NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 53and Africa while Crassus became governor of
the Syrian provinces. Crassus, who was about
60, still craved military glory and set his sights
on Parthia, an eastern empire in Mesopotamia,
and its king, Orodes II.
Crassus began his invasion in 53 B.C., but the
Parthians were not easily subdued. Writing
more than 200 years after Crassus’ death, Ro-
man historian Dio Cassius related an episode
where Crassus boasted to a Parthian ambassador
that he would take the western Parthian capital
Seleucia; the ambassador laughed, pointed at his
palm, and said: “Sooner will hair grow here than
you shall reach Seleucia.”
Crassus made a series of blunders, includ-
ing refusing an offer from the king of Arme-
nia for more soldiers if he would invade Parthia
from his country. Instead, Crassus chose to ad-
vance through the desert, a decision that left his
43,000 men tired and undernourished.
Near Carrhae, a town in what is now Turkey,
Crassus engaged the Parthian forces, led by Gen-
eral Surenas who fought with cunning and pa-
tience. Surenas dealt a stunning defeat, in which,
according to Plutarch: “In the whole campaign,
twenty thousand are said to have been killed, and
ten thousand to have been taken alive.” Among
the dead was Crassus’ own son.
Taken alive, Crassus met his own end at
Surenas’s hands. Historians agree Crassus was
slain at a meeting to discuss a truce, but sources
present different versions of what happened to
Crassus post-death. According to Plutarch, his
head and one hand are sent to King Orodes II.
Dio Cassius relates a more elaborate way of dis-
honoring Crassus’s remains: “And the Parthians,
as some say, poured molten gold into his mouth
in mockery.”^
After his death, the rivalry between Caesar
and Pompey exploded, plunging Rome into civil
war. Rather than bringing wealth and territory to
Rome, Crassus delivered Rome one of its worst
defeats and political instability. Military glory
had eluded the wealthiest man in Rome. Instead,
he became synonymous with the dangers of un-
bridled lust for money, power, and glory.OUT OF REACH
The army led by
Crassus never made
it to Ctesiphon
(above), the winter
capital of Parthia.
The Romans
were stopped in
their tracks and
massacred in the
town of Carrhae.ITALIAN HISTORIAN AND HISTORICAL NOVELIST ANDREA FREDIANI
IS A SPECIALIST IN ROME’S FIRST IMPERIAL DYNASTY.SCALA, FLORENCE