Deadly Moments in History - Avenging Crassus

deadly moments in history avenging Crassus Roman expansion accelerated in the years following the Punic Wars sweeping aside the Hellenistic kingdoms which had previously defined the high-water mark of Western military and cultural influence the advancing legions would now represent a new massive tide hurling into the East putting them on a crash course with the powerful Parthian Empire the first blow was struck in 53 BC by the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus who led an invasion forced into Mesopotamia today we will be looking at the opening salvos of the Roman Parthian Wars that would lead to one of Rome's most infamous defeats and in turn precipitate her terrible avenging blow [Music] at its height the Parthian Empire stretched from the edges of Syria in the West to the Arabian Peninsula in the South in the borders of Pakistan in the east this was highly contested territory it had once been united by the Persian Empire of that commended dynasty for over 200 years before being conquered by Alexander the Great only to splinter into a series of kingdoms upon his death in 323 BC in the east the successor Empire of Seleucus emerged as a powerful player however they would ultimately be undermined by the satrapy of parthia this territory was controlled by the Arce acid dynasty which launched a rebellion the Seleucids proved unable to suppress this new threat in the face of increasing encroachment by the Roman Republic having been defeated at magnesia in 190 BC the armies of the solute kids were in no position to keep the Parthian z' in check in short order the assassins would go on to lay claim to the heartland of the old Persian Empire at the time the praetor sulla was Rome's leading figure in the east his operations were disrupting the region which prompted the Parthian to send an embassy to investigate the two powers would meet face to face for the first time in 96 BC during their talks sulla postured as the dominant party insulting the Parthian zat attempting to extract concessions it's not clear what the outcome of the meeting was but both seem to have come to some sort of an agreement on their relative spheres of influence the upper Euphrates and in particular Armenia would become an important buffer region where both Rome and Parthia would compete with each other by jockeying for control of subordinate clients in this game of geopolitics neither power had faced off directly over the following years the original treaty was handed down and renewed by successive Roman commanders in the east however it's binding nature was always up to some interpretation as we see with Pompey in 66 BC when he told the Parthian z-- he would respect whatever border he saw fit apparently this included the establishment of Rome in Syria in 64 BC which now brought the borders of the two forces into direct contact a clash loomed on the horizon in 58 BC the Parthian King Freddie's the third was murdered by his son 0ds and mithra daddy's knee ensuing battle for the throne Richard Davies was forced to flee he appealed to all his convinience the Roman proconsul in Syria for help cominius was eager to mount a lucrative Parthian campaign but was diverted at the last minute by Pompey into Egypt to help Ptolemy the 12th restore his rule instead the following years were the calm before the storm one Roman general would finally break the peace between the two powers on his own initiative Marcus Licinius Crassus the richest man in Rome despite Crassus his great wealth he like all Roman elites measured himself primarily against his peers in this assessment he found himself at risk of being eclipsed by the likes of Pompey and Caesar who were winning great military victories Crassus was therefore determined to head east on a campaign against parthia before he'd even landed in Syria as proconsul his plans were scorned by others as a private Alexandrian adventurer even by Roman standards indeed those of the ancient world as a whole there was little pretext for the war no cassis belly was has the great boundless greed of one man at least Caesar would frame his conquest of Gaul as a defense of action with Crassus there was little nuance to his campaign yet this ambitious would-be Conqueror paid little heed to these jealous naysayers once glory was his their tune would change Crassus raised a large army of 40,000 with his own funds and in the summer of 54 BC launched an invasion into northern Mesopotamia so he achieved initial success and garrisoned a number of cities he did so with little strategic intelligence about his enemy yet this glaring oversight was so the moment masked by the sheer crushing weight of the legions which batted aside any light resistance in their path he then returned to Syria for the winner but Crassus is lethargic campaign resulted in him allowing the initiative to slip through his fingers and giving the Parthian x' their much-needed time to gather their armies after rejecting a Parthian diplomatic delegation Crassus confidently returned in 53 BC aiming for the lucrative cities of lower Mesopotamia there were several routes available many of his advisors and allies advocated for advancing through the mountainous and protected terrain of Armenia before swinging down and following the tigress others suggested that he followed the Euphrates and make the crossing to the tigress at the narrow gap in Saluki itself instead Crassus took the shortest route disregarding advice from his quest or Caius Cassius Longinus he recklessly led the army through the Mesopotamian desert in pursuit of what he thought was a retreating Parthian force this would play right into the hands of the enemy the Parthian is reacted quickly king of rotis had dispatched his great general Serena who now intercepted the Romans near the caravan town of carry his force consisted entirely of cataphracts and horse archers though we should note that while many modern accounts claiming commanded just 10,000 men was therefore grossly outnumbered there is little hard evidence to substantiate such a claim with much certainty in any case it was true that as opposed to the Parthian z-- Crassus relied almost entirely on heavy infantry he had failed to augment his legions with an adequate number of light infantry or calorie and even his foot troops appear to have lacked the proper training and experience to counter the Parthian as a result Sarina's was able to pick the enemy apart one piece at a time the Parthian horse archers would swoop in to fire arrows at close range and quickly gallop away if attacked shooting arrows at their pursuers all the while should a Romans insists on a pursuit they would soon find themselves dangerously exposed to a charge by the Parthian cataphracts this brutal feign flake trap managed to destroy a sizeable Roman detachment and claimed the life of crass own son Poulos despite these difficulties the Roman infantry which stayed in their defensive squares remain bloodied but unbowed heavy protracted fighting continued until darkness provided the cover for a Roman retreat such was their desperation that they entirely abandoned their 4,000 wounded men though the army managed to make it to the town of carry it afforded them little protection and no supplies meanwhile the Parthian were busy killing or capturing any and all stragglers Crassus attempted another nighttime retreat but again the situation collapsed casualties are said to have amounted to about 20,000 killed and 10,000 captured making the battle and it's aftermath one of the worst defeats in Roman history Crassus himself was killed when he attempted to negotiate with Serena we're told to sate his greed the Parthian sport molten gold down his throat and sent his head and right hand to the Parthian King to be used as a prop in a play however this tale may have simply been symbolic and we could not confirm its authenticity for Plutarch in particular the story of Crassus downfall at carry is a moral one meant to warn his readers of the price of falling to larceny it is possible that this moralizing agenda may have colored the rest of our record of this battle nonetheless the loss of the legions and their vaunted Eagles was a huge stain on Rome's reputation and a deep blow to its martial psyche this wound could not go unavenged in the aftermath of carry the Parthians were emboldened and still sought retribution for Crassus as transgressions they launched an assault that recovered mesopotamia up to the Euphrates and even drove into Syria in 53 BC here the capable Roman general Casius was able to rally their survivors from carry and mount a defense he successfully repulsed repeated Parthian attacks into the province culminating in a heavy Parthian defeat at Antigone in addition a revolt which had sprung up in Judea was suppressed however proper plans for a campaign to avenge the ghost of Crassus and his legions failed to materialize for a number of years a civil war engulfed the Roman Republic when Cesar finally emerged the victor he planned a massive invasion into Parthia consisting of 16 legions and 10,000 cavalry yet just days before he could be launched Caesar was assassinated the campaign of revenge was once again delayed by the ensuing civil war taking advantage of the chaos the Parthian actually struck first and invaded the Roman East in 40 BC in doing so they were actually assisted by Roman troops under labienus who had been sent to undermine Antony's faction in the Civil War the two forces captured Silesia before splitting up labienus drove north into Asia Minor all the Parthian under príncipe chorus drove south into syria this rapid campaign quickly over around the area seriously threatening the Roman East and once again damaging its martial prestige something had to be done it was now that Crassus Avenger would emerge the general Pugliese ventidius Pacis was on his way vente Deus was from a leading non citizen family in Picenum which had recently fought against the Romans in the social war as a child he had even been paraded as a captive in the triumph of pompeius Strabo the father Pompey yet ventidius soon earned his freedom and with it Roman citizenship he promptly enlisted in the legions where the impoverished young man supported himself and served admirably as he gradually climbed through the ranks of the army that had once humiliated him even serving with distinction under Julius Caesar in 39 BC Mark Antony dispatched ventidius to handle the situation in the east now this former prisoner was to give the Parthian a harsh lesson in warfare he arrived at the head of 11 legions with a strong supporting force of long-range slingers ventidius landed on the coast of Asia Minor the speed of his advance cut levy on us by surprise and forced the smaller force to retreat towards their Parthian allies in Syria ventidius pursued and overtook them along the Taurus Mountains acknowledging the danger of open terrain he kept his troops stationed on the high slopes the Parthian cavalry positioned below saw this as a sign of extreme Carrodus on his part this bolstered their own confidence which was still high the victory over Crassus at dawn the Parthian road uphill in great numbers without even awaiting to join forces with labienus 'as infantry ventidius continued to display extreme caution he ordered his infantry and skirmishers to hold the line while the cavalry were given strict orders to hold tightly to the flanks this deployment combined with the difficulty of the terrain greatly negated the mobility and charged impact of the Parthian x' who would have struggled against such braced and well disciplined troops even on level ground just when ventidius judged that the enemy had committed itself sufficiently to the battlefield of his choosing he had slingers unleashed torrents of lead upon their ranks causing great confusion under this covering fire he then ordered the heavy infantry to charge downhill at the cavalry the assault yielded devastating results enemy cavalry found themselves unable to maneuver on the uneven ground and suffered heavy casualties when forced into close quarters combat those who did manage to flee only made the situation worse by colliding with horsemen still coming up the hill cohesion was lost panic set in and a great many were thrown from their saddles and trampled the end result was a severe Parthian defeat labienus tried to make an escape at nightfall but was killed and his roman troops switched sides ventidius then pursued the shattered remnant of the Parthian army to the amana's pass at the board of Silesia and Syria here they were engaged by Roman cavalry which then feigned a retreat drawing the Parthian into a flanking ambush where they were slaughtered these twin victories convinced the chorus and his southern army to withdraw back across the Euphrates yielding Syria just as quickly as it was taken the following year the chorus and the Parthian returned in force Harvin tidiest was a step ahead of his foe he successfully delayed the invasion by feeding the enemy intelligence network false information this bought him the crucial time necessary to rally his own scattered forces meanwhile the Parthian advanced unopposed and found him encamped on a hill near mountain Darras in the region of curious tika it must have appeared to them that they had been able to catch the Romans by surprise the course sent out horse archers to pepper the camp while the infantry and cavalry formed up to assault the hilltop position however this appears to have been a clever ploy by ventidius the roman troops were in fact ready and waiting for them at a signal the camp gates burst open and the legions sallied out when the enemy was but fifty paces away the rapid attack caught the enemy archers off guard and sent them reeling down the hill without having been able to do much damage as the tide of heavy infantry rolled down the hill in pursuit they were once again supported by the covering fire of slingers from above cataphracts at the base of the hill charged into the legions and fought valiantly however in the ensuing melee the chorus and his bodyguard were killed as word of his death spread the rest of the Parthian broke and fled only to be cut down as they tried to escape back over the Euphrates this third major defeat at the hand of the Romans was said to have taken place on the anniversary of the battle carry blood had repaid blood for Rome these great victories were what finally redeemed their defeat a carry Fricks over at that for the Parthian it was a devastating blow to a people who had come to expect victory adding insult to injury the Romans paraded peckers his head around as a mark of their victory overcome with grief and the shock of defeat a Rody's a second soon abdicated his throne in favour of his ambitious son Freud teased the fourth the new Parthian monarch initiated a bloody colon of his Parthian nobility even murdering his father and brothers both politically and militarily this trio of Roman victories can only be described as total disasters for the Parthian 'he's the defeat of two large armies struck particularly hard amongst the feudal nobility that made up its cavalry forces we can only imagine the nightmarish task the Parthian king was faced in dealing with the deaths of countless thousands of his noblemen who had gone into battle as the vaunted cataphract calvary never to return again noblemen upon whom the very disk centralized Parthian regime relied to keep going a further political setback as a result of entities victories was that many of Parthian Nobles defected over to the Romans including a number of high-ranking officials it would take time for the Parthian to recover from such disastrous losses especially the depleted nobility continious could have gone further into Parthia after his success however he chose instead to give credit for his victories to his superior Mark Antony and finish off some last embers of resistance to Rome in the east this included the city of Calais Jean where the survivors from the disaster of Mount gen Darras vainly fled seeking safety ventidius was soon relieved from command by Antony who in 36 BC marshaled his own great army to invade parthia advancing via media however he was deserted by his Armenian allies who were supposed to provide him with much of his cavalry while a brave soldier Antony was no military genius and he plunged ahead his hasty advanced left his supply train poorly guarded which forced Antony to retreat in the hellish winter conditions his army suffered heavy casualties nonetheless he still managed to fend off the Parthian in 18 different battles over his 27 day retreat and make it back to Roman territory with most of his army intact and pressing the Parthian steeply for his three consecutive victories ventidius was awarded with the triumphs in Rome in 30 BC becoming the first Roman commander to celebrate one over the Parthian and it certainly was an amusing personal victory for the general who had once been paraded through the very same streets as a captive Mark Antony's invasion of parthia was a last major action between it and Rome until 20 BC when the Roman Emperor Augustus negotiated a peace treaty with Frey T's the treaty that followed proved to be one of augustus a--'s greatest political victories the emperor won the return of Rome's prisoners of war and with them the precious legionary standards at the same time he also gained effective control of Armenia thanks to the appointment of a new pro Roman King this treaty concluded the opening salvo of the Roman Parthian Wars but was by no means its end in fact the conflict would drag on for another bloody two centuries there from a high level perspective the wars were certainly deadly one would struggle to point to significant strategic achievements while the Parthians would certainly put up a fight and could go toe to toe with the Romans under the right conditions they were ultimately not the main impediment to Roman conquest in fact Rome was able to sack the Parthian capital of tes Afon three times over and often launched campaigns that penetrated deeply into their lands with dismissive ease the main deterrent was actually the depth of Parthian territory and the strain it placed on Rome's administration which was increasingly preoccupied with heaping it's already expansive empire from falling apart few Emperor's had the political will to take on such a task with a notable exception of Trajan after all this was a land that had taken Alexander the Great over a decade to conquer and which had fractured rapidly upon his death in the end this area would only face external conquests at the hands of the Arab Caliphate in the seventh century I'd like to thank our supporters on patreon and the many talented researchers writers and artists who made this video possible please consider contributing to fund future content if you found this topic interesting check out these related videos about our fascinating past be sure to LIKE and subscribe for more history and check out our description for ways to support the channel thanks for watching

Channel: Invicta

Views: 1,113,089

Rating: 4.9039588 out of 5

Keywords: roman military history, roman battles, battle of carrhae, battle of carrhae documentary, battle of carrhae history channel, parthian history, roman parthian wars, julius caesar documentary, surena history, roman military tactics, famous roman battles, roman civil war, deadly moments in history, moments in history, deadly moments in history avenging crassus, avenging crassus, historia civilis julius caesar, historia civilis battle of carrhae, baz battles carrhae

Id: l1Qy62Mp4wk

Length: 19min 1sec (1141 seconds)

Published: Thu May 17 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/jayesanctus]

I had never heard of Ventinious. Great story!

[u/MakeTheBrainHappy]

Looks Great! :)

[u/cauldronpodcast]

Love the graphics!

[u/mymindisblack]

I think one of Rome's historic lessons is that it's never a good idea to attack the persians.