In 53 B.C. Rome suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Parthians. Seven legions comprising 28,000 heavy infantry plus 4,000 cavalry and light infantry equally, were cut to pieces on the sandy plains of Mesopotamia. Their commander, Marcos Licinius Crassus, lost his life, his son, his army and his reputation at the battle of Carrhae, (the modern Haran), 5,500 legionaires cut their way out to safety. 10,000 were taken prisoner. The rest died.

It is difficult to understand why Crassus mishandled this venture so badly. He ignored sound advice from his staff. He insultingly rejected proferred aid and advice from the King of Armenia, a Ronan ally. He accepted false aid and advice from an Arab chieftan, Ariannes, who took the Romans on a wild goose chase, then, with his 6,000 cavalry, abandoned them at the first sight of the Paethians. He dithered in disposing his troops for the battle, and finally payed the ultimate price when he trusted a Parthian offer of an 'honourable truce'.

Yet Crassus was not an incompetent. he, along with Pompey and Caesar, had carved the Roman Empire up into what amounted to three personal kingdoms. His share of the spoils was the fabulous east. He was probably a better politician than his compatriots, and he was certainly better financier. Plutarch reports that Crassus used to say that one could not consider himself rich it he could not support a legion on his annual income. He was not even a bad military commander. It was Crassus who had put down the dangerous Spartacus slave revolt, though Pompey grabbed the credit with a last minute appearance on the scene.

Perhaps that was part of his problem. This was an age when nothing led to power faster than a successful military campaign. Crassus needed that just to stay in the race with his rivals. He was just unlucky that he was pitted against two of the most brilliant military minds the Roman system ever produced. Plutarch makes another interesting comment on the character of Crassus, who was getting on in years:

"A new passion after trophies and triumphs, emulous of Caesar's exploits, not content to be beneath in these points though above him in all others, could not be at rest ...'

Had be reached an age when a man's character will sometines change in unpredictable ways? Would this ambitious driving man again find the fruit of his labor snatched away at the last moment by a popular younger rival?

Whatever the state of his mind, he badly misplayed the cards dealt him on that fateful day. His thirsty tired army stood at bay on that hot and dusty plain, surrounded by a enemy they could not close with and abandoned by the perfidious Arab light cavalry that could have made the difference.

Plutarch sets the miserable scene,

"driven in upon one another in one close body, ... hit and killed, dying not by a quick and east death ... for writhing upon the darts in their bodies, they broke then in their wounds, and when they would by force pluck out the barbed points ... they tore and tortured themselves."

Trivia Question

As to our Trivia of the Month question, we will never know what happened to the majority of the prisoners, but a strange tale is related by John P. Greer in his book The Armies and Enemies of Ancient China. A Hunnic tribal Chieftan named Chih-chih had set up a kingdom in Sogdiana which dominated the Tarim Basin and straddled the Silk Route. This bloody-minded individual made such a nuisance of himself that he provoked the Chinese Emperor to send an army of 40,000 troops against him. Chih-chih was brought to bay at his capital.

"The city's defenses consisted of an earthen wall, a double wooden palisade, a moat, and towers for archers... Approximately 200 armoured men were guarding the city's gates. These armoured men were Roman Legionnaires, survivors of Crassus, defeat in 54 B.C. relocated to Sogdiana by the victorious Parthians, and now were defending Chih-chih's capitol"

The Hun received his just deserts. 145 of the Romans were captured and relocated to Li-chien in Kansu Province. What wonderful naterial for a novel!