The Downfall of Roman General Marcus Licinius Crassus, 53 BC

[Solomon Kane]

Rome's First Triumvirate.

Crassus was the architect of his own downfall .. he had crushed the slave uprising led by Spartacus in 71 BC, where after convinced of his own military prowess he recruited an army and Marched on Parthia modern Turkey, no member of his legions ever returned to Italy while after his surrender the Parthians poured molten lead down his throat.

The Battle of Carrhae, 53 BC.

A Roman Diplomatic Mission that journeyed to that country some thirty five years on located a single survivor, who recounted the Syrian towns and villages on the invasion route were filled with all manner of statuary which the Romans looted. The extra weight slowed their column which became strung out while those at the rear parties were under constant harassment by the Syrian cavalry .. experienced Roman Officers on Crassus' staff advised him to halt the column at a certain river, build a repository for the loot and allow the stragglers to catch up.

Crassus spurned their advice and insisted the column should march on which it did to extinction .. the survivor was from an engineering detachment whose leaders realized what was taking place and knew the danger they were in, he said they built a stockade from where they defended themselves. Which is how they escaped the fate the rest of the army suffered .. he knew of only seven other living survivors who were in outlying parts of the country, he had taken up with a Syrian woman and with his engineering skills he became one of the leading citizens and builders in that country.

The Deaths of the First Triumvirate.

Crassus had determined to make a name for himself after Pompey had upstaged him in the handling of the slave rebellion of Spartacus, as the Roman governor of Syria Crassus set out to extend Rome's lands eastward into Parthia .. he was not prepared for the Persian Cataphracts or heavily armored cavalry and their military style.

Atlantic Mirror.

Crassus had in happier times established what is thought to have been the world's first Fire Department in Rome.

[Solomon Kane]

AncientOrigins.

Many say survivors of Crassus" Legion became mercenaries under the tutelage of various warlords in the region, before they went on to establish the settlement at Li-Jien in western China.


Battle of Carrhae.

The Legend of the Lost Legion of Carrhae begins in 53 BC with the Battle of Carrhae between the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus and the Parthian general Surena. Carrhae is a location near the modern-day Syrian-Turkish border. In antiquity, it was near the fringes of the Roman Empire in the west and the Parthian Empire in the east. Crassus was already one of the wealthiest men in the Roman republic, but he had a desire to access the wealth of Parthia.

He convinced the Senate to let him lead 42,000 Roman soldiers into the battlefield against the Parthians. .. in the battle, Crassus and his army suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Surena and his 10,000 archers. Crassus attempted to negotiate a truce but was killed in the process. According to legend, liquid gold was poured down his throat as a punishment for his greed. He was also allegedly beheaded, and his body was desecrated.

Of the surviving Roman soldiers, 10,000 of them were captured alive by the Parthians. According to some accounts, they were relocated to the eastern border of the Parthian Empire. It is believed that they were most likely sent to what is now Turkmenistan. It was a Parthian custom to send prisoners of war captured in the west to the far east to secure their loyalty against their eastern rivals, the Huns.

17 years later, in 36 BC, on the western border of the Han Chinese Empire, the battle of Zhizhi was fought between the Chinese and the Huns , a classical enemy of China. The Chinese annals record mercenaries fighting on the side of the Huns who used a “fish scale” formation. The fish scale formation impressed the Chinese and they invited the soldiers to come back to China and become part of the border guard in the modern Gansu province. A city and county were also made for them which were named Li-Jien or Liqian. AncientOrigins.

Location of the 53 BC Battle of Carrhae to Liqian called Li-Jien or Zhelaizhai on the edge of the Gobi desert in Yongchang County, Gansu Province China, where some of the modern day residents are suspected to be descendants of Crassus' legionaries taken prisoner after the battle. Wiki.

I have ever been somewhat wary of this claim .. Roman Legionaires were a pretty hardy and resilient lot, I found it difficult to imagine that none ever found their way back to Roman territory after the death of Crassus ..