19. The Roman Plutocrat Who Led an Army to Disaster
The Battle of Cannae was Rome’s worst defeat, but it was not the only time the Romans were humiliated on the field of battle. Another debacle was the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC when a Roman army was destroyed by the Parthians. The doomed force was led by Marcus Licinius Crassus (115 – 53 BC), a leading figure of the late Roman Republic and its richest man. He used his wealth to sponsor politicians, including Julius Caesar, whose political rise he bankrolled, and amassed considerable power. The one thing that Crassus lacked, yet craved, was military glory. His quest for such glory ended in catastrophe.
Crassus was a shrewd and avaricious businessman. An ally of the dictator Sulla in the 80s BC, he got his start on wealth by bidding on the confiscated properties of those executed as enemies of the state. No idiot, he bought them in rigged auctions for a fraction of their value. He even arranged for the names of those whose properties he coveted to be added to the lists of enemies of the state, slated for execution and confiscation of property.
