(Redirected from Marcus Crassus)
'Marcus
Licinius Crassus ' (
Latin:
M·LICINIVS·P·F·P·N·CRASSVS[1]) (ca.
115 BC –
53 BC) was a
Roman general and
politician who commanded
Sulla's decisive victory at Colline gate, suppressed the
slave revolt led by
Spartacus and entered into a secret pact, known as the
First Triumvirate, with
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and
Gaius Julius Caesar. One of the richest men of the era, Crassus still hankered for recognition for military victories in the shape of a
triumph. This desire for a triumph led him into Syria, where he was killed after the disastrous
Roman defeat at Carrhae.
Crassus's significance in world history, however, stems from his financial and political support of the impoverished young
Julius Caesar, which support allowed Caesar to embark upon his own political career.
Biography
Marcus Licinius Crassus was apparently the third and youngest son of
Publius Licinius Crassus Dives, a man who had himself been consul in 97 BC and censor 89 BC. One brother died during the Social War; his father and another brother were killed or committed suicide to evade capture during the Marian purges in December 87 BC.
Crassus's grandfather was Marcus Licinius Crassus Agelastus, of whom little is known. This grandfather was descended from a consul and censor
Publius Licinius Crassus Dives, best known for being
Pontifex Maximus (from 212 BC to his death 183 BC) and consul (in 205 BC) and political ally of the Roman general and statesman
Scipio Africanus. Crassus could therefore claim to be descended from a man who was successively elected Pontifex Maximus, censor, and then consul, in a rather unusual chronological order. Crassus's own father was himself consul and censor.
Crassus and his brothers were apparently raised together in a small modest house despite the family's great inherited wealth and his father's immense personal fortune. As was customary, the two elder brothers lived with their parents and youngest brother even after they married and had children.
After the Marian purges and the sudden death subsequently of
Gaius Marius, the surviving consul
Lucius Cornelius Cinna (better-known as father-in-law of
Julius Caesar) imposed proscriptions on those surviving Roman senators and equestrians who had supported
Lucius Cornelius Sulla in his 88 BC march on Rome and overthrow of the traditional Roman political arrangements. (In Sulla's defence, he had marched on Rome only when Gaius Marius and a tribune of the plebs removed Sulla, while consul, from his legally granted command of the army designated to attack
Mithridates. Some of those Romans, like the elder Publius Licinius Crassus and his sons who had supported Sulla, had done so, believing that they were supporting a restoration of the ''
mos maiorum'').
Cinna's proscription forced Crassus to flee to
Hispania. After Cinna's death in 84 BC, Crassus went to the Roman province of
Africa where adherents of Sulla were gathering. When
Sulla invaded Italy after returning from partial successes in the inconclusive
Second Mithridatic War, Crassus joined Sulla and
Metellus Pius, Sulla's closest ally. He was given command of the right wing in the
Battle of the Colline Gate when the remaining Marian adherents and the surviving
Samnites marched on Rome in a last-ditch bid to oust Sulla from Rome. The Colline Gate was one of the entrances into Rome through the Servian Walls; Crassus and his troops ensured Sulla's victory including destruction of the surviving Samnite troops and any other military opposition.
Rise to power
Marcus Licinius Crassus's next concern was to rebuild the fortunes of his family, which had been confiscated during the Marian-Cinnan proscriptions. Sulla's own
prosciptions ensured that his survivors would recoup their lost fortunes from the fortunes of wealthy adherents to
Gaius Marius or
Lucius Cornelius Cinna. Proscriptions meant that their political enemies lost their fortunes and their lives; that their female relatives (notably, widows and widowed daughters) were forbidden to remarry; and that in some cases, their families's hopes of rebuilding their fortunes and political significance were destroyed. Crassus is said to have made part of his money from proscriptions, notably the proscription of one man whose name was not initially on the list of those proscribed but was added by Crassus who coveted the man's fortune.
[2]
The rest of Crassus's wealth was acquired more conventionally, through traffic in slaves, the working of silver mines, and judicious purchases of land and houses, especially those of
proscribed citizens. Most notorious was his acquisition of burning houses: when Crassus received word that a house was on fire, he would arrive and purchase the (apparently lost) property along with surrounding buildings for a modest sum, and then employ his army of 500
clients to put the fire out before much damage had been done. Crassus's clients employed the Roman method of firefighting -- destroying the burning building to curtail the spread of the flames.
By Sulla's death in 79 BC or later, Marcus Licinius Crassus had become a powerful figure in
Roman politics on account of his great wealth; he was nicknamed ''Dives'', meaning "rich". This cognomen had been also given to his father and to his ancestor, the consul of 205 BC, and to other relatives. Crassus was thus not the first Roman to be nicknamed "Dives".
After rebuilding his fortune, Crassus's next concern was his political career. As an adherent of Sulla, and the wealthiest man in Rome, and a man who hailed from a line of consuls and praetors, Crassus's political future was apparently assured. His problem was that despite his military successes, he was eclipsed by his contemporary
Pompey the Great who blackmailed the dictator Sulla into granting him a triumph for victory in Africa over a rag-tag group of dissident Romans; a first in Roman history on several counts. (For one, Pompey was not even a praetor, on which grounds a triumph had been denied in 206 BC to the great
Scipio Africanus who had brought Rome an entire province in Hispania. For another, Pompey had defeated fellow Romans; however, a precedent had been set when the consul
Lucius Julius Caesar (a relative of the
Julius Caesar) had been granted a triumph for a small victory over Italian peoples in the
Social War). Yet, until 82 BC, no triumph had been granted to any Roman for victory over another Roman general). Crassus's rivalry with Pompey and his envy of Pompey's triumph would influence his subsequent career.
Crassus and Spartacus
Crassus was rising steadily up the political ladder (see
cursus honorum) when ordinary Roman politics was interrupted by two events - firstly, the
Third Mithridatic War, and secondly, the
Third Servile War, which was the organized two-year rebellion of many Roman slaves under the leadership of
Spartacus. Rome's best general
Lucius Licinius Lucullus (consul in 74 BC) was sent to defeat Mithridates, followed shortly by his brother Varro Lucullus (consul in 73 BC). Pompey had been sent to
Hispania to defeat
Quintus Sertorius, the last effective Marian general, and had nearly failed in that effort. (Pompey succeeded only when and because Sertorius was assassinated by one of his own commanders).
The Senate did not initially take the slave rebellion seriously, until it became clear that Rome itself was under threat. Crassus offered to equip, train, and lead new troops, at his own expense, after several legions had been defeated and their commanders killed in battle or taken prisoner. Finally, Crassus was sent into battle against
Spartacus by the Senate. Initially, Crassus had trouble both in anticipating Spartacus's moves and in inspiring his army. For the latter, he employed the tactic of
decimation, in a legion that had retreated from battle. This tactic, although effective in inspiring (or persuading) the rest of the men, did not win him love from his soldiers or respect from the Roman populace.
Crassus tried to pen up Spartacus in the extreme south of Italy, by building a wall across the boot of Italy. However, Spartacus and his army broke out, by employing subterfuge (in a tactic borrowed from Hannibal, who had been similarly penned up by
Fabius Maximus). Some time later, when Roman armies led by Pompey and Varro Lucullus were recalled to Italy and about to land, Spartacus decided to fight rather than find himself and his army trapped between three Roman armies, two of them blooded overseas. In this last battle, Crassus gained a decisive victory, and captured six thousand slaves alive. Spartacus himself was killed in the battle. The six thousand captured slaves who had rebelled under Spartacus were crucified along the
Via Appia by Crassus's orders. Also, under his orders, the bodies of the slaves were not taken down afterwards but remained rotting along Rome's principal route to the South. This was intended as an object lesson to anyone that might think of revolting against Rome in the future.
Crassus won the Third Servile War, but his rival Pompey would steal his victory with a letter to the Senate claiming credit for ending the war. (This caused much strife between Pompey and Crassus, which would later be mended by Caesar). Crassus was only honored with an
ovation (lesser than a triumph) although the danger to Rome and the destruction to Roman lives and property much greater. Crassus's animosity towards the upstart Pompey increased as a result.
Soon afterwards, Crassus was nevertheless elected
consul with Pompey for
70 BC. In that year, he displayed his wealth by entertaining the populace at 10,000 tables and distributing sufficient grain to last each family three months.
Later career
In
65 BC Crassus was elected
censor with another conservative
Quintus Lutatius Catulus (himself son of a consul and a patrilineal relative of
Julius Caesar. During that decade, Crassus was Caesar's patron in all but name, financing Caesar's successful campaign to become
Pontifex Maximus (despite all but abandoning his post as the priest of Jupiter or ''
flamen dialis'') and his efforts to win command of military campaigns. Caesar's mediation between Crassus and Pompey led in
60 BC, to the creation of the coalition between Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar (by now consul), known as the
First Triumvirate. This coalition would last until Crassus's own death
In
55 BC he was again consul with Pompey, and a law was passed assigning the provinces of the two Hispanias and
Syria to Pompey and Crassus respectively for five years.
Crassus in Syria
Crassus received Syria as his province, which promised to be an inexhaustible source of wealth. It would have been had he not also sought
military glory and crossed the
Euphrates in an attempt to conquer
Parthia. Crassus was reportedly the richest man in Rome, and attacked Parthia not only because of its great wealth, but because of a desire to match the military exploits of his two major rivals, Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar, and indeed those of Alexander the Great. We are told that the King of Armenia offered Crassus the aid of some forty-thousand troops on the condition that Crassus invade through Armenia that the king could provide for his troops. Crassus refused, and invaded across the Euphrates. His legions were defeated at
Carrhae (modern
Harran in
Turkey) in
53 BC by a numerically inferior Parthian force composed mainly of armoured heavy cavalry and horse archers. Crassus' legions were unable to maneuver as swiftly as their opponents. Crassus refused his quaestor
Gaius Cassius Longinus' plans to reconstitute the Roman battle line, and remained in the
testudo formation. Subsequently Crassus' men, being near
mutiny, demanded he
parley with the Parthians, who had offered to meet with him. Crassus, despondent at the death of his son in the battle, finally agreed to meet the Parthian general. Upon his arrival in the Parthian camp he was seized and killed. Legend has it that Crassus was killed by having molten
gold poured down his throat to finally sate his thirst for wealth, though this is possibly a rumor spread by his many Roman enemies after the fact.
Chronology
★ ca.
115 BC - Crassus Born
★
97 BC - Father is
Consul of
Rome
★
87 BC - Crassus flees to
Hispania from
Marian Forces
★
84 BC - Joins
Sulla against Marians
★
78 BC -
Sulla dies
★
74 BC - Revolt of
Spartacus
★
73 BC - Crassus is
praetor
★
71 BC - Crassus defeats
Spartacus
★
70 BC - Consulship of Crassus and
Pompey
★
65 BC - Crassus is Censor
★
63 BC -
Catiline Conspiracy
★
59 BC -
First Triumvirate formed.
Caesar is Consul
★
56 BC - Conference at
Luca
★
55 BC - Second consulship of Crassus and
Pompey. In November, Crassus leaves for Syria
★
54 BC - Campaign against the
Parthians
★
53 BC - Crassus dies immediately after the
Battle of Carrhae
Fictional Depictions
★ Marcus Licinius Crassus is a
principal character in the 1960 film ''
Spartacus'', played by actor
Laurence Olivier. The film is based on
Howard Fast's 1951
novel of the same name.
★ Marcus Crassus, along with Palene, is one of the two narrators in ''
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of Spartacus''. He is played by
Anthony Hopkins.
★ Marcus Licinius Crassus is a
principal character in the 2004 TV film, ''
Spartacus'', played by actor
Angus Macfadyen.
★ Crassus is a major character in the novels ''
Fortune's Favourites'' and ''
Caesar's Women'' by
Colleen McCullough. He is portrayed as a brave but mediocre general, a brilliant financier, and a true friend of Caesar's.
★ He also appeared in Npc game Spatan total warrior as one of the first enemys when you have to fight him in the last stand third level where the Romans capture Medusa and he also uses her Shelid which turns men into stone after the Spartan kills him he gets the shield he appers in the game as a rough english accent and has a scar over his left eye.
Notes
1. In English: "Marcus Licinius Crassus, son of Publius, grandson of Publius"
2. (Plutarch, Life of Crassus, 6 (trans. Perrin, 1916). "It is said that in Bruttium he actually proscribed a man without Sulla's orders, merely to get his property, and that for this reason Sulla, who disapproved of his conduct, never employed him again on public business.")
References
Primary sources
★ Plutarch's Life of Crassus
'D' 'G' ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html 'L'
★ Cicero's letters
'G'
Secondary sources
★
Studies in Ancient Rome, Hennessy, Dianne., , , Thomas Nelson Australia, 1990, ISBN 0-17-007413-7
★
Rubicon, Holland, Tom., , , , 2003,
★
Marcus Licinius Crassus
External links
★
Crassus entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
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