The Carrhae Campaign

[Dan]

The latest fine edition of the Parthian Shot contains a shortened version of an article I wrote on Carrhae. Within the next week I intend to post a fuller version and/or some longer discussions of a few aspects of this campaign, which I reckon to be amongst the most important in Western history. If there's anything in particular you think I should give more detail on, please let me know!

[Dan]

Before looking at the Carrhae campaign in detail, it is important to understand the people involved, especially the Roman commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus. He is portrayed by Plutarch, our main source for the campaign, as a foolish and incompetent old man who was constantly led astray by the locals, refused vital aid from cooperative allies and was generally the villain of the campaign. Plutarch instead sings the praises of one of Crassus’ lieutenants, Cassius Longinus, of whom more later.

Crassus had been born to a wealthy and reasonably distinguished aristocratic family, but the family wealth was largely confiscated during the early part of the civil war between Marius and Sulla in the 80s BC. Crassus himself went into hiding in Spain, where he raised an army. He joined Sulla and was acclaimed the hero of the decisive battle of the war, the battle of the Colline Gate, where his cavalry saved Sulla’s army. He was richly rewarded: Sulla took to purging his enemies, even going so far as to post lists of the proscribed in the Forum. Once your name was posted you could be hunted down and killed by gangs of bounty hunters who would then claim a reward. The property of the proscribed was confiscated by the State. Crassus quickly got in on the act and names were soon appearing on the lists for no other reason than that Crassus (or any one of several other equally unscrupulous minions of Sulla) coveted their property.

Crassus’ wealth grew enormously in the years that followed, even after his public falling out with Sulla (which was probably caused by Crassus’ continued exploitation of the proscribed lists). Perhaps his most famous trick was his employment of a personal fire brigade. Rome lacked a public fire service and as a result fire would tend to destroy whole neighbourhoods. Crassus would rush to the scene and buy up the area at a knockdown price, the owners having the choice of selling or watching their property burn and lose everything. As soon as he owned the land, Crassus would have his men tear down the buildings around the fire and thus preserve the neighbourhood. He came to own vast areas of the city, and it has been estimated that his personal income was quite possibly equal to that of the Roman treasury, and this at a time when the Empire stretched encompassed the huge silver mines of Spain, the whole of Italy and the Balkans, much of North Africa and Mesopotamia. Crassus was, by this stage, quite possibly the richest man in history.

Crassus turned his hand to politics (as all wealthy noblemen did) and his wealth helped him rise to one magistracy after another. He was cunning and ruthless and was soon regarded, following the death of Sulla and the return of the Republic, as the most feared and dangerous man in Rome. There was, however, a constant shadow over his career. That shadow was cast by the people’s darling, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus: Pompey the Great.

Pompey was a young man who, like Crassus, had raised an army and joined Sulla in the civil war. His victories in the civil war had been spectacular and his troops had hailed him as ‘magnus’ – the great. This title had been confirmed by Sulla, who had also granted Pompey a triumph: a great parade through Rome, in which the victorious general was dressed as a god and rode through the streets in a chariot. It was the highest honour that could be granted to a general, and Crassus had not received one. After the civil war Pompey went to Spain to continue fighting the remnants of Marius’ adherents and news reached Rome of his spectacular successes. Pompey’s brilliance as a general was and is beyond doubt. In later years he would conquer the East and when vast numbers of pirates were terrorising the Mediterranean, even burning Rome’s harbour and kidnapping the daughter of a consul, Pompey swept them from the sea in less the 4 months. He would only be defeated by Caesar, and even then he had thoroughly outmanoeuvred the enemy and lost because orders from the Senate compelled him to fight against his better judgment.

His success and his youth (he was not yet 30 when fighting Spain) meant that Pompey’s name was on everybody’s lips as Crassus eyed his bid for election to the consulship. This office, held jointly by two people at a time, was the highest in the land. Held for a year, it was essentially a joint monarchy for the year. What was worse, Pompey had finished off the Marians in Spain and was returning to Rome. Crassus needed a big success and needed it now. Then came Spartacus.

What started as a small breakout of gladiators from Campania escalated into a massive army ravaging Italy. No fewer than three Roman armies were wiped out, and the slave army kept growing. Crassus was appointed to put the rebellion down. He raised an army out of his own pocket (he had once famously boasted that a man was not really rich until he could maintain his own army and now he proved it) and led it against Spartacus. Crassus brought the slaves to bay and the two sides met in pitched battle. The rebel army was comprehensively beaten and scattered. Crassus turned for home, pausing to crucify 6000 prisoners along the Appian Way, the main road to Rome.

Crassus had saved the Republic from a very real threat. Yet his thunder was again stolen by Pompey who, on his way to Rome, had encountered a small remnant of Spartacus’ army, fleeing Crassus’ forces. Pompey wiped them out and wrote to the Senate declaring that he had finished off the rebellion. Next, the Senate awarded Pompey a triumph for his campaigns in Spain, but Crassus received only the lesser honour of an ovation. He had saved the country and been snubbed in favour of his great rival again.

Crassus seems at this point to have decided that if he couldn’t beat Pompey he may as well join him. The two ran on a joint ticket for the consulship and were elected unopposed. Their year of office began with success, repealing many of Sulla’s less popular laws and in due course both moved on to their provincial commands. Crassus also ingratiated himself with the population by hosting a public banquet at 10,000 tables and giving each family in the city a gift of 3 months’ worth of grain, all at his own vast expense. By the end of their term, however, the two were back at each others’ throats, and from then on their enmity became a fixture of Roman politics.

Perhaps Crassus’ greatest legacy comes from the fact that his enormous wealth a used to fund the early career of a young dandy of excellent breeding (his family claimed descent from the Trojan prince Aeneas, who was himself the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, known to the Romans as Venus). This young man, who without Crassus’ financial backing could scarcely have hoped to achieve any very significant office, was ultimately to bring down the whole Roman Republic. His name was Gaius Julius Caesar.

With the backing first of Crassus and then of Pompey (who also married Caesar’s daughter, Julia), Caesar attained a succession of posts, including a military command in Spain, where his abilities surprised the many people who had thought him simply a fashionable politician. After this campaign, Caesar was elected to the consulship, in which post he managed a feat of diplomacy that had seemed impossible: he forged an alliance between Crassus and Pompey. This he achieved by persuading Crassus to back a bill awarding land to the veterans of Pompey’s campaigns and creating a commission to oversee the distribution. This commission was to be run by Pompey and Crassus, who thereby increased their already obscene wealth and also gained popularity. The alliance of these three men, known to history as the First Triumvirate, ha almost complete control over the Empire.

At the end of his consulship Caesar himself, with the backing of the other triumvirs, was awarded the command of several provinces, including Gaul, where he would spend the next 10 years waging a series of brilliant, and completely illegal, wars.

He kept his eye on Rome, however. Pompey and Crassus continued their feud, each of them now eying an Eastern command, and the wealth and glory it offered. The triumvirate seemed to have been rent apart, and unless Pompey and Crassus united in his favour, there would be little Caesar could do to prevent his recall to Rome for trial on charges of waging illegal wars.

In the face of this disaster, Caesar swiftly negotiated a further peace between his colleagues,. They defeated the attempt to recall Caesar (compelling the cooperation of the great orator Cicero in doing so). They then both stood for the consulship. Caesar gave many of his troops special leave from Gaul and they flooded into Rome with orders to vote for Crassus and Pompey, both of whom were promptly elected.

At the end of their year of office, Crassus and Pompey were each awarded 5-year commands. Pompey went to Spain and Crassus to Syria, whence he would march on Parthia and ultimately meet his downfall at Carrhae.

What we can see from this brief outline is that Crassus was not only wealthy beyond imagining, but he was also an astute, not to say devious, politician. He was cunning and ruthless. He was also an experienced and highly competent general. In his 60s, he was not senile, as later generations would hint, but was one of the three most powerful men in Rome. We should therefore treat with caution the allegations of incompetence that we shall encounter when we look at the Carrhae campaign itself.