Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/892

Rh 874 CRASSUS. CU8, who was flaraen Martialis, to undertake the command against Aristonicus, and imposed a fine upon him, in case of liis leaving the sacred rites. The people remitted the fine, but shewed their sense of due priestly subordination by ordering the flamen to obey the pontiff. (Cic. Phil. xi. 8.) Crassus, though his own absence was liable to similar objection, proceeded to oppose Aristonicus, who had occupied the kingdom of Pergaraus, which had been bequeathed by Attalus to the Roman people. His expedition to Asia was unfortunate. He suffered a defeat at Leucae, and was overtaken in his flight between Elaea and Smyrna by the body-guard of the enemy. In order that he might not be taken alive, he struck a Thracian in the eye with his horse-whip, and the Thracian, smarting with the blow, stabbed him to death. (Val. Max. iii. 2. § 12.) His body was buried at Smyrna, and his head was brought to Aristonicus, who, in the following year, surrendered to Perpema, and was put to death at Rome. He was so minutely skilled in the Greek language, that when he pre- sided in Asia, he was in the habit of giving judg- ment to those who resorted to his tribunal in any one of five dialects in which they preferred their claim. (Quintil. xi. 2, fin.) Cicero extols him as a good orator and jurist (Cic. Brut. 26 ; compare Dig. 1 . tit. 2. 8. 4), and Gellius ( who gives an example of the strictness of his military discipline) says that, according to Sempronius Asellio and other writers of Roman history, he possessed five of the best of good things, " quod esset ditissimus, quod nobilis- simus, quod eloquentissimus, quod jurisconsultissi- mus, quod pontifex maximus." (Gell. i. 13.) How the legal lore of Crassus was on one occasion well- nigh foiled in contest with the superior eloquence of Ser. Sulpicius Galba (whose son married the daughter of Crassus) may be read in Cicero {de Oral. i. 56). By Heineccius {Hist. Jur. Rom. i. 143) and many others, he has been confounded with L. Licinius Crassus, the orator, No. 23. (Rutilius, Vitae JClorum., c. xviii.) 9. M. Licinius Crassus Agklastus, son of No. 7, and grandfather of Crassus the triumvir. He derived his cognomen from having never laughed (Plin. //. A^. vii. 18), or, as Cicero says, he was not the less entitled to the designation, though Lucilius. reports that he laughed once in his life. (Cic. de Fin. v. 30.) 10, 11, 12. LiCINIAE. [LiCINIA.] 13. M. Licinius Crassus, son of No. 9, was praetor b. c. 107. 14. P. Licinius M. f, P. n. Crassus Dives, brother of No. 13 and father of the triumvir. He was the proposer of the lex Licinia, mentioned by Gellius (ii. 24), to prevent excessive expense and gluttony in banquets. The exact date of this law is uncertain, but it was alluded to by the poet Lucilius, who died before the consulship of Crassus, which took place b. c. 97. The sumptuary law of Crassus was so much approved of, that it was directed by a decree of the senate to take effect immediately after its publication, and before it had been actually passed by the populus. (Macrob. ii. 13.) It was abolished at the proposition of Duro- nius in b.c. 98. (Val. Max. ii. 9. § 3.) The extrava- gance of the games and shows given by the aediles had now become unreasonably great, and Crassus during his aedileship yielded to the pre- vailing prodigality. (Cic. de Of. ii. 16,) During the consulship of Crassus, the senate made a re- CRASSUS. markable decree, by which it was ordained ^ no homo immolaretur," — a monstrous rite, says Pliny, which up to that time had been publicly solem- nized. (Plin. H. N. XXX. 3.) After his con- sulship, he took the command in Spain, where he presided for several years, and, in the year B. c. 93, was honoured with a triumph for his successes in combating the Lusitanian tribes. In the social war, B. c 90, he was the legate of L. Julius Caesar, and in the following year his colleague in the censorship (Festus, s. v. referri), and with him enrolled in new tribes certain of the Latini and Itali, who were rewarded for their fidelity with the rights of citizenship. In the civil war which commenced soon afterwards, he took part with Sulla and the aristocracy. When Marius and Cinna, after being proscribed, returned to Rome in the absence of Sulla, he stabbed himself in order to escape a more ignominious death from the hands of their partisans. (Liv. Epit. Ixxx.) 15. P. Licinius Crassus Divks, son of No. 14, by Venuleia. (Cic. ad Att. xii. 24.) In B. c. 87, he was put to death by the horsemen of Fim- bria, who belonged to the party of Marius, and, ac- cording to Florus (iii. 21. § 14), was massacred before his father's eyes. Appian {B. C. i. p. 394) differs from other historians in his account of this transaction. He relates that the father, after slay- ing his son, was himself slaughtered by the party in pursuit. 16. Licinius Crassus Dives, a younger bro- ther of No. 15. His praenomen is unknown, and the only particulars of his history which have been recorded are the fact of his marriage in the lifetime of his parents, and his escape from the massacre of the year B. c. 87. (Plut. Crass. 1, 4.) 17. M. Licinius P. f. M. n. Crassus Dives, the younger son of No. 14. The date of his birth is not precisely recorded, but it is probable that he was born about the year B. c. 105, for Plutarch states, that he was younger than Pompey (Plut. Crass. 6), and that he was more than sixty years old when he departed (in the year B. c. 55) to make war against the Parthians. (76. 17.) In the year b. c. 87, when his father and bro- ther suffered death for their resistance to Marius and Cinna, he was not considered of sufficient im- portance to be involved in the same doom ; but he was closely watched, and after some time he thought it prudent to make his escape to Spain, which he had visited some years before, when his father had the command in that country. How he concealed himself in a cavern near the sea upon the estate of Vibius Paciaecus, and how he passed his life in this strange retreat, is related in detail by the lively and amusing pen of Plutarch. After a retirement of eight months, the death of Cinna (b. c. 84) relieved him from his voluntary confine- ment. He put himself at the head of a needy rabble, for whose sustenance he provided by ma- rauding excursions, and, with 2500 men, made his way to Malaca. Thence, seizing the vessels in the port, he set sail for Africa, where he met Q. Metellus Pius, who had escaped from the party of Marius. He soon quarrelled with Metellus, and did not remain long in Africa, for when Sulla (b. c. 83) landed in Italy, Crassus proceeded to join that successful general. He was now brought into competition with Pompey, who also served under Sulla. The mind of Crassus was of an essentially vulgar type. He