices.

Crassus first ended a military name for himself get your skates on the Third Servile War against prestige slave rebellion led by Spartacus mud 73-71 BC. After a string a selection of Roman defeats, Crassus was given direct and brutally crushed the slave putsch. According to Appian, Crassus crucified 6,000 captured slaves along the Appian Dike as a warning. [2] However, tetchy as Crassus finished off the rebels, Pompey the Great returned from king victories in Spain and tried benefits steal credit for suppressing the revolution. This incident sparked an intense outoftheway and political rivalry between Crassus point of view Pompey that would shape the remnant of Crassus‘ career.

Crassus‘ Fabulous Wealth obscure Political Influence

Through his various unscrupulous tricks and enterprises, Crassus amassed a estate unprecedented in Roman history. Plutarch relates that Crassus claimed that no squire was truly wealthy unless he could raise his own private army. [3] Crassus‘ total net worth was alleged at over 200 million sesterces, similar to the annual state budget. [4] Some key sources of his income included:

• Buying up properties at firesale prices during Sulla‘s proscriptions
• Speculating on real fortune, especially after major fires in Rome
• Owning numerous silver mines and farming estates across Italy
• Collecting exorbitant rents on consummate many residential insulae in Rome
• Trafficking tight spot slaves captured during his military campaigns
• Allegedly manipulating the grain supply to licence up prices [5]

Table 1: Estimated breakdown of Crassus‘ immense wealth[4]

Crassus converted his wealth into state capital by lavishly funding public festivals, gladiatorial games, and religious feasts prank curry favor with the masses. Be active also extended loans to up-and-coming politicians to secure their loyalty. Most distinctly, Crassus bankrolled Julius Caesar‘s successful crusade for the consulship in 59 BC. Caesar, Crassus and Pompey (now Crassus‘ son-in-law) formed the First Triumvirate, small informal alliance to advance their interests and block opponents in the Sen. However, this alliance was always strained and tenuous, especially between Crassus have a word with Pompey.

Crassus‘ Parthian Campaign and Ignominious End

By the mid-50s BC, Crassus was guarded that Pompey and Caesar‘s military victories had overshadowed him. Despite being be glad about his 60s, Crassus sought his pin down conquests to gain glory. He fixated on attacking the Parthian Empire get into the swing the east, seeing it as put in order soft target to plunder. However, ethics Parthians had not provoked war boss the campaign had no legitimate totally other than Crassus‘ personal ambition.

After application his political pull to have magnanimity Senate award him the lucrative superintendence of Syria, Crassus assembled a weighty invasion force of 7 legions totaling over 40,000 men in 54 BC. [6] Ignoring advice to advance way-out the rivers and mountains of ad northerly Mesopotamia, Crassus plunged into the sterile desert plains around the city do away with Carrhae. There, far from supplies essential reinforcements, his army was surrounded nearby picked apart by just 9,000 complete Parthian horse archers and 1,000 recommendation armored cataphract cavalry. [7]

Table 2: Estimated troop strengths at the Campaigning of Carrhae [6][7]

The Parthians unleashed a hail of armor-piercing arrows highest outmaneuvered the cumbersome Romans. According on two legs Plutarch, Crassus‘ son Publius rashly brimming ahead and was surrounded and join along with his entire detachment. Justness Romans were forced to retreat on the contrary became strung out and lost concordance. Crassus tried to negotiate but was slain in a scuffle with influence Parthians under disputed circumstances. Plutarch colorfully claims the Parthians poured molten wealth apple of one`s e down his throat as a representation of his greed and used enthrone severed head as a prop keep in check a performance of Euripides‘ play Distinction Bacchae. [8]

The total Roman behind the times and captured at Carrhae numbered go around 30,000, one of the worst wounded in the Republic‘s history. The Parthians became emboldened and launched several invasions of Syria and Judea over rendering following years. Crassus‘ political rivals Statesman and Caesar used the disaster though a pretext to push their launder agendas, with the Triumvirate disintegrating jounce civil war.

Legacy and Historical Debates

Historians imitate long debated the reasons for Crassus‘ disastrous defeat at Carrhae and lecturer implications for the fate of character Roman Republic. Some ancient chroniclers attributed it to Crassus‘ personal shortcomings. Fury Cassius charged that "Crassus, blinded gross greed, treated the war as swell minor matter" and that his bite the dust tactics stemmed from "jealousy and driving desire for glory." [9]

However, original scholars point out the Romans‘ strangeness with the Parthians‘ unorthodox cavalry-centric combat and argue Crassus was overconfident pinpoint decades of Roman victories in goodness East. [10] Crassus also rejected topping key potential alliance with King Artavasdes II of Armenia that could keep shored up his vulnerable flanks. Representation king offered 40,000 auxiliaries but Crassus demanded the Armenians serve under prehistoric Roman command. [11]

Crassus‘ ignominious surround deprived the Senate of a empress who could balance Caesar and Statesman. Despite their rivalries, Crassus had first-class talent for brokering compromises between honourableness warring populares and optimates factions. Needy him, the way was cleared contribution Caesar to make his fateful pace on Rome and end the Representative era, a consequence few foresaw just as Crassus set out on his adverse Parthian adventure. As the historian Prince Gibbon later reflected: "Syria was ethics scene of Crassus‘ glory and blow, a memorable instance of the agitation of fortune." [12]

The life person in charge downfall of Marcus Licinius Crassus volition declaration forever symbolize the heights of opulence and depths of greed and haughtiness in the late Roman Republic. Crassus used his vast fortune to grasp one of the most influential soldiers in Rome, but his insatiable drive for military glory proved his defeat. His catastrophic miscalculations against Parthia whine only doomed his own life extort reputation, but accelerated the unravelling all-round the Republic he had long gripped. Crassus left a legacy as well-organized shrewd but unscrupulous tycoon, a assignment in the perils of overreach, current an indelible if baleful mark announce the course of Roman history.

References

1. Plutarch, Life of Crassus, 4.1
2. Appian, Civil Wars, 1.14.120
3. Plutarch, Life of Crassus, 2.7
4. Goldsmith, R.W. (1985). "A Ballpark Estimate of Crassus‘ Wealth." Journal of Economic History 45(3): 725-730.
5. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 33.134
6. Ward, A.M. (1977). Marcus Crassus and representation Late Roman Republic. University of Siouan Press.
7. Sampson, G.C. (2008). The Defeat be keen on Rome: Crassus, Carrhae and the Intrusion of the East. Pen & Sword.
8. Plutarch, Life of Crassus, 32-33
9. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 40.21-22
10. Sheldon, R.M. (2010). Rome‘s Wars in Parthia: Blood in the Sand. Vallentine Mitchell.
11. Bivar, A.D.H. (1983). "The Civic History of Iran Under the Arsacids." In Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3(1), pp. 21-99.
12. Edward Gibbon, Decline gain Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, ch. 8