Crassus in Parthia

On May 6, 53 BCE, Marcus Licinius Crassus, triumvir with Pompey and Caesar, consul in 55 BCE, arrived near Carrhae, a small town near the Balihu River, a tributary of the Euphrates in northwest Mesopotamia. He was marching to the western Parthian capital of Seleucia with seven legions of heavily armed troops, 4,000 cavalry, and 4,000 light-armed soldiers, a massive expeditionary force totaling between 42,000 and 50,000 men. If all went according to plan, he would capture Seleucia and conquer Parthia, an achievement that would provide him with a military reputation equal to that of his fellow triumvirs. Unfortunately, he had neither the military ability of Pompey nor the genius of Caesar, and his Parthian campaign had been unpopular when proposed in Rome. Had Crassus not been ambitious, wrote Cicero later, he would never have crossed the Euphrates. A tribune, Gaius Ateius Capito, and a large band of his adherents opposed the departure of the expedition on the grounds that “anyone should go out to wage war on men who had done the state no wrong, but were in treaty relations with it.” Yet, since Pompey accompanied the troops out of the city, when they (Ateius’ followers) saw

This was the first of many evil omens.