Publius Clodius, while Crassus was a member of the
group who opposed Clodius. Caesar returned to Gaul,
where he served as governor. He met Crassus at Ravenna
(Italy) in 56 b.c. in an attempt to soothe the latter’s
worries over the leadership of Rome. As appeasement,
Crassus was appointed governor of Syria.
As Syria’s governor, Crassus decided to crush an
enemy of Rome, Parthia. This nation (in today’s Turkey)
once dominated what is now the Middle East and was
a leading opponent to Rome’s ambitions for power in
the area. In 55 b.c., working with his son Publius Li-
cinius Crassus, who had served under Caesar in Gaul,
Crassus assembled a huge force of some 30,000 men.
He crossed the Euphrates River, and, in 53 b.c., met
the Parthian army under Surena (some historians report
his name as Sillaces) at Carrhae. An Arab chieftain, Ari-
amnes, convinced Crassus that the Parthian army was
small; actually, Ariamnes was in the Parthians’ employ
and had duped Crassus. The battle turned out to be a di-
saster for the Romans, as historian George Bruce writes:
“[T]he Parthians, entirely cavalry, adopted their usual
tactics of retiring and drawing their foes in pursuit. As
the heavily armed legionaires became strung out across
the plain, they turned upon them and cut them down in
detail, 500 Romans being made prisoners and the rest
... killed.” Crassus’s son Publius was one of the casu-
alties on the battlefield. Crassus was captured; the Par-
thian king, Horodes (also Orodes), ordered his head cut
off and molten gold poured into it. Horodes allegedly
said as the gold was poured into Crassus’s severed head,
“Now sate thyself with the metal of which thou wert so
greedy when alive.”
References: Adcock, Frank E., Marcus Crassus, Millionaire
(Cambridge, U.K.: Heffer, 1966); Ward, Allen Mason,
Marcus Crassus and the Late Roman Republic (Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 1977); Bruce, George, “Car-
rhae,” in Collins Dictionary of Wars (Glasgow, Scotland:
HarperCollins Publishers, 1995), 51.
Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658) English military
commander, lord protector of England
Oliver Cromwell was born the son of a small land-
owner on 25 April 1599 in Huntingdon, Huntingdon-
shire, near Cambridge, England. One of his ancestors,
Thomas Cromwell, served as a minister to King Henry
VIII. Cromwell received his education at Sidney Sussex
College, Cambridge University, where he went through
a religious conversion, leaving him with Puritan beliefs.
He also studied at Lincoln’s Inn, one of the four Inns
of Court of English law. However, he did not become
a lawyer, instead returning to his small estate in Cam-
bridge. In 1628, he was elected to the House of Com-
mons for Huntingdon, and he later served in the Short
Parliament (April 1640), known for its brief duration.
During this time in the Commons, Cromwell sided
with the Scots in opposing King Charles I’s call for rais-
ing funds to restore the episcopacy to Scotland. In the
Long Parliament (August 1640 through April 1660),
Cromwell—reelected to the House of Commons from
Cambridge—became an outspoken critic of the king,
calling for increased constitutional safeguards against
monarchial powers and for the Parliament, not the king,
to name military commanders.
In 1642, years of disputes between Parliamentary
leaders and the king exploded in what has been called
the first English Civil War. Cromwell resigned his seat
in the Commons and took a commission as a captain of
horse, in charge of a cavalry regiment later to be called
the Ironsides. Though he did not have any military ex-
perience, he immediately showed innate skill, taking
control of his alma mater, Cambridge, before it could
be seized by royalist forces. At Edgehill on 23 October
1642, he fought under Robert Devereux, third earl of
essex. He wrote to the Parliamentarian John Hamp-
den that “old decayed serving men, and tapsters, and
such kind of fellows” would never fight “gentlemen that
have honour and courage and resolution in them....
You must get men of spirit... that [are] likely to go
as far as gentlemen will do, or else you will be beaten
still.” At Grantham on 13 May 1643, Cromwell first
displayed his gift for leadership, defeating a Royalist
force. At Gainsborough on 24 July 1643, he seized the
town after it had been lost by the Parliamentarian Lord
Willoughby eight days earlier. On 11 October 1643,
he was joined by General Lord Thomas fairfax in
crushing a Royalist force at Winceby. By now his ser-
vices were so exemplary that he was recognized with
two appointments: to a parliamentary committee of the
kingdoms of England and Scotland, established on 16
February 1644 to handle war matters, and to serve as
the second in command to Edward montagu, Lord
Manchester.
Cromwell’s efforts for Parliament continued: Lord
Newcastle, the Royalist general, took refuge in the city cRomwell, oliveR