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To: nicollo

[Generally, in order to promote one’s political career, one wants to become famous before dying in battle, as Crassus did at Carrhae. ]


Consul was as high as you could get in the Roman republic, so there’s that. Given that they were elected once a year, consuls were a dime a dozen. Without Carrhae, Crassus would have been a footnote - a consul, but not a noteworthy figure, who put down one of a number of slave rebellions. But Carrhae made him immortal, even as it took both his and his son’s lives, along with most of the army* they led. Life can be funny in that way. If Varus hadn’t gotten his legions annihilated by Hermann, how well-known would he be?

* What’s curious is how his survival, or success, would have affected Caesar’s fate. Would the power struggle that followed Crassus’s death have broken out at all?


43 posted on 02/26/2020 3:59:01 PM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: Zhang Fei

Well, if you want Bloomies to go straight to Carrhae, that’s fine with me, but I was pointing out that Crassus had to buy his way into fame well before that.


44 posted on 02/26/2020 4:28:46 PM PST by nicollo (I said no!)
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