Author: Mark Bolton. Co-written: DeepSeek. Image: Chat GPT.
Dear Carolyn. This morning I listened to a monologue given by the great George Galloway on his Mother of All Talk Shows podcast. He gave me a bit of an education into the not so bright Roman named Marcus Licinius Crassus, a man who truly embodied the soaring highs and devastating lows of the Roman Republic .
First, forget the idea that Crassus was a god. If the above pic doesn’t give away where I am going with this story, then I’m sure my last sentence gave it away.
Crassus was very much a man, and arguably the wealthiest one Rome ever produced . He was born around 115 BC into a prominent family.
He was a master of real estate, long before it became a modern obsession. He noticed that Rome was a city plagued by frequent, devastating fires. So, he created his own private fire brigade—the first of its kind. His business model was ruthless. When a building caught fire, he’d rush to the scene and offer to buy the property from the frantic owner for a pittance. If the owner agreed, his men would put out the fire. If not, they’d let it burn to the ground. In this way, he bought up the largest part of Rome, rebuilt it with his army of over 500 slaves, and became the city’s ultimate landlord.
Crassus wasn’t just about money, though. He was a skilled politician and a decent general. His greatest military achievement was finally crushing the slave revolt led by Spartacus in 71 BC. He was a brutal disciplinarian, famously reviving an ancient punishment called “decimation” on a cowardly cohort—executing one in every ten men to instil fear and loyalty in his troops. However, the credit for ending the war was stolen by his great rival, Pompey the Great, which created a deep and lasting enmity between them.
This rivalry shaped the politics of the era. To overcome the power of the Senate, Crassus, Pompey, and a rising star named Julius Caesar formed an unofficial alliance in 60 BC known as the First Triumvirate. While they dominated Rome, the relationship was always tense, fueled by the egos of all three men. Crassus, despite his wealth, was deeply envious of the military glory won by both Pompey and Caesar. He craved a triumph of his own.
This burning ambition led to his doom. In 55 BC, he secured the governorship of Syria, with the clear intention of launching a war against the Parthian Empire (Iran) to the east. Ignoring warnings and bad omens, he marched his army into the desert in 53 BC. At the Battle of Carrhae, his forces were surrounded by mounted Parthian archers . The Romans were pinned down and helpless against the endless hails of arrows. When his son Publius was killed leading a desperate charge, Crassus was broken. He was eventually lured into a trap during a parley and killed.
The legend of his death is the perfect, poetic end to his story. It is said the Parthians, aware of his legendary greed, poured molten gold down his throat. It’s a grim and powerful image—a man so defined by his wealth being destroyed by it in the most literal way imaginable.
Crassus’s death shattered the fragile peace of the Triumvirate. Within four years, Caesar crossed the Rubicon, and Rome was plunged into a civil war that would ultimately end the Republic and give birth to the Roman Empire.
So, that’s the story of Crassus. A brilliant businessman, a savvy politician, but a man whose fatal flaw—his desperate need for military glory—brought about his end and changed the course of history.
Freaky. Though there are some differences. The current day Crassus is hardly a skilled politician or military tactician. He dodged the draft during Vietnam, so hardly a warrior—and highly unlikely his son will perish in any battle.
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