Mark Licinius Crassus was born around 115 BC into a very famous and rather wealthy plebeian family. To be descended from a plebeian family in Rome in those years did not mean at all to be a poor man or, moreover, a "proletarian". Even at the beginning of the 3rd century. BC. a new class arose - the nobility, which, along with the patricians, included the richest and most influential plebeian families. The less wealthy plebeians formed the equestrian class. And even the poorest plebeians in the described period already had civil rights. The most famous representative of the Licinian family was Gaius Licinius Stolon (who lived in the 4th century BC), who became famous for the struggle for the rights of the plebeians, which ended with the approval of the so-called "Licinian laws". Plebeian origin did not prevent the father of Mark Crassus from becoming a consul, and then a Roman governor in Spain, and even winning a triumph for suppressing an uprising in this country. But everything changed during the First Civil War, when Gaius Marius (also a plebeian) came to power in Rome.
Guy Marius, bust, Vatican Museums
The plebeian clan of the Licinians, oddly enough, supported the aristocratic party, and in 87 BC. Mark Crassus's father, who was acting as a censor at that time, and his older brother were killed during the repression unleashed by Marius. Mark himself was forced to flee to Spain, and then to Africa. Unsurprisingly, in 83 BC. he ended up in the army of Sulla, and even at his own expense armed a detachment of 2,500 people. Crassus did not lose money: after the victory, buying up the property of the repressed families, he increased his fortune many times over, so that once he could even afford to "invite" the Romans to dinner, having laid 10,000 tables for them. It was after this incident that he received his nickname - "Rich". Nevertheless, in Rome they did not like him, not without reason they considered him a greedy nouveau riche and a dishonest usurer, ready to profit even from fires.
Laurence Olivier as Crassus in Spartacus, 1960
Crassus's character and methods are well illustrated by the curious trial of 73 BC. Crassus was accused of attempting to seduce the vestal, which was considered a grave crime against the state, but he was acquitted after proving that he was courting her only in order to profitably buy the land that belonged to her. Even the indisputable merits of Crassus in suppressing the uprising of Spartacus practically did not change the attitude of the Romans. For this victory, he had to give a significant part of the "laurels" to his eternal rival - Pompey, who, after the decisive battle, managed to defeat one of the rebellious detachments (as Pompey put it in a letter to the Senate, "tore out the roots of war"). Twice (in 70 and 55 BC) Crassus was elected consul, but in the end he had to share power over Rome with Pompey and Caesar. So in 60 BC. the first Triumvirate arose. A career for a plebeian who had lost his father and barely escaped from the Marians is more than good, but Mark Crassus passionately dreamed of the love of the Romans, universal popularity and military glory. It was this thirst for glory that pushed him to the fateful Parthian campaign, in which republican Rome suffered one of the most painful defeats.
As already mentioned, in 55 BC. Mark Crassus became consul for the second time (the other consul that year was Gnaeus Pompey). According to custom, after the expiration of consular powers, he was to receive control over one of the Roman provinces. Crassus chose Syria, and achieved for himself the "right of peace and war." He did not even wait for the expiration of the term of his consulate, he went to the East earlier: so great was his desire to become on a par with the great generals of antiquity and even surpass them. To do this, it was necessary to conquer the Parthian kingdom - a state whose territory stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea, almost reaching the Black and Mediterranean seas. But, if with a small army the Macedonian Alexander managed to crush Persia, why not repeat his campaign to the Roman plebeian Marcus Crassus?
Parthia on the map
Crassus did not even think about the possibility of defeat, however, few people then in Rome doubted that Parthia would fall under the blows of the legions of the Republic. Caesar's war with the Gauls was considered more serious and dangerous. Meanwhile, back in 69 BC. Parthia helped Rome in the war against Armenia, but the Romans saw this country not as a strategic ally in the region, but as an object of their future aggression. In 64 BC. Pompey invaded Northern Mesopotamia, and in 58 AD a Civil War broke out in Parthia between the pretenders to the throne - the brothers Orod and Mithridates. The latter, in 57, recklessly turned to the former proconsul of Syria, Gabinius, for help, so the moment for the start of the Roman invasion seemed perfect.
Along with the post of Crassus, two elite legions of veterans who served under Pompey got two, under his command they fought not only in Mesopotamia, but also in Judea and Egypt. Two or three more legions were recruited specifically for the war with Parthia by Gabinius. Crassus brought two legions to Syria from Italy. In addition, he recruited a certain number of soldiers in other areas - along the way.
So, the brothers Mithridates and Orod grappled with each other for life and death, and the anticipating triumph (which he was denied after defeating the army of Spartacus) Crassus was in a hurry with all his might. His ally Mithridates in the summer of 55 AD. captured Seleucia and Babylon, but the very next year began to suffer defeat after defeat. In 54 BC. Crassus finally reached Parthia, and with little or no resistance, he occupied a number of cities in northern Mesopotamia. After a minor battle near the city of Ikhna and the storming of Zenodotia, rejoicing in such a successful and easy campaign for them, the soldiers even proclaimed their commander emperor. It was about 200 km to go to Seleucia, in which Mithridates was now, but the Parthian commander Suren was ahead of Crassus. Seleucia was taken by storm, the rebellious prince was captured and sentenced to death, his army went over to the side of the only king, Orodes.
Drachma of Oroda II
Crassus' hopes for the post-war weakness and instability of power were not justified, and he had to cancel the campaign to the south, and then completely withdraw his army to Syria, leaving garrisons in large cities (7 thousand legionnaires and a thousand mounted soldiers). The fact is that the plan for this year's military campaign was based on joint actions with the army of the Parthian ally - Mithridates. Now it became clear that the war with Parthia would be longer and more difficult than expected (in fact, these wars will last for several centuries), the army should be replenished, first of all, with cavalry units, and also try to find allies. Crassus tried to solve the issue of financing a new military campaign by robbing the temples of foreign peoples: the Hittite-Aramaic goddess Derketo and the famous temple in Jerusalem - in which he confiscated temple treasures and 2,000 talents untouched by Pompey. They say that Crassus did not have time to spend the loot.
The new Parthian king tried to make peace with the Romans.
"What does the Roman people care about distant Mesopotamia"? The ambassadors asked him.
“Wherever the offended people are, Rome will come and protect them,” Crassus replied.
(Bill Clinton, both Bush, Barack Obama and other fighters for democracy give a standing ovation, but smile condescendingly at the same time - they know that Crassus has no aircraft or cruise missiles.)
The strength of the Romans seemed quite sufficient. According to modern estimates, 7 legions were subordinate to Mark Crassus, and the Gallic cavalry (about 1000 horsemen), headed by Crassus's son Publius, who had previously served with Julius Caesar. At the disposal of Crassus were auxiliary troops of the Asian allies: 4,000 lightly armed soldiers, about 3 thousand horsemen, including the warriors of Tsar Osroena and Edessa Abgar II, who also provided guides. Crassus also found another ally - the king of Armenia Artavazd, who proposed joint actions in the northeast of the Parthian possessions. However, Crassus did not want to climb into the mountainous area at all, leaving the Syria entrusted to him without cover. And therefore he ordered Artavazd to act independently, demanding to transfer to his disposal the Armenian heavy cavalry, which the Romans lacked.
Silver drachma Artavazda II
The situation in the spring of 53, it seemed, was developing successfully for him: the main forces of the Parthians (including almost all infantry formations), led by Orod II, went to the border with Armenia, and Crassus was opposed by a relatively small army of the Parthian commander Surena (the hero of the recently ended civil war, in which his role was decisive). Parthia, in fact, was not a kingdom, but an empire, on the territory of which many peoples lived, who sent their military units to the monarch as required. It seemed that the heterogeneity of military formations should have become the reason for the weakness of the Parthian army, but in the course of further wars it turned out that a good commander, like a designer, could assemble an army from them for war in any terrain and with any enemy - for all occasions. Nevertheless, the infantry units of Rome were far superior to the Parthian infantry, and in the right battle they had every chance of success. But the Parthians outnumbered the Romans in cavalry. It was the cavalry units that were mainly at Surena now: 10 thousand horse archers and 1 thousand cataphracts - heavily armed mounted warriors.
The head of a Parthian warrior found during excavations at Nisa
Roman legionaries and Parthian horsemen at the Battle of Carrhae
Unable to come to an agreement with Crassus, Artavazd entered into negotiations with King Orod, who offered to marry his son to the daughter of the Armenian king. Rome was far away, Parthia was close, and therefore Artavazd did not dare to refuse him.
And Crassus, relying on Artavazd, lost time: for 2 months he waited for the promised Armenian cavalry, and, without waiting for her, set out on a campaign not in early spring, as planned, but in the hot season.
Just a few crossings from the border with Syria was the Parthian city of Karra (Harran), in which the Greek population predominated, and from the year 54 there was a Roman garrison. At the beginning of June, the main forces of Mark Crassus approached him, but, trying to find the enemy as quickly as possible, they moved further into the desert. About 40 km from Carr, by the Ballis River, the Roman troops met with the army of Surena. Faced with the Parthians, the Romans did not "reinvent the wheel" and acted quite traditionally, one might even say stereotyped: the legionnaires lined up in a square, in which the warriors alternately replaced each other in the front line, allowing the "barbarians" to tire and exhaust themselves in constant attacks. Lightly armed soldiers and cavalry took refuge in the center of the square. The flanks of the Roman army were commanded by Crassus's son Publius and the quaestor Gaius Cassius Longinus - a man who would later change Pompey and Caesar in turn, become Brutus's comrade-in-arms and very "substitute" him, committing suicide at the most inopportune moment - after the almost won battle of Philippi. Yes, and with Crassus, he, in the end, will not come out very nicely. In the "Divine Comedy" Dante placed Cassius in the 9th circle of Hell - along with Brutus and Judas Iscariot, he is called there the greatest traitor in the history of mankind, all three are always tormented by the jaws of the three-headed Beast - Satan.
"Lucifer devours Judas Iscariot" (and also Brutus and Cassius). Bernardino Stagnino, Italy, 1512
So, a huge Roman square moved forward, showered with arrows from Parthian archers - they did not cause much damage to the Romans, but among them there were quite a few slightly wounded. The Roman arrows from the center of the square responded to the Parthians, not allowing them to get too close. Surena tried several times to attack the Roman formation with heavy cavalry, and the first attack was accompanied by a truly impressive demonstration of Parthian power. Plutarch writes:
“Having frightened the Romans with these sounds (of drums, hung with rattles), the Parthians suddenly threw off their covers and appeared before the enemy, like flames - themselves in helmets and armor made of Margian, dazzlingly sparkling steel, while their horses were in armor of copper and iron. Surena himself appeared, huge in stature and the most beautiful of all."
Parthian archers and cataphractors
But the Roman square survived - the cataphracts could not break through it. Crassus, in turn, threw his cavalry units into a counterattack several times - and also without much success. The situation was stalemate. The Parthians could not stop the movement of the Roman square, and the Romans slowly moved forward, but they could go like this for at least a week - without any benefit to themselves, and without the slightest harm to the Parthians.
And then Surena imitated the retreat of part of his forces on the flank, which was commanded by Publius. Deciding that the Parthians finally wavered, Crassus gave his son the order to attack the retreating forces with one legion, a detachment of Gallic cavalry and 500 archers. Clouds of dust raised by the hooves of horses prevented Crassus from watching what was happening, but since the onslaught of the Parthians at that moment weakened, he, already confident of the success of the maneuver, lined up his army on a nearby hill and calmly awaited messages of victory. It was this moment of the battle that became fatal and determined the defeat of the Romans: Mark Crassus did not recognize the military cunning of Surena, and his son was too carried away by the pursuit of the Parthians who were retreating before him, he came to his senses only when his units were surrounded by superior enemy forces. Surena did not throw his soldiers into battle with the Romans - by his order, they were methodically shot from bows.
Battle of Carrhae, illustration
Here is Plutarch's account of this episode:
“Blowing up the plain with their hooves, the Parthian horses raised such a huge cloud of sand dust that the Romans could neither see clearly nor speak freely. Squeezed in a small space, they collided with each other and, struck by enemies, did not die an easy and not quick death, but writhed from unbearable pain and, rolling with arrows stuck into the body on the ground, broke them off in the wounds themselves; trying to pull out the jagged points that penetrated through the veins and veins, they tore and tormented themselves. Many died in this way, but the rest were unable to defend themselves. And when Publius urged them to strike at the armored horsemen, they showed him their hands, pinned to their shields, and their legs, pierced through and pinned to the ground, so that they were not capable of either fleeing or defending."
Publius still managed to lead a desperate attempt by the Gauls to break through to the main forces, but they could not resist the cataphractarii.
Parthian cataphractarium
Having lost almost all their horses, the Gauls retreated, Publius was seriously wounded, the remnants of his detachment, having retreated to a nearby hill, continued to die from Parthian arrows. In this situation Publius, “not owning the hand that was pierced by the arrow, ordered the squire to hit him with the sword and offered him a side” (Plutarch). Many Roman officers followed suit. The fate of ordinary soldiers was sad:
"The rest, who were still fighting, the Parthians, climbing the slope, pierced with spears, and they say they took no more than five hundred people alive. Then, cutting off the heads of Publius and his comrades" (Plutarch).
The head of Publius, impaled on a spear, was carried in front of the Roman system. Seeing her, Crassus shouted to his soldiers: "This is not yours, but my loss!" Seeing this, the "ally and friend of the Roman People" King Abgar went over to the side of the Parthians, who, meanwhile, having covered the Roman system in a semicircle, resumed shelling, periodically throwing the cataphracts into the attack. As we remember, Crassus before that placed his army on a hill, and this was his next mistake: out of the blue, the warriors of the first rows blocked their comrades in the back rows from arrows, on the hill almost all the ranks of the Romans were open for shelling. But the Romans held out until the evening, when the Parthians finally stopped their attacks, informing Crassus that they would "grant him one night to mourn his son."
Surena withdrew his army, leaving the morally broken Romans to bandage the wounded and count the losses. But, nevertheless, speaking about the results of this day, the defeat of the Romans cannot be called devastating, and the losses - incredibly heavy and unacceptable. The army of Crassus did not flee, was completely controlled and, as before, outnumbered the Parthian. Having lost a significant part of the cavalry, it was hardly possible to count on further movement forward, but it was quite possible to retreat in an organized manner - after all, the city of Karra with a Roman garrison was about 40 km away, and further lay the well-known road to Syria, from where reinforcements could be expected. However, Crassus, who kept himself pretty good all that day, fell into apathy at night and actually withdrew from the command. The quaestor Cassius and the legate Octavius, on their own initiative, convened a council of war, at which it was decided to retreat to the Carram. At the same time, the Romans left about 4 thousand wounded to fend for themselves, who could interfere with their movement - all of them were killed by the Parthians the next day. In addition, 4 cohorts of the legate Varguntius, who had gone astray, were surrounded and destroyed. The Romans' fear of the Parthians was already so great that having safely reached the city, they did not move further from it - to Syria, but remained in the ghostly hope of getting help from Artavazd and retreating with him through the mountains of Armenia. Surena invited the Roman soldiers to go home, giving him their officers, first of all - Crassus and Cassius. This proposal was rejected, but the trust between soldiers and commanders now could not be remembered. In the end, the officers persuaded Crassus to leave Carr - but not openly, in a formation ready for battle, but at night, secretly, and, completely discouraged, the commander allowed himself to be persuaded. Everyone in our country knows that "normal heroes always go around". Following this popular wisdom, Crassus decided to go to the northeast - through Armenia, while trying to choose the worst roads, hoping that the Parthians would not be able to use their cavalry on them. The beginning traitor Cassius, meanwhile, completely got out of control, as a result, with 500 horsemen, he returned to Carry and from there safely returned to Syria - the same way that the entire army of Crassus had recently come to this city. Another high-ranking officer of Crassus, legate Octavius, still remained loyal to his commander, and once even saved him, already surrounded by the Parthians from shameful captivity. Experiencing great hardships on the chosen path, the remnants of Crassus's army nevertheless slowly moved forward. Surena, having released some of the prisoners, again proposed to discuss the terms of an armistice and a free exit to Syria. But Syria was already close, and Crassus already saw the end of this sad path in front of him. Therefore, he refused to negotiate, but here the nerves of the ordinary soldiers, who were in constant tension, could not stand the nerves, who, according to Plutarch:
“They raised a cry, demanding negotiations with the enemy, and then began to revile and blaspheme Crassus for throwing them into battle against those with whom he himself did not even dare to enter into negotiations, although they were unarmed. Crassus made an attempt to convince them, saying that after spending the rest of the day in the mountainous, rugged terrain, they would be able to move at night, showed them the way and persuaded them not to lose hope when salvation was near. But they went into a rage and, thundering with their weapons, began to threaten him."
As a result, Crassus was forced to go to negotiations, in which he and the legate Octavius were killed. Tradition claims that the Parthians executed Crassus by pouring molten gold into his throat, which, of course, is unlikely. The head of Crassus was delivered to Tsar Horod on the day of the marriage of his son with the daughter of Artabazd. A specially invited Greek troupe gave the tragedy of Euripides "Bacchae" and the fake head, which was to be used during the action, was replaced by the head of the hapless triumvir.
Many of Crassus's soldiers surrendered, according to Parthian custom, they were sent to carry out guard and garrison service to one of the outskirts of the empire - to Merv. 18 years later, during the siege of the Shishi fortress, the Chinese saw previously unknown soldiers: "more than a hundred infantrymen lined up on each side of the gate and built in the form of fish scales" (or "carp scales"). The famous Roman "tortoise" is easily recognizable in this system: the warriors cover themselves with shields from all sides and from above. The Chinese fired at them with crossbows, inflicting heavy losses, and then finally defeated them with an attack of heavy cavalry. After the fall of the fortress, over a thousand of these strange soldiers were taken prisoner and divided among the 15 rulers of the western border regions. And in 2010, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that in the northwest of China, near the border of the Gobi Desert, there is a village of Litsian, whose inhabitants differ from their neighbors in blond hair, blue eyes and longer noses. Perhaps they are the descendants of the very Roman soldiers who came to Mesopotamia with Crassus, were resettled in Sogdiana and again captured, already by the Chinese.
Of those Crassus soldiers who scattered around the area, most were killed, and only a few returned to Syria. The horrors they told of the Parthian army made a great impression in Rome. Since then, the expression "shoot the Parthian arrow" has come to mean an unexpected and harsh response, capable of perplexing and perplexing the interlocutor. The lost "Eagles" of Crassus's legions were returned to Rome only under Octavian Augustus - in 19 BC, this was achieved not by military, but by diplomatic means. In honor of this event, a temple was built and a coin was minted. The slogan "revenge for Crassus and his army" was very popular in Rome for many years, but campaigns against the Parthians did not have much success, and the border between Rome and Parthia, and then between the New Persian kingdom and Byzantium, remained inviolable for several centuries.
