Chapter One
1 This is the traditional date, as used in the Varronian system, but the Romans themselves had a number of differing dates for their city’s foundation, spread throughout the eighth century BC and beyond.
2 Books 2 –10 cover the Republic from its foundation down to 292 BC. Books 11–19 are lost.
3 A good introduction to the problems of early Roman history and its sources can be found in T Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic War (London, 1995).
4 Books 20–45, which cover the period from 218 to 167 BC
5 His work principally covers the period from 220 –168 BC, but also encompasses the period 264–146 BC and is our finest first-hand account.
6 In particular, see the lives of Flamininus, Aemilius Paulus, Marius, Sulla, Sertorius, Lucullus, Pompey, Crassus and Caesar.
7 Again this date is open to question. There are numerous works on this subject, but again see Cornell, Beginnings of Rome.
8 There were several different assemblies, with differing functions and membership. The two main ones were the Comitia Centuriata, which was based on the centuries and the Comitia Tributa, based on the tribes. Again for a clear understanding of the differences, see T Cornell, Beginnings of Rome.
9 Notably at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. See G Daly, Cannae (London, 2002). This is also an excellent reference work on the Roman army.
10 For a fuller account of the Pyrrhic Wars, see P. Garoufalias, Pyrrhus, King of Epirus (London, 1979).
11 Plutarch wrote a biography of him, which still survives.
12 Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 21.9–10.
13 The battles of the Ticinus and Trebia rivers both took place in 218 BC, Lake Trasimene in 217 BC and Cannae in August 216 BC. Polybius (3.117.2–4) gives casualties of 70,000, though this is a high estimate. Livy (22.49.15) has just under 50,000 men killed.
14 Once again this date is open to question, see T Cornell, Beginnings of Rome.
15 It must be pointed out that this ‘alliance’ has been called into question by many modern scholars. See D Magie, ‘The “Agreement” between Philip V and Antiochus III for the Partition of the Egyptian Empire’, Journal of Roman Studies, 29 (1939), pp 32–44; and R Errington, ‘The Alleged Syro-Macedonian Pact and the Origins of the Second Macedonian War’, Athenaeum, 49 (1971), pp 336–354.
16 This concept was developed by a number of modern historians of the period. There are too many works to reference properly here (see the bibliography), but a good synthesis of their views can be found in E Gruen (ed.), Imperialism in the Roman Republic(New York, 1970). More recently this theory was been challenged by counter arguments that place greater emphasis on the economic and social imperatives. See W Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome (Oxford, 1979) and W Harris (ed.), The Imperialism of Mid-Republican Rome (Rome, 1984).
17 See S Mandell, ‘The Isthmian Proclamation and the Early Stages of Roman Imperialism in the Near East’, Classical Bulletin, 65 (1989), pp 89–94.
18 See E Badian, Titus Quinctius Flamininus; Philhellenism and Realpolitik (Cincinnati, 1970).
19 The Jugurthan War of 112 to 106 BC. Sallust wrote a history of this war, which still survives.
20 These barbarian invasions were not ended until the battles of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC) and Vercellae (101 BC), both won by the Roman general, Gaius Marius.
21 These being the turbulent tribunate’s of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC and his brother Gaius Gracchus in 123 BC. See Plutarch’s biographies of the two men.
22 For a more detailed explanation see E Gabba, Republican Rome, The Army and the Allies (Berkeley, 1976) and R Smith, Service in the Post Marian Army (Manchester, 1958).
23 Appian wrote a history of the Mithridatic Wars, which still survives. At the time of writing there is only one modern work on Mithridates in English: B McGing, The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator King of Pontus (Leiden, 1986).
24 These being Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, former officers of Fimbria who joined Mithridates rather than ally with Sulla. They conducted negotiations between Sertorius and Mithridates, which resulted in another Roman officer (Marcus Marius) being sent by Sertorius to aid Mithridates in his fight against Rome (Plutarch, Sertorius, 23–24).
25 As reported by Appian, Mithridatic Wars, 102 and 109; Plutarch, Pompey, 41; Dio, 37.11.1; and Florus, 1.40.15.
Chapter Two
26 Though we can only estimate the empire’s northern borders.
27 In the East they were know as the Askhanians or Asghanians. They themselves most commonly used the royal title of Arsacids.
28 It is estimated that the revolt took place in 521 BC and the rebels were crushed in battle. We are informed of this from an inscription from Behistun; see N Debeviose, A Political History of Parthia (Chicago, 1938), pp 4–5.
29 Herodotus (Histories,7.66) records the Parthians in his breakdown of the army of Xerxes, saying that they were commanded by an Artabazus, son of Pharnaces. Aeschylus (Persians 995) preserves the name of an Arsaces (the name of the first Parthian king) who was killed fighting in the Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC), though this is likely to have been a common name and does not infer a direct connection.
30 Arrian, Anabasis, 3.11.4; and Curtius, History of Alexander, 4.12.11.
31 Diodorus, 18.3.3; Justin, Epitome, 41.4, however, states that Parthia was given to a Macedonian ally named Stasanor.
32 Diodorus,18.39.6.
33 Ibid,., 19.14.1.
34 Diodorus, 19.29.2; Justin, 41.4, states that they were also in the opposing army of Eumenes.
35 See Appendix III for a fuller account of these sources and other minor ones which mention these events.
36 See J Wolski, ‘The Decay of the Iranian Empire of the Seleuicids and the Chronology of the Parthian Beginnings’, Berytus, 12 (1956/8), pp 35–52; and J Neusner, ‘Parthian Political Ideology, Iranica Antiqua, 3 (1963), pp 40–59.
37 Strabo, Geography, 11.9.2 .The Ochus is the modern River Atrek, east of the Caspian Sea.
38 Strabo, Geography, 11.9.2.
39 Strabo, Geography, 11.9.3.
40 Justin, Epitome of The Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, 41.1.
41 If you assume that Justin meant Gaius Regulus instead of Marcus. See T Broughton,Magistrates of the Roman Republic: Volume 1 (1952) , p 213 and J Lerner, The Impact of Seleucid Decline on theEastern Iranian Plateau (Stuttgart, 1999), p 15 for a fuller explanation.
42 Justin, Epitome, 41.4.
43 Justin, Epitome, 41.4.
44 Justin, Epitome, 41.5.
45 Zosimus, History, Translated by Green and Chaplin (1814).
46 See W Adler & P Tuffin, The Chronography of George Synkellos. A Byzantine Chronicle ofUniversal History from the Creation (Oxford, 2002), p 412.
47 Translated by J H Freese (1920).
48 Quintus Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander, 4.12.11.
49 Appian, Syrian Wars, 65.
50 Dio Cassius, History of Rome, 40.14.3.
51 Herodian, History of Rome, 6.2.7.
52 For an example of this, see the surviving Babylonian astronomical charts in A Sachs & H Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia Volume III (Vienna, 1996).
53 The most recent ones are J Wolski, ‘The Decay of the Iranian Empire’, pp 35–52 and J Lerner, The Impact of Seleucid Decline, ch 1.
54 J Lerner, The Impact of Seleucid Decline, p 17.
55 Pliny, Natural History, 6.49.
56 J Lerner, The Impact of Seleucid Decline, p 18.
57 Isidore of Charax, Parthian Stations,11.
58 J Neusner, Parthian Political Ideology, p 47, argues persuasively that this was a later adoption.
59 This has been challenged recently by A Invernizzi, ‘Parthian Nisa, New Lines of Research’, in J Wiesehöfer (ed.), Das Partherreich und seine Zeugnisse (Stuttgart, 1998), pp 45–59. He argues that the city was actually founded by Mithradates I.
60 Synkellos, Chronography.
61 Justin, Epitome, 41.5.
62 J Neusner, ‘Parthian Political Ideology’, p 50.
63 Justin, Epitome, 41.4.8.
64 Strabo, Geography, 11.8.8.
65 Justin, Epitome, 41.4.9.
66 Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 83, referring to Poseidonius, History, 16. See J Lerner, Impact of Seleucid Decline, pp 35–37.
67 For a fuller account of this process see J Lerner, Impact of Seleucid Decline, ch 2.
68 Justin, Epitome, 41.5.
69 F Walbank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius Volume II, p 238, argues that Pliny (Natural History, 6.113) infers that the Parthians had annexed further Seleucid territories in the intervening period, namely the regions of Choarene and Comisene.
70. See J Wolski, ‘L’Historicité D’Arsace Ier’, Historia, 8 (1959), pp 22–238; and Walbank, Historical Commentary on Polybius II, pp 235–236.
71 Possibly caused by the murder of Diodotus II by a usurper, Euthydemus, circa 221 BC.
72 Justin, Epitome, 41.5.7.
73 Polybius, Histories, 10.27–31, covers the campaign in some detail.
74 For a more in depth analysis of this period, see J Lerner, Seleucid Decline, ch 3.
75Ibid, pp 46–47; though we cannot find this view in Justin, who merely states that Priapatius succeeded Arsaces II and ruled for 15 years.
76 These events are recorded in contemporary Babylonian astronomical records, fragments of which survive today. See Sachs & Hunger, Astronomical Diaries, Volume III.
77 All taken from the Babylonian astronomical records, see Sachs & Hunger, Astronomical Diaries Volume III .
78 Diodorus, 34.19.
79 See Sachs & Hunger, Astronomical Diaries Volume III; also see R Van der Spek, ‘New Evidence from the Babylonian Astronomical Diaries Concerning Seleucid and Arsacid History’, Archiv für Orientforschung, 44–45 (1997–8), p 171.
80 Justin, Epitome, 38.10.
81 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 13. 251–252, quoting Nicholas of Damascus, fragment 92.
82 Diodorus, 34.19.
83 Justin, Epitome, 42.1.1–2.
84 Justin, Epitome, 42.2.2.
85 Diodorus, 34.21; Justin, Epitome, 42.1.3.
86 The evidence for this is both numismatic, see E Newell, Mithradates of Parthia and Hypaosines of Characene (New York, 1925), and from the Babylonian texts, see Sachs & Hunger, Astronomical Diaries Volume III.
87 Justin, Epitome, 42.2.4–5.
88 Strabo, Geography, 11.14.15.
89 Plutarch, Sulla, 5.5.
90 Joesphus. Antiquities, 13.384–386.
91 Isidore of Charax. Parthian Stations, 6.
Chapter Three
92 In 205, 171, 168, 131, 97 and 95 BC.
93 See R Syme, ‘The Sons of Crassus’, Latomus, 39 (1980), pp 403–408.
94 Plutarch, Crassus, 3.2.
95 Ibid, 4.2.
96 This modern name is from the Latin for allies: socii. Hence the war against the socii or the Social War.
97 Plutarch, Crassus, 4.1.
98 Ibid, 5.1–4.
99 Ibid, 6.1.
100 For a fuller account, see Plutarch, Pompey, 16–20; and Appian, Civil Wars, 107–115.
101 His traditional date of birth was 115 whilst Pompey was born in 106 BC.
102 Plutarch, Crassus, 7.9.
103 Ibid, 9.3.
104 Plutarch, Crassus, 9.2, states that he was Claudius Glaber, whilst Appian, Civil Wars, 1.116, names him as Varinius. For a full discussion, see T Broughton, Magistrates II, p 109 and 115.
105 Ibid.
106 When the prestigious office of censor was re-launched during Crassus’ consulship of 70 BC, both men were given the job, despite the shame of their defeat to Spartacus.
107 Plutarch, Crassus, 10.1.
108 Appian, Civil Wars, 1.121.
109 Velleius, 2.30.6.
110 This can be found throughout the ancient sources, especially Plutarch, Crassus, 12.2–3, and Pompey, 23.1–2.
111 Ibid.
112 For a fuller discussion see A Ward, ‘Cicero’s Fight Against Crassus and Caesar in 65 and 63 BC’, Historia, 21 (1972), pp 244–258.
113 Sallust produced a work on the Catilinarian Conspiracy which still survives. There are a number of modern works on it also; a good one being E Hardy, ‘The Catilinarian Conspiracy in its Context; a Re-Study of the Evidence’, Journal of Roman Studies, 7 (1917), pp153–228.
114 Suetonius, Julius Caesar, 9.
115 Though a number of later sources such as Plutarch, Crassus, 13, and Dio, 39.10.3, claim to have made use of it. Primarily it accused both Crassus and Caesar of being behind the Catilinarian Conspiracies.
116 See Plutarch, Pompey, 43.2, for Crassus leaving Rome; and Cicero, Pro Flacco, 32, which records him turning up in the East.
117 Appian, Civil Wars, 2.9; also see Plutarch, Crassus, 14.1, and Pompey, 47.1.
118 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 2.25.1.
119 Ibid, 2.22.5.
120 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 14.2.2.
121 Cicero, Letters to Quintus, 2.3.3–4.
122 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 1.9.9.
123 Appian, Civil Wars, 2.17; Plutarch, Pompey, 51.3 and Caesar, 21.2. Also see See E Gruen, ‘Pompey, the Roman Aristocracy and the Conference at Luca’, Historia, 18 (1969), pp 71–108; and C Luibheid, ‘The Luca Conference’, Classical Philology, 65 (1970), pp 88–94.
Chapter Four
124 Valerius Maximus, Memorable Sayings, 1.6.11; Florus 1.46.2
125 This can be seen by Polybius’ inclusion of the Seleucid-Parthian War in his Histories (10.27–31).
126 Strabo, Geography, 11.14.15.
127 An excellent example of this is A Keaveney, ‘Roman Treaties with Parthia circa 95–64 BC’, American Journal of Philology, 102 (1981), pp 195–212. He argues from a wholly Romano-centric view that there was a treaty between Rome and Parthia, negotiated by Sulla.
128 This being the so-called Parthian ‘Dark Age’ between c. 91–70 BC when we lose any clear narrative of events in Parthia, but know that there were a number of overlapping royal reigns.
129 The Second Mithridatic War being a minor affair between Mithridates and the Roman general Lucius Licinius Murena (83–81 BC), which ended in a stalemate.
130 Sallust, Histories, 4.67, preserves what he claims is a letter from Mithridates VI to Sinatruces, concerning the formation of an anti-Roman alliance against Rome.
131 Plutarch, Lucullus, 30.1.
132 Ibid, 30.2.
133 See Plutarch, Pompey, 33.6; Dio, 36.45.3; Periochae of Livy, 100. Also see A Keaveney, ‘Roman Treaties with Parthia’, pp 202–212, though again he makes long-term conclusions from what was only a short-term alliance.
134 Ibid.
135 Ibid.
136 Dio, 37.5.4.
137 Dio, 37.5.5.
138 Dio, 37.6.4–7.2; Plutarch, Pompey, 28.2.
139 Cicero, De Domo sua, 23 and 55; Periochae of Livy, 105; Appian, Syrian Wars, 51.
140 Dio, 39.56.2–3.
141 Strabo, Geography, 12.3.34, states that the war was opposed by the Senate.
142 For a more machiavellian interpretation of this division, see chapter eight.
Chapter Five
143 Plutarch, Crassus, 16.2.
144 See A Keaveney, ‘The King and the War-Lords: Romano-Parthian Relations Circa 64–53 BC’, American Journal of Philology, 103 (1982), pp 412–428.
145 Ibid.
146 Pliny, Natural History, 2.147; Horace, Odes, 3.5.10.
147 Plutarch, Crassus, 21.2.
148 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 1.9.20.
149 Plutarch, Crassus, 16.5–6.
150 Cicero, De Divinatione, 1.29.
151 Cicero, De Domo Sua, 123.
152 Plutarch, Comparison of Nicias and Crassus, 2.5.
153 Cicero, De Divinatione, 2.84.
154 Cicero. Letters to Friends, 1.9.20.
155 Ibid, 5.8.1.
156 Plutarch, Crassus, 17.1–2.
157 Dio, 39.60.4.
158 Plutarch, Crassus, 17.4.
159 Plutarch, Crassus, 17.4 ; Dio.40.13.4.
160 Josephus, Jewish War 8.8 and Jewish Antiquities, 7.1.
161 Plutarch, Crassus, 17.5.
162 We only know the name of one other family, the Karen.
163 This has led some scholars to talk of there being two Parthian Kingdoms, one in the west ruled by the Arsacids and one in the east ruled by the Suren. See W Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India (Cambridge, 1938), pp 204, 224 and 344–345.
164 Plutarch, Crassus, 21.6.
165 Plutarch, Crassus, 21.7.
166 It has also been argued that this occurred in 55 BC, see A Keaveney, ‘The King and the Warlords’, p 412. The exact chronology is impossible to determine.
167 Plutarch, Crassus, 21.7.
168 Plutarch. Crassus, 28.1–2; Dio 40.16.1–3.
169 Plutarch, Crassus,18.2.
170 Ibid, 19.3.
171 Ibid, 22.2–3.
172 Dio, 17.3.
173 See D Kennedy, ‘Ancient Sources for Zeugma’, in The Twin Towns of Zeugma on the Euphrates (Michigan, 1998), pp 139–162.
174 See Isidore of Charax, Parthian Stations,1.
175 M Brosius, The Persians (London, 2006), p 95.
176 Festus, 9.17.1, a fourth-century compilation, introduces a new element, and has Crassus being guided across the Euphrates at Zeugma, by a Parthian deserter named Mazzarus.
177 Plutarch, Crassus, 19.3–6.
178 Dio, 40.18.1–19.4.
179 Plutarch, Crassus, 20.1.
180 Ibid, 21.1–3 & 22.4–6.
181Ibid; and Dio, 40.20.1. Also see Florus, 1.46.6, which tells us that he was a Syrian named Mazaras.
182 Plutarch, Crassus, 22.4–6.
183 Ibid, 22.1–2.
184 Ibid, 22.6. Dio has him with the Roman army until the Battle.
185 Plutarch, Crassus, 18.3.
186 This was the plan whereby Germany, faced with two enemies on opposite borders (France and Russia), intended to attack France first, knocking them out of the war before turning east to face the Russian army.
Chapter Six
187 Appian, Civil Wars, 2.18.
188 Plutarch, Crassus, 20.1.
189 For the late Republic, numbers of soldiers in a legion could vary. The only hard and fast rule was that a legion should be composed of ten cohorts. A cohort should have been composed of six centuries, and a century (despite the name) was usually around eighty men. However these guidelines could vary depending upon circumstance.
190 Florus, who compiled a second century epitome of Roman history, puts the total figure at eleven legions, some 55,000 men, but makes no mention of any auxiliary forces (1.46.2). His source is unknown, but he did use the now-lost works of Livy for much of his own work.
191 Plutarch, Crassus, 25.2.
192 Ibid, 25.7.
193 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 13.16.
194 Cicero, Brutus, 282.
195 Caesar, Gallic War, 3.7–9, 3.11 & 3.20–27.
196 For his career and arguments arising out of it, see G. Sumner, The Orators in Cicero’s Brutus (Toronto, 1973), pp 149–150.
197 Dio, 40.15.
198 Justin, 41.2.
199 Justin, 41.2.
200 Justin, 41.2.
201 Lucian, On the Writing of History, 29.
202 Plutarch, Crassus, 25.1.
203 N Debeviose, Political History of Parthia, p 83, takes this line. A Sherwin-White, Roman Foreign Policy in the East 168 BC –AD 1 (London, 1984), p 287 mentions this, but takes it no further.
204 Plutarch, Crassus, 18.3.
205 Ibid, 22.6.
206 Dio, 40.22.1.
207 Ibid, 40.22.3.
208 Dio, 30.23.1.
209 Dio, 40.24.1–2.
210 Dio, 40.21.2, uses the phrase ‘uneven grounds and wooded’ (N GAR XVRa AnVMaLOZ T9 PHI Nn).
211 Plutarch. Crassus, 23.2.
212 Plutarch, Crassus, 23.6.
213 Ibid, 23.5.
214 Ibid, 23.3–4.
215 Each cohort consisted of six centuries of men. Each century, despite the name, consisted on average of eighty men. Thus a cohort would be 480 men, if the army was at full strength.
216 Plutarch, Crassus, 23.3–4.
217 Ibid, 23.4.
218 Ibid, 23.6–7.
219 Ibid, 24.5.
220 Ibid, 25.2.
221 Ibid, 25.3.
222 Ibid, 25.2.
223 Ibid, 25.7–8.
224 Ibid, 25.11.
225 Ibid, 25.12.
226 Those taken prisoner would have been able to report these events, if they survived their period of incarceration in Parthia to be returned to Rome in 20 BC (see appendix I).
227 Plutarch, Crassus, 26.1–3.
228 Ibid, 26.4–5.
229Ibid, 26.5–6. Plutarch has Crassus make reference to the Roman victory over Tigranes at Tigranocerta in 69 BC and the defeat of Antiochus at Magnesia in 190 BC. 1000 ships is an overly pessimistic view of Roman naval losses in the First Punic War.
230 Plutarch, Crassus. 27.2.
231 Ibid, 21.1.
232 Ibid, 22.5–6.
233 Ibid, 27.5
234 Dio, 40. 25.1.
235 Crassus, 27.5–6.
236 The estimate of 4,000 is from Plutarch, Crassus, 28.1.
237 Ibid, 27.6–8
238 The story can be found in Plutarch Crassus, 28.1–2, and was repeated in Orosius, 6.13.3, in the fifth century AD.
239 Plutarch, Crassus, 28.2.
240 Ibid, 28.3–4.
241 Ibid, 29.3–6.
242 Ibid, 29.4–5.
243 Dio, 40.25.4–5.
244 Ibid.
245 Plutarch, Crassus, 30.2.
246 Dio, 41.26.2.
247 Plutarch, Crassus, 30.3.
248 Plutarch, Crassus, 30.4–5; Polyaenus, another second-century writer, also reports that Crassus did not believe the offer to be genuine, but was persuaded by his soldiers, in Stratagems, 7.41.
249 Plutarch, Crassus, 30.5.
250 Ibid, 31.2.
251 Plutarch, Crassus, 31.5, favours the first, whilst Polyaenus, Stratagems, 7.41, favours the second.
252 Plutarch, Crassus. 31.7, Dio. 40.27.4
253 Dio, 40.27.3, is often quoted as being the sole source for this, though the Florus epitome, 1.46.10, does also contain this story and dates to the second century AD (a century earlier). This story was actually used by Sigmund Freud, in his work The Interpretation of Dreams, ch 7, section C, ‘Wish Fulfilment’. Unfortunately he made an error and believed that this was done by a Parthian queen. You can draw your own conclusions about Freud’s patterns of thought here.
254 Valerius Maximus, Memorable Sayings, 1.6.11.
255 This led some later historians to state that Crassus had been captured after the Battle of Carrhae. For example: Jerome, Chronicle, 2nd Year of the 181st Olympiad.
256 Horace, Epistles, 1.18.56–57 and Odes, 4.15.6–8. They remained there until 20 BC when Augustus negotiated for their return.
257 Plutarch, Crassus, 33.3; and Polyaenus, Stratagems, 7.41.
258 For a fuller discussion of this episode, see D Braund, ‘Dionysiac Tragedy in Plutarch’s Crassus’, Classical Quarterly, 43 (1993), pp. 468–474. He takes a negative view of the whole incident.
259 Plutarch, Crassus, 31.7; and Appian, Civil Wars, 2.18, though Appian believed that this was out of a total force of 100,000.
260 Appian, Civil Wars, 2.110, where he states that Caesar assembled a force of 16 legions and 10,000 cavalry.
Chapter Seven
261 Plutarch, Cicero, 36.1.
262 Josephus, Jewish War, 180.
263 See E Fantham, ‘The Trials of Gabinius’, Historia, 24 (1975), pp 425–443.
264 Though he did nominate his new father in law, Q Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, as his colleague for the final few months of the year.
265 Plutarch, Pompey, 55.1.
266 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 3.3.1.
267 The Cassii Longinii have recorded consulships in 171, 164, 127, 124, 107, 96 and 73 BC.
268 He was quaestor in 54 BC (the minimum age for this post being 29). He was later praetor in 44 and consul designate for 41 BC. Given that the minimum age for a praetorship was 39 and 42 for a consul, this would give us a date of birth of c. 83 BC.
269 Josephus, Antiquities, 1.119 and Jewish War, 1.180; Dio, 40.28.1, states ‘the Parthians at this time did not advance beyond the Euphrates’.
270 Egnatius fled with 300 cavalry (Plutarch, Crassus, 27.6) and Cassius had at least 500 with him (Plutarch. Crassus, 29.5).
271 See Josephus, Antiquities, 1.119–122, and Jewish War, 1.1180–182, for the campaigns of 52 BC.
272 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.9.1.
273 Dio, 40.28.3; Cicero Letters to Atticus, 5.20.3.
274 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.11.4.
275 Ibid, 5.14.1.
276 Ibid, 5.15.1.
277 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 3.2.1.
278 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.13.3.
279 Ibid, 5.15.1.
280 Ibid, 5.16.4.
281 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 15.3.1.
282 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.18.1–2.
283 Ibid.
284 Ibid.
285 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 15.1.2–3. Tarcondimotus was a Cilician prince and a Roman ally, put on his throne by Pompey.
286 N Debeviose, Political History of Parthia, p 100.
287 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 15.1.2.
288 Ibid, 15.4.7.
289 Ibid, 15.1.3.
290 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.20.3.
291 Dio, 40.29.1.
292 Dio, 40.29.3; Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.20.4. It is also recorded in the Epitome of Livy, 108.
293 This encounter is also briefly referred to by Velleius Paterculus, 2.46.4.
294 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 2.10.2.
295 Ibid, 8.10.1.
296 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.21.2.
297 Ibid, 6.1.14.
298 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 6.1.14.
299 If Artavasdes was feeding the Romans information by 50 BC then he could, and most probably would, have told them how Orodes had further humiliated Rome by using Crassus’ head in a Greek play. This intimate source of information would validate the story as used by Plutarch and invalidate theories such as Braund’s, which claim that the story was nothing more than a literary construct.
300 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.21.2 and 6.1.14.
301 Ibid, 6.2.6.
302 Ibid, 6.3.2.
303 Ibid, 6.4.1.
304 Ibid, 6.6.3.
305 Ibid, 6.9.5.
306 Caesar, Civil War, 3.3.31.
307 Epitome of Livy, 108.
308 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 7.2.8.
309 Justin, Epitome, 42.4.
310 Dio, 40.30.2.
311 Though it can be argued that in the first century Parthian monarchy, some heirs had coins minted whilst their fathers were still ruling; see A Nitkin, ‘Early Parthian Coins from Margiana’, in V Curtis (ed), The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Persia (London, 1998), pp 14–18.
312 There is an interesting section in a recent article that agrees with this view: M Gray-Fow, ‘The Mental Breakdown of a Roman Senator: M. Calpurnius Bibulus’, Greece and Rome, 37 (1990), pp 182–184. He further postulates that Egyptian authorities had Bibulus’ sons murdered when they were there, possibly recruiting fresh troops.The indication is that Egypt was looking to ingratiate themselves with new Parthian overlords in this period.
313 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 6.1.14.
314 Despite the similarity in ages, Caesar’s career placed him in a different political generation to that of Crassus and Pompey.
Chapter Eight
315 By contrast, Rome only lost three legions in the Varus disaster in Germany in AD 9, with Carrhae therefore being twice the scale.
316 See F Romer, ‘Gaius Caesar’s Military Diplomacy in the East’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, 109 (1979), pp 199–214.
317 Pompey was born in 106 BC, Caesar in 102 or 100 BC.
318 Plutarch, Caesar, 32.6 and Pompey, 60.4.
319 All of Plutarch’s biographies were paired (one figure from Roman history with one from Greek). Naturally Caesar was paired with Alexander the Great. Nicias died in 413 BC, executed after leading a disastrous Athenian attempt to conquer the city of Syracuse in Sicily.
320 Plutarch, Comparison of the Lives of Nicias and Crassus, 4.4.
321 Ibid, 4.5.
322 He was quaestor in 53 BC, giving him a birth date of c. 82 BC given that the minimum age for the office was twenty-nine.
323 Justin, Epitome, 42.4.6, states that the Parthians were worried that Marcus Crassus would use his position with Caesar to seek revenge on the Parthians and it may be the case that he would have played a significant role during Caesar’s abortive Parthian War.
324 Syme argues that he died at some point after 49 BC, but we are not told this at any point; he simply disappears off the record. See R Syme, ‘The Sons of Crassus’, p.407 and Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford, 1986), p 273.
325 Dio, 51.4.3.
326 Dio, 51.23.2–27.1.
327 His full name was Marcus Licinius Crass Frugi which indicated that he had been adopted from the Pisones Frugi family. See R Syme, ‘Piso Frugi and Crassus Frugi’, Journal of Roman Studies, 50 (1960), pp 12–20.
328 See Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, ch 20.
329 See O Bopearachchi, ‘Indo-Parthians’, in J Wiesehöfer (ed), Das Partherreich und seine Zeugnisse (Stuttgart, 1998), pp 389–495.
330 In all fairness the title of this work should really be The Victory of Parthia, rather than The Defeat of Rome.
331 Tacitus, Annals, 6.42.
332 Cambridge History of Iran 2, p 683.
333 This decision was a crucial one for the history of the region and meant that Mesopotamia would never have the same heritage as the rest of the Mediterranean. It also kept Rome centred on the Mediterranean rather than looking out to the wider world, which might have happened if the Roman Empire had an outlet into the Indian Ocean from the Persian Gulf.
Appendix I
334 A recent article by K Harl, ‘The Roman Experience in Iraq’, Journal of the Historical Society, 7 (2007), pp 213–227, reviews this whole conflict.
335 Pliny, Natural History, 6.18.47.
336 Plutarch, Life of Antony, 37.2 and 40.4.
337 Horace, Odes, 3.5.5–12.
338 Florus, 2.20.4.
339 Plutarch, Antony, 46.2–47.2.
340 An interesting question is how many standards were lost during the Carrhae campaign. Although it might seem there should be seven, as there were seven legions, it has been noted that no source actually records either how many eagles Crassus lost (some may have made it back with the survivors) or exactly how many were returned to Augustus. In the 1880s a legionary eagle turned up in America, with its owner claiming that it was one of Crassus’ lost eagles, though there is no evidence whatsoever to back up this bold assertion. See C Hoeing, ‘A Roman Eagle in Rochester’, American Journal of Archaeology, 29 (1925), pp 172–179.
341 The triumphal arch, which was in the Roman Forum, no longer exists, but there is also confusion between this arch and the one that Augustus had erected to celebrate his triumph at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. It is possible that there was only one arch and that it was rebuilt or later added to in order to commemorate this event. For a full discussion of this subject, see J Rich, ‘Augustus’ Parthian Honours’, Papers of the British School of Rome, 66 (1998), pp 71–128; and C Rose, ‘The Parthians in Augustan Rome’, American Journal of Archaeology, 109 (2005), pp 21–75.
342 Augustus, Res Gestae, 29.
343 He began his theory in two early articles: H Dubs, ‘An Ancient Military Contact between Romans and the Chinese’, American Journal of Philology, 62 (1941), pp 322–330; and ‘A Roman Influence upon Chinese Painting’, Classical Philology, 38 (1943), pp 13–19. His most detailed explanation of his theory came in a 1957 lecture which came out as a book: A Roman City in Ancient China (London, 1957); and was repeated in an article: ‘A Roman City in Ancient China’, Greece and Rome, 4 (1957), pp 139–148.
344 H Dubs, A Roman City in Ancient China, pp 1–3. It is interesting that he ended his first article by stating that there was no evidence of these men having been settled in China; Dubs, ‘An Ancient Military Contact’, p 329.
345 History of the Former Han Dynasty, translated by H Dubs, p 10.
346 W Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India (Cambridge, 1938).
347 The Daily Telegraph, 2 February 2007.
Appendix II
348 D Braund, ‘Dionysiac Tragedy in Plutarch’s Crassus’, Classical Quarterly, 43 (1993), pp 468–474.
349 Dio, 39.10.3.
350 It is believed that Sallust made use of this source. It remained available to scholars for several centuries.
351 Caesar, Civil Wars, III. 31.3.
352 Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome, 2.46.4.
353 Notably in Appian, Syrian Wars, 9.1.
354 See F Adcock, Marcus Crassus, millionaire (Cambridge, 1966), p 59.
355 Strabo, Geography, 11.13.3.
356 Cicero, Letters to Friends, 13.16.1–2.
357 Ibid, 13.16.4.
358 See A Lintott, ‘A Historian in Cicero ad familiares – P. Licinius(?) Apollonius’, Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie, 119 (1976), p 368; and E Rawson, ‘Crassorum Funera’, Latomus, 41 (1982), p 548.
359 Rawson, ‘Crassorum Funera’.
360 Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 5.21.2.
361 Lucian, On the Writing of History, 15 & 16.
362 Cicero, De Divinatione, 1.29, 2.22 and 2.84.
363 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 2.6.4; Valerius Maximus, Memorable Sayings, 1.6.11.
364 Frontinus, Stratagems,1.1.13; Polyaenus, Stratagems, 7.41; Tacitus, Germania, 37.
365 Pliny, Natural History, 2.147, 5.86 and 6.47; Strabo, Geography, 12.3.34, 16.1.23 and 16.1.28.
366 Ovid, Fasti, 5.583–585.
367 Ovid, Ars Amatoria, 1.179–180.
368 Propertius, 2.10.13–14.
369 Propertius, 4.7.83–85.
370 Justin, Epitome, 42.4.4; Ammianus Marcellinus, 23.3.1; Zosimus, 3.23.3; Eutropius, 6.18.1; Orosius, 6.13.2–5; Jerome, Chronology, 181st Olympiad.
371 Jerome, Chronology, 181.2.
372 Sidonius, Panegyric of Anthemus, 454–456.
373 Sidonius, To Felix, 250–251.
374 Sidonius, Panegyric of Avitus, 98–100.
375 George Synkellos, Chronography. Interestingly, Crassus’ plundering of the Temple treasure is is a fact which survives in no other source except Josephus.
Appendix III
376 In this respect they resemble the now-lost Roman pontifical annals, see B Frier, Libri Annales Pontificum Maximorum: the Origins of the Annalistic Tradition (Michigan, 1999).
377 See P Garner, The Coinage of Parthia (Chicago, 1968); and D Sellwood, An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia, 2nd edition (London, 1980).
378 See A Invernizzi, ‘Parthian Nisa, New Lines of Research’ and F Miller, ‘Dura-Europos under Parthian Rule’, both in Wiesehöfer (ed), Das Partherreich, pp 45–59 and 473–492 respectively.
379 Walbank, Historical Commentary on Polybius II, p 232.
380 W Schoff, The Parthian Stations of Isidore of Charax (Philadelphia, 1914).
381 Strabo, Geography, 11.9.3.
382 Eusebius, in the entries for the 160th, 162nd and 171st olympiads; Jerome places the foundation of Arsacid rule in the first year of the 133rd olympiad.
383 Polybius, Histories, 10.27–31.
384 Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists 15.29; and Strabo, Geography 11.7.3.
385 See W Tarn, Greeks in Bactria and India, p 45.
386 Strabo, Geography, 11.9.3.
387 See Photius, Bibliotheca.
388 Notably in Syrian Wars, 9.1.
389 See F Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, 2nd edition (New York, 1966), p 35.
390 Ibid, p 139.
391 Ibid, p 36.