 | In 53 BC, the richest man in Rome led an army of around 40,000 men into the desert to conquer Parthia. Within days, most of them were dead or captured, his son's head was on a spear, and a legend would later claim the Parthians poured molten gold down his throat. Eager for glory, Crassus ignored advice many times before the battle of Carrhae. His invading force of seven legions of Roman heavy infantry was lured into the desert. Waiting near the town of Carrhae was Surena, a young Parthian noble who showed up with a force of around 10,000 mounted archers and about 1,000 cataphracts, heavy cavalry. He also brought something Crassus never imagined. A camel train loaded with arrows. The Romans formed a giant square, locked shields and waited for the enemy to run out of arrows. They didn't. Every time the archers emptied their quivers, they rode back to the camels to reload and came back full. Men were pinned to the ground through their feet. Hands were nailed to shields.
Crassus sent his son Publius with cavalry and infantry to break out. The Parthians fled. Publius chased a feigned retreat. Once he was far enough from the main army, the Parthians turned and surrounded him. The Parthians rode back past the Roman square with Publius's head on a spear. | |
That night the army abandoned around 4,000 wounded men and slipped away to Carrhae. The Parthians killed the wounded the next morning. Surena offered to talk. Crassus didn't trust him, but his exhausted soldiers threatened him until he agreed to go.
 | At the meeting, a fight broke out and Crassus was killed. Around 20,000 Romans died and another 10,000 were taken prisoner. Plutarch says Crassus's head was used as a prop in a performance of a Greek tragedy at the Parthian court. The molten gold poured down his throat story comes later, from Cassius Dio, and he reports it as something that was said. It stuck.
The only coins attributed to Marcus Licinius Crassus are Syrian tetradrachms, and some Syrian bronzes dated to the 12th and 13th years of the Pompeian era. |  |
