strife between Protestants and Roman Catholics; and,
again, as governor-general of India (1805). He also aided
in finalizing the signing of the Peace Treaty of Amiens
(1802), a short-lived truce in the war between France
and England. His health began to fail when he sailed for
India in 1805, and he died on 5 October at Ghazipur
(now Uttar Pradesh) soon after arriving. He was laid to
rest in Ghazipur, and a memorial was installed over his
grave.
References: Seton-Kerr, Walter Scott, The Marquess
Cornwallis (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1890); Wick-
wire, Franklin B., and Mary Wickwire, Cornwallis: The
American Adventure (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970);
Ross, Charles, ed., Correspondence of Charles, First Mar-
quis Cornwallis, 3 vols. (London: John Murray, 1859);
Reese, George Henkle, comp., The Cornwallis Papers, 2
vols. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1970);
Aspinall, Arthur, Cornwallis in Bengal: The Administra-
tive and Judicial Reforms of Lord Cornwallis in Bengal...
(Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1931).
Crassus, Marcus Licinius (ca. 115–53 b.c.)
Roman general
The son of the consul and censor Publius Licinius
Crassus, who served as the Roman governor of Spain,
Marcus Crassus was born about 115 b.c. The elder
Crassus was killed—some historians claim he commit-
ted suicide—following the victory of the Roman gener-
als Marius and Cinna at Rome (87 b.c.) over the Roman
general Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138–78 b.c.); his eldest
son, Publius Crassus, was also killed in the clash, leav-
ing Marcus Crassus to escape to Spain with some of
his father’s supporters. There he hid in a cave for eight
months to avoid capture. When Cinna was killed, his
assistant Carbo took power, and Sulla aimed to take con-
trol of Rome. Crassus raised an army of about 2,500
soldiers and joined Sulla, who told him, “I give you an
escort—your father, your brother, your friends, and your
relations who have been put to death without law or
justice, and whose murderers I am going to punish.”
It was during Sulla’s wars against the powers of Rome
that Crassus served with another military commander,
Gnaeus Pompeius, better known as PomPey the Great.
Crassus rose to become one of Sulla’s most important
generals. He led Roman troops in action at Colline Gate
(November 82 b.c.), and many historians credit Crassus,
as the commander of Sulla’s right wing, of making moves
decisive to Sulla’s victory. However, Pompey was handed
the task of finishing the war against Mithridates. Sulla’s
complete control over Rome allowed Crassus to use his
family’s wealth to buy up large estates of those whom
Sulla had murdered. He then turned to politics, using
his influence to get certain people elected to the Roman
Senate, while he was made a praetor (governor).
In 73 b.c., the Roman slave Spartacus led a revolt
against the slaveholders of Rome. Sulla sent a praetor,
Claudius Glaber Clodius, to crush the insurrection; in-
stead, Spartacus’s forces conquered the Romans. Within
a year, some 100,000 slaves had joined Spartacus, and
he went on to defeat several small Roman armies in
northern Italy led by L. Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus
Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus. Because Pompey was in
Spain, the Roman Senate gave Crassus the title of com-
mander imperium to fight Spartacus, and he was given
six legions of troops. In their first battle, Spartacus won a
spectacular victory against two legions of Crassus’s army;
however, Crassus used the tactic of decimation—killing
every 10th man in his army as a punishment for de-
feat—as an incentive for his troops to fight better. He
then won the next battle, forcing Spartacus to withdraw
to the area of Rhegium in southern Italy. Boxed in, he
could not move to Sicily. Pompey was recalled from
Spain and sent against Spartacus as well as an army under
Marcus Licinius Lucullus from Macedonia. At the Siler
(now Petelia) River (71 b.c.), Crassus met Spartacus’s
force and crushed them; Spartacus is alleged to have died
in the battle, even though his body was never found.
Crassus crucified the survivors of Spartacus’s army along
the Appian Way, hanging some 6,000 of them, and re-
turned home to accolades. One of his aides was a young
military officer named Julius caesar.
For putting down the slave revolt, Crassus was
elected as a consul along with Pompey (in 70 b.c.), al-
though Pompey was the senior because of his military
victory in Spain. Crassus returned to his former work in
political circles, serving as a censor in 65 b.c. and work-
ing for land reform and decreased taxes.
Following his military victories in Gaul (now mod-
ern France), Caesar returned to Rome and formed the
so-called First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus. In
effect, however, Caesar was the real power, with Pompey
getting land for his soldiers and Crassus the decreased-
tax program he desired. By this time, Crassus and Pom-
pey were in opposition: Pompey supported the tribunecRASSuS, mARcuS liciniuS