Posted on 02/27/2023 10:22:52 AM PST by SunkenCiv
What Happened to the Wealth of Crassus? | 0:31 / 11:20
toldinstone | 336K subscribers | 31,781 views | February 24, 2023
Chapters:
0:00 The wealth of the Roman elite
1:51 Investment strategies
2:20 Passing wealth to the next generation
3:23 Masterworks
4:58 It's tough being rich
6:21 Elite infertility
7:50 Infant mortality
8:57 The example of Crassus
9:32 Long-lasting families
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Transcript 0:00 · The 0:08 · Roman aristocracy was rich. 0:12 · Very rich. At a time when most families supported themselves on less than 1,000 sestertii a year, 0:20 · Roman senators of the imperial era were required to have fortunes of at least a million, 0:25 · and many were far wealthier. Crassus, worth a cool two hundred million, liked to say that no 0:32 · man could call himself rich unless he was able to support an army with his private fortune. 0:39 · Anecdotes about elite extravagance abound. We read about Roman magnates building private islands, 0:46 · importing water from the Dead Sea for their private baths, sailing to Africa to sample the 0:51 · local shrimp, and generally acting in ways that would make a Gilded Age tycoon blush. 0:58 · Even during late antiquity, as the frontiers crumbled and cities burned, 1:03 · the Roman aristocracy retained much of its wealth, building huge mansions like the villa 1:08 · outside Piazza Armerina in Sicily, with its acres of mosaics. The last time I visited that building, 1:15 · I found myself wondering what happened to the family that constructed it, 1:19 · and whether any of the vast fortunes assembled by the Roman elite survived into the Middle Ages. 1:26 · By one estimate, 90% of rich American families lose the bulk of their wealth 1:32 · by the third generation. Even in the relatively stable British aristocracy, few families have 1:39 · even a small fraction of the wealth they possessed in the late nineteenth century. 1:43 · Modern fortunes, in short, are fragile. Wealth in the Roman world was even more fleeting. 1:51 · Like most premodern elites, rich Romans kept most of their wealth in the form of land, 1:56 · especially estates that produced such lucrative products as wine and olive oil. 2:03 · But they also invested in urban real estate and dabbled in commerce, sponsored voyages as 2:09 · far afield as Arabia and India, lent money at 12% interest to friends and associates, 2:15 · and hired out their slaves as semi-independent craftsmen. 2:20 · When a wealthy Roman died, his wealth normally passed to his heirs in accordance with the 2:26 · provisions of his will. By law, any man with a legitimate son was required to name him the 2:32 · primary heir, unless he had been formally disinherited. But there were often dozens, 2:38 · even hundreds of other heirs, ranging from professional associates to newly-freed slaves. 2:45 · Augustus instituted a 5% estate tax on money willed to anyone outside the deceased’s immediate 2:52 · family. More onerous was the custom, dangerous to disregard, of willing a substantial portion 2:59 · of one’s property to the reigning emperor. In general, Roman law and Roman society made 3:07 · ample legal provision for the transfer of wealth from generation to generation. 3:12 · The problem, as we’ll see, is that the next generation often didn’t exist. Before we explore 3:19 · that, a brief word about this video’s sponsor. An indispensable sign of wealth in the 3:26 · Roman world was a villa gleaming with bronze and marble statues. 3:31 · [ad text redacted] 4:58 · Although wealthy Romans had many avenues for investing their wealth and legally protected 5:03 · means of transferring that wealth to their heirs, few Roman fortunes lasted more than two or three 5:09 · generations. Part of the problem was extravagant spending. Politics were expensive, especially 5:17 · during the Republic, when officials were expected to sponsor lavish games and entertainments. 5:23 · Even under the emperors, when the stakes of politics were lower, 5:26 · a single banquet for a priesthood might cost the host a million sestertii. 5:33 · The Roman elite also dissipated their wealth in vast dowries and lavish purchases. 5:39 · We read about men spending a million sestertii on a single table, buying crystal goblets that 5:45 · cost more than most villas, and snapping up antique Greek statues like Fabergé eggs. 5:52 · The fortunes of the elite were affected by economic crises, most notably amid the runaway 5:58 · inflation of the third and fourth centuries. The proscriptions that accompanied the civil 6:03 · wars of the late Republic destroyed the lives and fortunes of hundreds of elite families. 6:09 · So did the executions and confiscations that marked the reigns of the more tyrannical 6:14 · Roman emperors. Barbarian hordes, finally, were never good for business. 6:21 · But the single most important factor behind the rapid disappearance of most Roman family 6:26 · fortunes was nothing more or less than infertility – the fact that, from the 6:32 · beginning to the end of Roman history, most elite families failed to reproduce themselves. 6:39 · A careful study focused on the century between the reigns of Trajan and Commodus, for example, 6:44 · suggests that only about a quarter of senatorial families managed to survive for three generations. 6:52 · In part, this reflected the reluctance of some Roman aristocrats to marry. Despite the 6:59 · marriage legislation of Augustus, which imposed legal penalties on members of the elite who 7:04 · remained unwed, the childless old man, hounded by would-be heirs, was a trope in Roman literature. 7:12 · Even elite Romans who married tended to produce few children. 7:17 · The historian Polybius speculated that elite infertility reflected aggressive birth control, 7:23 · as parents attempted to limit the dispersal of family wealth by producing only one or two heirs. 7:31 · Most modern historians, however, think that few Romans, elite or otherwise, 7:36 · ever used such rigorous family planning, not least because many members of the Roman elite 7:42 · produced large families. Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina, for example, had 13 children. 7:51 · The reason most elite families were small seems to have been the terrible toll taken by childhood 7:56 · disease. Only about half of all Roman children, rich or poor, survived to their fifth birthday. 8:05 · Fronto, the tutor of Marcus Aurelius, lost five children, each dying before the next was born. Of 8:13 · the 12 children of Tiberius Gracchus and Cornelia, only three reached adulthood. Many elite Romans 8:19 · – even emperors, who were especially motivated to produce heirs – had no surviving children. 8:27 · The Romans were well aware how difficult it was to have large families. During the reign of Domitian, 8:32 · for example, a woman who had five living sons and five living daughters was publicly honored 8:38 · at a festival. Roman custom sanctioned elite adoption, whereby a childless father gave his 8:45 · family name (and eventually, property) to the adult son of one of his social peers. 8:51 · But even this practice could only preserve a small minority of families. 8:57 · Family fortunes were still more fragile, even when the heirs survived childhood. 9:02 · Take the example of Crassus, that ultra-wealthy magnate who said no man was rich who couldn’t 9:09 · afford to pay an army. One of Crassus’ two sons died with him at the disastrous Battle of Carrhae. 9:16 · But the other survived to marry Caecilia Metella, whose gargantuan 9:20 · tomb on the Appian Way is the sole extant physical monument to the family fortune. 9:25 · Yet Crassus’ direct line – and apparently his fortune – lasted only three generations. 9:33 · There were, of course, exceptions – families that produced heirs generation after generation. The 9:39 · Scipio clan, which remained at the forefront of Roman politics for centuries, is a famous example. 9:47 · There were also instances from the provinces: at the city of Oenoanda, in modern Turkey, 9:52 · the tomb of one aristocratic lady proudly traces her lineage back twelve generations. 9:59 · During late antiquity, some prominent families, such as Symmachi and Anicii, retained their 10:06 · prestige and wealth in the face of an increasingly hostile political climate, surviving even the 10:11 · collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Some of these families migrated to Constantinople, 10:16 · where their descendants long remained prominent. In Western Europe, a few families survived into 10:22 · the Middle Ages, producing magnates, bishops, gilded reliquaries, 10:27 · and Romanesque churches – the last generations of witnesses to the fortunes of the Roman elite. 10:37 · If you’re interested in more toldinstone content 10:40 · (including my podcast), check out my channel Toldinstone Footnotes. 10:45 · I also have a channel called Scenic Routes to the Past, which is dedicated 10:49 · to historically-themed travel. You'll find both channels linked in the description. 10:55 · Please consider joining other viewers in supporting toldinstone on Patreon. 11:00 · You might also enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants. Thanks for watching
The Tax Man..................
It’s an add. Interesting topic though.
Many Caesars would have wealthy enemies executed as traitors so their wealth could be confiscated to fund military campaigns and massive building projects. Octavian, Antony, Tiberius, Caligula and Nero were notorious for this.
Since I watched Spartacus I wondered if it was true... Did Crassus’s son really pump Julius Ceaser in the bung hole!?? That scene actually shocked me!!
No. The old queen (when he was still young) Gore Vidal wrote the initial draft for “Spartacus” and I think for “Ben Hur” as well.
Wait....
WHAT ¿?⅘
It was all spent through at the Battle of Carrhae.
(I haven't watched this yet)Marcus Licinius Crassus: The Rise & Fall of the Richest Man in Rome | 22:45
Biographics | 2.24M subscribers | 232,111 views | June 18, 2021
0:50 - Chapter 1 - Early years
3:40 - Chapter 2 - The civil wars
6:55 - Chapter 3 - All the money in the world
11:00 - Mid roll ads
12:25 - Chapter 4 - The gladiator rebellion
16:00 - Chapter 5 - An alliance is born
18:10 - Chapter 6 - War with parthia
Transcript 0:00 · this video is brought to you by 0:01 · squarespace check out squarespace at 0:02 · squarespace.com forward slash 0:04 · biographics you'll get 10 0:05 · off your first purchase more on them in 0:07 · a bit 0:13 · they say the greed is the downfall of 0:15 · man it certainly was the downfall of one 0:17 · particular man despite having all the 0:19 · power and all the money in the world 0:21 · it was still not enough for marcus 0:24 · licinia's crassus he could have spent 0:26 · the rest of his life as one of rome's 0:27 · most influential citizens getting rich 0:30 · and fat off the countless properties and 0:32 · businesses that he owns 0:33 · but instead he marched to his doom out 0:35 · of greed and hubris and caused not only 0:37 · his own demise but embroiled rome in a 0:39 · conflict that would last 0:41 · over 250 years 0:48 · marcus cecinius crassus was born circa 0:51 · 115 bc into an old and respected roman 0:54 · family named licinia he was the second 0:56 · of three sons of publius lascinius 0:58 · crassus and 0:59 · vennalea his father was a very 1:01 · successful man he served as a senator 1:03 · then consul then censor then even 1:05 · had a roman triumph in his honor which 1:07 · was a public ceremony intended to 1:09 · celebrate a big 1:10 · military victory despite all of this 1:12 · they lived modestly 1:13 · plutarch who gives the most detailed 1:15 · account of crassus's life in 1:16 · the parallel lives said that the future 1:19 · general grew up in a small house and 1:20 · that both his brothers got married while 1:22 · their parents were still alive and 1:24 · they all lived under the same roof and 1:26 · ate at the same table 1:27 · one of crassus's brothers died in the 1:30 · early 80s bc and left behind a childless 1:32 · widow 1:33 · named tatula although unusual for that 1:35 · time crassus decided to marry her 1:37 · and they had two boys together marcus 1:40 · publius his older brother also died a 1:42 · few years later which meant that he 1:43 · received the full inheritance from his 1:45 · parents 1:46 · which was substantial despite their 1:48 · meager living conditions 1:49 · so just how substantial well of course 1:51 · it's hard to provide an 1:52 · accurate measurement of his wealth but 1:54 · plutarch said that when kratos started 1:57 · out 1:57 · he had around 300 talents which is great 2:00 · i mean but 2:01 · how much is her talent in today's money 2:03 · that's actually surprisingly difficult 2:04 · to answer since the value of the talent 2:06 · was tied to the value of silver 2:08 · and has varied wildly over the course of 2:10 · the centuries that it was in use 2:12 · originally the talent was simply a unit 2:14 · of weight first introduced in ancient 2:16 · mesopotamia and used by everyone 2:18 · the akkadians the sumerians the 2:19 · babylonians the phoenicians the 2:21 · egyptians the hebrews the talent that 2:23 · plutarch is referring to 2:24 · is the attic or greek talent it was 2:27 · still a unit of way which measured 2:28 · around 26 kilograms but it became 2:30 · far more commonly used as a unit of 2:32 · currency which represented the weight 2:34 · of a talent in pure silver so then how 2:37 · much was an 2:38 · attic talent worth fortunately others 2:40 · have already made some calculations so 2:42 · we don't have to the english translation 2:44 · of plutarch's book dated to 1916 2:46 · estimated that one talent was worth 2:48 · around one thousand two hundred dollars 2:50 · or around twenty nine thousand dollars 2:51 · in today's money another estimate was 2:53 · provided in 1885 by william watson 2:55 · goodwin who taught greek studies at 2:57 · harvard and he calculated that 2:59 · one talent was around a thousand dollars 3:01 · or twenty seven thousand five hundred 3:03 · dollars in modern currency so both 3:05 · estimates were in the same ballpark 3:06 · now going back to plutarch he said that 3:08 · crassus started out with 300 talent 3:10 · which would be around 8.6 million 3:12 · dollars today and by the time he left 3:14 · for the parthian expedition where he 3:15 · died 3:16 · crassus was worth around 7 100 talents 3:19 · which would be over 200 million dollars 3:21 · today 3:21 · of course this is just a rough estimate 3:23 · as some have placed his wealth in the 3:24 · billions and whether or not he 3:26 · truly was the richest man in rome is 3:28 · again something that is difficult for us 3:30 · to establish with any certainty 3:32 · [Music] 3:38 · crassus's rise through the ranks of rome 3:40 · came during a time of turmoil for the 3:41 · republic one that perhaps foreshadowed 3:43 · its eventual collapse just a few decades 3:45 · later 3:46 · the main cause for this turmoil was a 3:47 · rivalry between two men 3:49 · sulla and gaius marius who were both 3:52 · highly decorated military commanders but 3:54 · fierce opponents in 88 bc sulla who was 3:57 · a consul at the time was getting ready 3:58 · to take his army in march easter to 4:00 · fight the kingdom of 4:01 · pontus in modern-day turkey led by king 4:03 · mithradartes vi 4:05 · however gaius marius also wanted that 4:07 · position and he used his influence and 4:09 · intrigues to relieve sulla of his duty 4:12 · but he did not anticipate his opponent's 4:14 · next move 4:14 · instead of relinquishing command sulla 4:16 · took his troops and marched on rome the 4:18 · same as 4:19 · julius caesar would do 40 years later 4:21 · this became known as sulla's first civil 4:23 · war and the general garnered the 4:24 · distinction of being the first man to 4:26 · seize power of the roman republic 4:27 · through force gaius marius and his 4:29 · cohorts however managed to flee the city 4:31 · and retreat to africa where they 4:32 · regrouped 4:33 · back in rome sula consolidated his power 4:35 · enacted new policies placed his 4:37 · supporters in high-ranking offices then 4:39 · traveled to pontus to fight the king 4:40 · mithradartes as 4:42 · originally intended this provided gaius 4:44 · marius with the time he needed to raise 4:45 · an army so 4:46 · the following year he entered rome and 4:48 · successfully ousted solar supporters 4:50 · erasing all the changes enacted by his 4:52 · enemy the conquest 4:53 · was a lot bloodier as it was followed by 4:56 · the marian purges where 4:57 · marius and his allies assassinated a lot 4:59 · of solar supporters this included 5:01 · lucius licinius crassus older brother of 5:04 · marcus crassus and presumably also his 5:06 · father who died around the same time 5:08 · although were unsure of the exact 5:10 · circumstances it's possible that 5:11 · publius sliciness crassus committed 5:13 · suicide knowing that a 5:14 · far worse fate was awaiting him with the 5:17 · senate at his mercy marius organized 5:19 · elections for consulships but 5:21 · only two people were allowed to take 5:22 · part himself and his second in command 5:24 · lucius cornelius sinner unsurprisingly 5:27 · they became the new consuls once he 5:29 · fulfilled all of his goals gaius marius 5:30 · died just a few days later 5:32 · and sinner took over eager to avoid the 5:34 · same fate as his father and brother 5:36 · crassus fled rome and traveled to espana 5:39 · to meet some of his father's friends he 5:40 · spent the next few years there living in 5:42 · a cave near the sea making arrangements 5:44 · building an army 5:45 · knowing that another battle between the 5:47 · two sides was inevitable however cena 5:49 · would not take part 5:50 · in 84 bc he thought he would launch a 5:52 · surprise attack on his enemies by 5:53 · crossing the adriatic sea into dalmatia 5:56 · although the circumstances are a bit 5:58 · murky sinner angered his own soldiers 6:00 · somehow and he was killed in a mutiny 6:01 · the leadership of his faction was passed 6:03 · on to others such as gaius marius the 6:05 · younger and 6:06 · a consul named cabo it was in 83 bc that 6:09 · sulla launched his second offensive on 6:11 · rome predictably 6:12 · named sulla's second civil war he was 6:14 · joined by crassus but 6:15 · also by pompeii who was an up-and-coming 6:17 · general at the time 6:18 · the decisive moment in the war came at 6:20 · the battle of colleen gate in november 6:22 · of 82 bc 6:24 · where marcus cress has played a pivotal 6:25 · role he was in charge of the right wing 6:27 · and while sulla's troops were getting 6:29 · pushed back into the center 6:30 · crassus was victorious on his side and 6:32 · completely routed their enemies 6:34 · once sulla was in charge of rome again 6:36 · he declared himself dictator and spent 6:37 · the next couple of years hunting down 6:39 · the remaining members 6:40 · of the marian faction at the same time 6:42 · he was also very generous when it came 6:44 · to rewarding his supporters and 6:45 · marcus crassus was at the top of the 6:47 · list 6:54 · this was the beginning of crassus path 6:56 · to exorbitant wealth 6:58 · he lost everything when he fled rome 7:00 · because his enemies enacted 7:01 · prescriptions and confiscated all of his 7:03 · family's property but 7:04 · now the same thing was happening to the 7:07 · marian supporters 7:08 · sulla took everything they owned which 7:10 · was now being sold off for peanuts and 7:11 · krasus was the main buyer letting his 7:14 · greed completely take over or as 7:15 · plutarch put it the many virtues of 7:17 · crassus were obscured by his soul vice 7:19 · of avarice and it is likely that 7:21 · the one vice which became stronger than 7:24 · all the others in him 7:25 · weakened the rest the astorian makes 7:27 · mention of one case in 7:28 · brotherum where crassus prescribed a 7:30 · wealthy man without sula's permission 7:32 · just so that he could buy his estate at 7:34 · auction 7:34 · another even more scandalous episode 7:36 · occurred when crassus was accused of 7:38 · corrupting a vestal virgin named lycinia 7:40 · when in fact he 7:41 · kept visiting her because he wanted to 7:43 · buy her villa but this was 7:44 · not enough for crassus once there was no 7:47 · more confiscated property to purchase he 7:48 · moved 7:49 · on to derelict and destroyed buildings 7:50 · that had been damaged after years of 7:52 · fighting 7:53 · he also bought hundreds of slaves who 7:54 · were skilled laborers particularly 7:56 · builders and architects so he purchased 7:58 · ruined buildings for next to nothing 7:59 · repaired or rebuilt them using slave 8:01 · labor and then sold them off for a large 8:02 · profit 8:03 · next up crassus realized that many 8:05 · houses were damaged by fires in rome 8:07 · almost every day so he established his 8:08 · own private fire department 8:10 · of course they did not perform this 8:12 · service out of the goodness of their 8:13 · hearts 8:13 · no if a person's house caught on fire 8:15 · the brigade would rush over there but 8:17 · then they would just sit back and relax 8:19 · ready to watch the fire 8:20 · burn the whole thing down that was when 8:22 · crassus showed up 8:23 · ready to make an offer to buy the 8:25 · property while it still had some little 8:27 · value if the person accepted then the 8:28 · brigade put out the fire 8:30 · if they didn't then the house burned 8:31 · down to ashes and crassus made a new 8:33 · offer this time 8:34 · much lower than the previous one one way 8:36 · or another 8:37 · he almost always came out on top in 8:39 · addition to his ever-growing real estate 8:41 · empire crass has also derived his 8:43 · massive wealth from 8:44 · other sources such as slaves silver 8:46 · mines and the land used for agriculture 8:48 · despite 8:49 · all his actions plutarch did not 8:50 · consider crass as an unpleasant man 8:52 · quite the country in fact the historian 8:54 · said the wealthy roman won 8:55 · everyone over with universal kindness 8:57 · dignity of person 8:58 · persuasiveness of speech and winning 9:00 · grace a feature despite his 9:02 · obsession with making money crassus was 9:04 · never loathed to spend it and he was 9:06 · generous with strangers and kept his 9:07 · house open to all 9:08 · he was an esteemed and careful man and 9:11 · one who was ready with his help 9:12 · he pleased people also by the kindly and 9:15 · unaffected manner 9:16 · with which he clasped their hands and 9:18 · dressed them for he never met a roman so 9:20 · obscure and so lowly that he did not 9:22 · return his greeting 9:24 · and call him by name but wealth alone 9:26 · was not enough for a roman of note he 9:28 · also needed 9:29 · status and influence so to gain these 9:31 · crassus had two choices politics 9:34 · or the military he chose the former 9:35 · because he was better suited for it and 9:37 · it would have been undoubtedly aided by 9:39 · his wealth and his lineage meanwhile 9:42 · being a successful military commander 9:43 · would have meant being away from rome 9:44 · for long periods of time which would 9:46 · have adversely affected his businesses 9:48 · unsurprisingly krasus turned out to be a 9:50 · naval politician and a skilled orator as 9:52 · he pursued the 9:53 · cursus honorum aka the tradition of 9:56 · sequence of public officers held by 9:58 · senators as they steadily climbed the 9:59 · political ladder he was described as 10:01 · making 10:02 · very many changes in his political views 10:04 · and was neither a steadfast friend nor 10:06 · an implacable enemy 10:07 · but readily abandoned both his favors 10:10 · and his resentments at the dictates of 10:12 · his interest 10:13 · so that frequently within a short space 10:15 · of time the same men and the same 10:17 · measures found in him boasts an 10:18 · advocate and an opponent throughout his 10:21 · life it did seem to bother crassus that 10:23 · he never achieved the same kind of 10:24 · military glory as some of his colleagues 10:26 · he had a particular chip on his shoulder 10:28 · about pompeii who 10:29 · went away to fight and amassed victories 10:31 · while crassus was building his real 10:33 · estate empire despite his young age he 10:35 · was 10:35 · already being called pompei the great 10:37 · and plutarch related one incident when 10:39 · somebody announced the arrival 10:41 · of pompeii the great and crassus fell to 10:43 · the floor laughing 10:44 · asking how great is he but in 73 bc 10:48 · marcus crassus was granted the 10:49 · opportunity to gain some prestige for 10:51 · himself as 10:51 · he was tasked with putting down a 10:53 · rebellion started by an escaped slave 10:55 · named spartacus... 10:56 · [ad text redacted] 12:25 · a lot of you are probably already 12:26 · familiar with spartacus if you're not 12:29 · or if you simply want to learn about his 12:30 · rebellion in more detail we actually 12:32 · already did a biographics video all 12:34 · about spartacus which you should check 12:36 · out 12:36 · after you watch this video if you 12:38 · haven't seen it already here is the 12:39 · cliffnotes version though spartacus and 12:41 · a bunch of other slaves escaped from a 12:42 · gladiator school in kapua in 73 bc and 12:45 · started raiding the italian countryside 12:47 · such revolts were not 12:48 · unheard of in fact the war of spartacus 12:51 · is also known as the third serval war 12:53 · part of a series of conflicts caused by 12:55 · slave uprisings that is why the roman 12:57 · senate did not really 12:58 · show much concern at first only sending 13:01 · militia and local patrols after 13:02 · spartacus and 13:04 · assuming that they would be enough to 13:05 · put down the rebellion none of them 13:07 · could get the job done however they were 13:08 · defeated by the slaves whose numbers 13:10 · kept growing as 13:11 · more and more people joined their cause 13:13 · eventually even properly trained roman 13:15 · legions led by consoles were bested 13:17 · by the rebels and well the senate 13:19 · started a panic 13:20 · that is when they gave the task of 13:22 · defeating spartacus to marcus crassus 13:24 · also 13:25 · making him a prey tour and giving him 13:27 · command of eight legions 13:29 · this was something that crassus needed 13:30 · in order to advance his career and to 13:32 · achieve it he showed a degree of 13:34 · ruthlessness he never really displayed 13:36 · before this was exemplified after an 13:38 · incident with his legate 13:39 · marmius who was given command of two 13:41 · legions and told to follow spartacus and 13:43 · his army without engaging them in combat 13:45 · mummius however 13:47 · thought that he had the upper hand so he 13:48 · attacked the rebels and 13:50 · lost to punish him crassus revived the 13:52 · practice of decimation he took the 500 13:55 · soldiers who were the first to retreat 13:56 · divided them into groups of 10 and made 13:58 · them draw lots 13:59 · with one man being executed from each 14:01 · group despite the rocky start crassus 14:04 · soon had the advantage 14:05 · he had trapped spartacus and his army in 14:07 · bratium and 14:08 · had ditches and walls erected to prevent 14:10 · the enemy from running away 14:11 · his plan was to wither his opponents 14:13 · down through attrition and leave them 14:15 · vulnerable for one final attack however 14:17 · he soon received terrible news the 14:18 · senate was sending him reinforcements 14:20 · now this might sound like 14:21 · good news but it wasn't because pompey 14:24 · was the one leading those reinforcements 14:25 · crassus knew that the only reason they 14:27 · chose him in the first place was because 14:29 · pompei was busy putting down a revolt in 14:31 · espana but he had been successful and 14:33 · now he was heading this way and krasus 14:35 · realized that if the gladiator rebellion 14:37 · ended when pompe arrived 14:38 · he would be the one receiving all the 14:40 · glory unfortunately for crassus that is 14:42 · exactly what happened 14:43 · he met spartacus in one decisive action 14:45 · known as the battle of solaris river 14:47 · despite sustaining significant losses 14:49 · the roman was triumphant spartacus was 14:51 · killed in the battle as were tens of 14:53 · thousands of his soldiers 14:54 · thousands more were taken prisoner and 14:56 · later crucified along the appian way on 14:58 · crassus's orders but around 5000 also 15:01 · still managed to plead the battle they 15:02 · ran 15:02 · into pompei's army and were cut down 15:04 · without hesitation but this allowed 15:06 · pompeii 15:06 · to write to the senate saying that 15:08 · krasus had conquered the slaves but that 15:10 · he himself had extipated the war for his 15:12 · efforts not just against spartacus but 15:14 · also in hispania pompei was awarded a 15:16 · major triumph upon his return to rome 15:18 · grasses meanwhile did not object as he 15:20 · knew it'd make him seem petty and 15:21 · ignoble 15:22 · instead what he did was ask pompe for 15:24 · help despite his young 15:26 · age and experience when it came to 15:27 · public office pompeii had been 15:29 · asked to stand for consoleship which was 15:31 · the highest position 15:32 · of the cursus honorum typically two 15:34 · consuls were elected to serve a one-year 15:36 · term so 15:36 · crassus asked pompe to endorse him as 15:39 · the other candidate which pompey did 15:40 · because he thought it would be useful to 15:42 · have kratos a favor 15:44 · so the two became consoles together in 15:46 · 17 bc although plutarch specified that 15:48 · their terms ended without anything of 15:50 · significance happening because each one 15:52 · tried to undo the measures of the other 15:59 · although the relationship between 16:01 · crassus and pompeii was never openly 16:03 · hostile 16:03 · it was contentious since the two of them 16:05 · usually had the same ambitions but a 16:07 · third element was introduced into the 16:09 · equation 16:10 · which changed the dynamic and that 16:11 · element was julius caesar 16:13 · caesar was another prominent citizen of 16:15 · rome who was climbing the ranks and saw 16:17 · the potential for a powerful alliance if 16:18 · crassus and pompey 16:20 · were able to put aside their differences 16:21 · at first caesar was actually the junior 16:24 · in the partnership 16:25 · pompeii was rome's most celebrated 16:26 · military commander while crassus was the 16:28 · city's most influential landowner 16:30 · and both were more powerful than him 16:32 · caesar didn't want to risk making an 16:33 · enemy out of one of them by fully 16:35 · supporting the other so instead he 16:37 · persuaded them that it would be in all 16:38 · their best interests if they worked 16:40 · together 16:40 · against other prominent statesmen such 16:42 · as carto and cicero who 16:45 · opposed them all that is how the first 16:47 · trumper was born around 60 bc 16:49 · in the words of livy it was a conspiracy 16:51 · against the state 16:52 · by its three leading citizens they did 16:54 · not share an agenda but 16:56 · they sought to help each other out so 16:58 · that they could bypass the senate in 16:59 · order to accomplish their goals plutarch 17:01 · said that rome was divided into three 17:03 · powerful parties that of pompei that of 17:05 · caesar 17:06 · and that of crassus it was the 17:08 · thoughtful and conservative part of the 17:10 · city which attached itself to pompeii 17:12 · the violent and volatile part which 17:14 · supported the hopes of caesar while 17:15 · crassus took a middle ground 17:17 · and drew from both caesar was the one 17:19 · who most benefited from this triumvirate 17:21 · with the support of his allies he was 17:22 · elected consul and was granted an army 17:24 · and then went off to fight the gauls 17:26 · after a few years his military success 17:28 · made caesar very popular and influential 17:30 · and his two co-conspirators 17:31 · started feeling like they were getting 17:33 · the short end of the stick although they 17:35 · faced heavy resistance from their 17:36 · enemies in the senate in 56 bc 17:38 · pompei and marcus crass has secured 17:40 · another consulship for themselves 17:42 · and afterwards were assigned 17:43 · governorships of roman provinces pompeii 17:46 · received two provinces in hispania while 17:48 · crassus received syria 17:49 · the exact circumstances behind this 17:51 · political move are uncertain some 17:52 · historians claimed that caesar helped 17:54 · them become consuls again in an attempt 17:56 · to 17:57 · preserve their waning alliance while 17:59 · others said that crassus and pompeii did 18:01 · this 18:01 · without caesar's approval specifically 18:03 · to counter his growing influence 18:11 · back then being made a governor of a 18:12 · province meant that you had carte 18:14 · blanche to do whatever you wanted 18:16 · more or less that was receive bribes 18:17 · take loans start new businesses etc it 18:20 · was usually regarded as a reward from 18:22 · the senate to make yourself as rich as 18:23 · possible while you served as governor 18:25 · this should have been an ideal position 18:27 · for crassus but 18:28 · he wanted more not satisfied with the 18:30 · riches found in syria he thought about 18:32 · expanding to the east into the parthian 18:34 · empire the two nations had 18:35 · a complicated and violent relationship 18:37 · for most of the 500-year existence of 18:39 · the parthian empire 18:40 · founded in the mid 3rd century bc 18:42 · parthia was an iranian civilization that 18:44 · became a powerhouse in the middle east 18:46 · when it defeated the seleucid empire 18:47 · it took over all of their territory and 18:49 · just kept expanding 18:51 · the problem with expansion is that 18:52 · eventually you run into other people who 18:54 · would prefer to stop your expansion 18:56 · that's what happened 18:57 · to parthia it expanded westward until it 18:59 · reached roman territory 19:01 · even so for about 200 years the two 19:03 · sides coexisted using the kingdom of 19:05 · armenia as a useful buffer between their 19:07 · lands 19:07 · this changed in 54 bc however when the 19:09 · first of a series of conflicts known as 19:11 · the roman parthian wars began 19:13 · after crassus decided to rekindle his 19:15 · military career nobody knows what 19:17 · brought this on crassus was over 60 19:19 · years old and 19:20 · he had not taken part in a military 19:21 · campaign for almost 20 years since he 19:23 · fought spartagus was it merely his greed 19:26 · that spurred him on 19:27 · or was it also his desire not to be 19:28 · outshined by pompei and caesar according 19:31 · to plutarch in private crass has made 19:33 · youthful boasts which 19:34 · ill become his years saying that he will 19:37 · go beyond 19:38 · parthia into india and baktria and make 19:40 · pompei's campaigns against mithridates 19:42 · look like 19:43 · child's play so it definitely seems like 19:45 · he was motivated by more than just 19:47 · money as a governor crassus had the 19:48 · power to levy an army so 19:50 · in 53 bc even without senate approval he 19:53 · invaded mesopotamia at first things went 19:55 · quite well for the roman commander most 19:57 · cities offered tribute and allied 19:58 · themselves with the romans willingly 19:59 · particularly the greek cities that had 20:01 · been founded by the macedonians during 20:03 · the time of alexander one exception was 20:05 · a city called 20:06 · zenodotian which arrested and killed 20:08 · some of crassus's soldiers so in return 20:10 · crassus plundered it 20:11 · and enslaved all of its citizens the 20:13 · roman general made his first mistake 20:15 · when winter came because instead of 20:17 · pressing the attack he retreated to 20:18 · syria until spring 20:20 · waiting for his son publius to arrive 20:22 · with reinforcements by this point of 20:24 · course the parthians received word of 20:25 · his incursions and this gave them time 20:27 · to prepare they even 20:28 · sent an enboy to crassus from king 20:30 · orodes ii 20:31 · of parthia giving him one last chance to 20:34 · stop his invasion 20:34 · boastfully crassus replied that he would 20:36 · give the king his response in solution 20:39 · meaning that he planned to take the 20:40 · parthian capital to this the envoy burst 20:43 · out in laughter and 20:44 · pointing at his palm said oh crassus 20:46 · hair will grow there before 20:48 · thou shalt see seleucia his second 20:50 · mistake came when he refused the aid of 20:51 · king artavastis ii of armenia who 20:53 · offered crassus safe passage and 20:55 · reinforcements if he invaded parthia 20:57 · through his land 20:58 · instead crassus accepted the help of 21:00 · aryamnis leader of the kingdom of 21:02 · osharone and 21:03 · crossed the euphrates into mesopotamia 21:05 · ariemnes had served pompei in the past 21:07 · and proved himself a 21:08 · friend of rome but on this occasion he 21:10 · was working with the parthians and lead 21:12 · crassus and his troops into the open 21:14 · desert completely weakened tired and 21:16 · demoralized the roman troops fought the 21:17 · parthians at the battle of kharhai in 53 21:20 · bc located in modern day haran turkey 21:22 · the parthians led by a general named 21:24 · serena slaughtered the romans even 21:26 · though they were severely outnumbered 21:28 · crassus had clearly lost the battle his 21:29 · son publius had 21:30 · been killed and most of his remaining 21:32 · men were getting ready to mutiny he 21:34 · tried making a truce but this was a trap 21:36 · and marcus crassus and his entire 21:38 · retinue were killed when they met the 21:39 · parthians according to plutarch crassus 21:41 · killer was a man named pomax threes who 21:43 · then 21:44 · cut off his head and one hand and sent 21:46 · them to the parthian king a much more 21:48 · notorious death was told by cassius dio 21:50 · said that crassus had molten gold pulled 21:52 · down his throat to punish him 21:54 · prison ending greed although he didn't 21:56 · specify if the roman general was alive 21:58 · or dead when this happened back home his 21:59 · death had important consequences 22:01 · for starters it was a humiliating defeat 22:03 · for rome one that had to be answered for 22:05 · so parthia became one of its fiercest 22:07 · enemies for the next 250 years but 22:09 · crassus's demise also meant the end of 22:11 · the first triumvirate pompe and caesar 22:13 · were already on hostile terms by this 22:15 · point and 22:15 · with crassus gone the two of them were 22:17 · firmly placed on a collision course 22:19 · which prompted the fall of the republic 22:22 · and gave rise 22:23 · to the roman empire 22:26 · so i really hope you found that video 22:28 · interesting if you did please do hit 22:29 · that thumbs up button below don't forget 22:30 · to subscribe also thank you to 22:32 · squarespace for sponsoring it there's a 22:33 · link to them below 22:35 · and thank you for watching 22:40 · [Music] 22:45 · you
It’s not an ad, it’s a history video. The YT-generated transcript has the ad text edited out.
I’m pretty sure George Soros stole it and has been using Crassus’ fortune to bankroll cultural deconstruction ever since.
Sure helps explain the collapse of the Roman empire.
According to the movie (B.S.), he was executed by being forced to swallow his gold.
I appreciate you finding this stuff and posting the transcript. My next comment is not directed at YOU.
I despise the way YouTube generates their transcripts. I wish there was a way to get the data and format it to something readable in a document type format. There is probably a you tube video that would show how to do that. Lol.
"The law of equal inheritance, by giving an equal portion of the father's property to all the children, compels the rich to divide their estates among their children; and forbids the poor to divide theirs at all. It takes wealth from some, and poverty from none; it secures every man's independence without increasing anyone's power, and without disturbing the balance of society. Democracy favors the division of estates for another reason; not only does it make the poor equal to the rich, but it places a greater number of citizens above the level of poverty, and it infuses comfort and independence into a multitude of families."
(Volume 1, Part 2, Chapter 4)
I’m grateful that there’s anything available at all. I did some cleanup with search and replace — extraneous spaces, “Krassus” instead of “Crassus” (all lowercase though), and I deliberately leave in the time index to make the dialogue simple to find.
The spelling is Croesus ... I do believe.
Headline writers are so illiterate and uneducated these days.
No, it isn’t. Croesus is the modern spelling for one of the kings of Lydia.
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