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Marcus Crassus and the late Roman Republic
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- GenresClassics
320 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 11, 2019
Marcus Crassus and the late Roman Republic was a fantastic read, extremely easy to sit back and enjoy while also enjoying the compelling arguments that Allen Ward was offering. While this is almost the only book available in English on Crassus, it is one that will likely not be surpassed by anyone anytime soon.
Ward very early on tries to right the wrongs that historians in the past- more recent and ancient- have done to the man that is Marcus Crassus and explains why he is so poorly remembered and thought little of and a lot of it had to do with, as many people viewed it, his capitalistic personality and his networking. Even for the Romans, there was an acceptable way of making substantial income, and if you did not attain it by agricultural means or by war booty, then it was deemed as corrupt or improper. For this reason, many authors looked down on Crassus as he was a businessman who made his money largely having inherited a tremendous amount after his father and brothers died during the Sullan Civil War. From this money which he used as his base, he went on to aid Sulla in the proscription of Romans who were not in support of the Sullan regime and would often put names on the list simply so he could take their land upon their execution.
His second form of money making was to buy houses either on the low end of the market and have some of them rented out or buy houses which he had saved from fires and the current owners did not wish to repair. He managed to do this with a party of roughly 300 slaves which he would use to put out the fires themselves, some historians have argued that some of the fires he may have actually started in order to initiate the business. He also helped to put on city festivals and dinner parties.
Another part of the book which was quite enjoyable was how Crassus managed to deal with the slave revolt of Spartacus which was very pleasurable to read. It was also the part of the book where you saw the developing rivalry between Marcus Crassus and Pompey the Great. Where Crassus had managed to slaughter most of Spartacus's men and the leader himself -although no body was ever recovered - his glory was to be stolen by Pompey who claimed that "while Crassus had won the pitched battles, I had won the war".
The final case that War makes as to why Crassus was never remembered as well as Pompey or Caesar was because of his fatal invasion of Parthia and his defeat at Carrhae. Had he survived that he would likely have gone on to be arguably as popular as Pompey - though likely not more. As it was, though Crassus was a capable soldier, he was more of a businessman.
I would only recommend this book to those who are very obsessed with Roman history, but for those who are, this one is a solid read.
Ward very early on tries to right the wrongs that historians in the past- more recent and ancient- have done to the man that is Marcus Crassus and explains why he is so poorly remembered and thought little of and a lot of it had to do with, as many people viewed it, his capitalistic personality and his networking. Even for the Romans, there was an acceptable way of making substantial income, and if you did not attain it by agricultural means or by war booty, then it was deemed as corrupt or improper. For this reason, many authors looked down on Crassus as he was a businessman who made his money largely having inherited a tremendous amount after his father and brothers died during the Sullan Civil War. From this money which he used as his base, he went on to aid Sulla in the proscription of Romans who were not in support of the Sullan regime and would often put names on the list simply so he could take their land upon their execution.
His second form of money making was to buy houses either on the low end of the market and have some of them rented out or buy houses which he had saved from fires and the current owners did not wish to repair. He managed to do this with a party of roughly 300 slaves which he would use to put out the fires themselves, some historians have argued that some of the fires he may have actually started in order to initiate the business. He also helped to put on city festivals and dinner parties.
Another part of the book which was quite enjoyable was how Crassus managed to deal with the slave revolt of Spartacus which was very pleasurable to read. It was also the part of the book where you saw the developing rivalry between Marcus Crassus and Pompey the Great. Where Crassus had managed to slaughter most of Spartacus's men and the leader himself -although no body was ever recovered - his glory was to be stolen by Pompey who claimed that "while Crassus had won the pitched battles, I had won the war".
The final case that War makes as to why Crassus was never remembered as well as Pompey or Caesar was because of his fatal invasion of Parthia and his defeat at Carrhae. Had he survived that he would likely have gone on to be arguably as popular as Pompey - though likely not more. As it was, though Crassus was a capable soldier, he was more of a businessman.
I would only recommend this book to those who are very obsessed with Roman history, but for those who are, this one is a solid read.
January 2, 2012
Must have for the research on my own novels. Fun to find someone who agrees with my own theory, even if they wrote it 35 years ago!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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