DEATH AT
CARRHAE
the army commanded by Crassus totaled 43,000 men,
who arrived at Carrhae exhausted from crossing the des-
ert. Surenas, the Parthian commander, awaited them on
the outskirts of this city, but he only ordered a fraction of
his 11,000 men to leave the cover of the dunes and pro-
voke the Romans into attack. After the initial skirmishes,
Crassus ordered his legions to adopt a square forma-
tion, with the cavalry, led by his son Publius, covering
the sides. Surenas then ordered his thousands of archers
on horseback to attack, but avoiding direct contact af-
ter every barrage. Meanwhile, the heavy cavalry of the
cataphracts (horses and horsemen protected by armor)
surrounded the legions.publius tried to counterattack, but the cataphracts
drew back and managed to isolate the Roman cavalry,
picking them off one by one. Crassus was transfixed
with horror upon seeing his son’s head stuck on a pike.
He waited for the enemy to exhaust their arrows before
launching a counterattack, but Surenas’s troops had a
camel caravan with seemingly endless reserves. Arrows
only stopped raining down on the Romans at night, so
they tried to retreat then. In the morning, 70 percent of
his army had been slaughtered, and Crassus was killed
during the peace negotiations he was trying to conduct.THIS PAGE AND RIGHT:
AKG/ALBUM
ROMAN SOLDIERS ARE OVERWHELMED
BY PARTHIAN FORCES IN THIS
ILLUSTRATION BY GIUSEPPE RAVA.SCALES FORM THE ARMOR OF RIDERS AND
HORSES IN THIS PLASTER CAST OF TRAJAN’S
COLUMN IN ROME. THIS STYLE OF ARMORED
CAVALRY, KNOWN AS A CATAPHRACT,
DELIVERED THE KNOCKOUT BLOW TO
CRASSUS AT CARRHAE IN 53 B.C.