Fabulous Riches Did Not Spare This Plutocrat from a Dumb Death
Marcus Licinius Crassus (115 – 53 BC) was one of history’s wealthiest plutocrats. He was Rome’s richest man, and ancient sources estimated his wealth at 200 million sesterces. 200 million sesterces was the annual budget of the Roman Republic, at the time the world’s most powerful and wealthiest state. To put that in perspective, the world’s most powerful and wealthiest state today, the US, has an annual budget of $6.8 trillion. So if we go by that analogy, somebody as wealthy as Crassus today would be 34 times as rich as Elon Musk’s, the world’s richest man in 2022, with an estimated wealth of $200 billion. In short, the man was absurdly rich, and a giant of his era. Unfortunately for him, his riches didn’t save him from a dumb decision that ended his life in ignoble fashion.
As an ally of the dictator Sulla, Crassus started on the road to riches through the purchase of confiscated properties seized from executed enemies of the state in rigged auctions, for a fraction of their value. He even had the names of those whose property he coveted added to the lists of those slated for execution and confiscation of property. He continued to amass wealth and property after Sulla’s death, including a scheme involving a private firefighter company. Rome’s buildings were fire prone, so when one broke, Crassus would rush in and offer to buy the burning property then and there at a knockdown price – a literal fire sale. Soon as an agreement was reached, Crassus’ firefighters would spring into action to control the fire and rescue the property for its new owner.
