Battle of Carrhae — Rome's Worst Eastern Defeat
A Parthian force of about 10,000 horsemen destroyed a Roman army of some 40,000 at Carrhae in 53 BC. Crassus was the richest man in Rome, had suppressed Spartacus, and was the third member of the alliance with Caesar and Pompey; what he lacked was a military reputation to match theirs, and at about sixty he set out to conquer Parthia. There was no pretext and no provocation, and a tribune formally cursed the expedition as it left the city. He crossed the Euphrates, ignored advice to keep to the hills and the river, and was guided into open desert by an Arab chief who was working for the other side. The Parthian commander Surena had 9,000 horse archers and 1,000 cataphracts, and a train of camels carrying spare arrows — which is the detail that decided the battle, since the Romans expected the archers to run out. The legions formed square and were shot at all day. Attempts to charge met horsemen who withdrew and shot backwards over the saddle, and Crassus's son Publius took the cavalry out to break the cycle and was surrounded and killed, his head brought back on a spear. The army broke up in the night, and Crassus was killed at a parley the following day. Some 20,000 Romans died and 10,000 were taken to the far east of the Parthian empire. Seven eagles were lost, and the disaster left Caesar and Pompey with nothing between them. The eagles were recovered by negotiation under Augustus in 20 BC and the return was celebrated as a conquest on coins and on the breastplate of his statue at Prima Porta. Diplomacy is harder to put on a monument than a battle, so it was put there as one.
- Year: 53 BCE
- Category: Military
