Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/897

Rh CRASSUS. tain. In the course of this expedition, — one of the most disastrous in which the Romans were ever engaged against a foreign enemy, — Crassus is said to have lost 20,000 men killed, and 10,000 taken prisoners. At the time of his death, Artavasdos had made peace with Orodes, and had given one of his daughters in marriage to Pacorus, the son of the Parthian. They were sitting to- gether at the nuptial banquet, and listening to the representation of the Bacchae of Euripides, when a messenger arrived from Surenas, and brought in the head tind hand of Crassus. To the great delight of the spectators, passages from the drama (1. 11 G8 &c) were applied by the actors to the lifeless head. Orodes afterwards caused melted gold to be poured into the mouth of his fallen enemy, saying, life thou wert so greedy." (Dion Cass. xl. 27 ; Floius, in. 1 1.) (Plutarch, Crassus; Dion Cass, xxxvii. — xl.; Cic. EpisL passim. The Ilistoria Romanorum Par- ihica^ usually attributed to Appian, is a compilation from Plutarch. All the authorities are collected in Dnimann, Gesch. Roms iv. pp. 71 — 115.) 18. P. LiciNius Crassus Dives, son of No. 15, and known by the designation of Decoctor; for, though originally very rich, his prodigality and dissipation were so inordinate, that he became in- solvent, and his creditors sold his goods. After this, he was often taunted by being addressed as Crassus Dives. (Val. Max. vi. 9. § 12.) 19. M. LiciNius Crassus Dives, the elder son of the triumvir (No. 17) by Tertulla. (Cic. ad Fam. v. 8.) From his resemblance to the senator Axius, there was a slander that his mother had been unfaithful to her husband. After his younger brother Publius had left Caesar, Marcus became Caesar's quaestor in Gaul, and at the breaking out of the cml war, in b. c. 49 was praefect in Cis- alpine Gaul. (Caes. B. G. v. 24 ; Justin xlii. 4.) It is possible that he was the husband of the Cae- cilia or Metella, who appears by an inscription in Gruter (p. 377, No. 7) to have been the wife of M. Crassus, and has by some genealogists been ■wrongly given to the triumvir. (Drumann, Gesch. Roms ii. p. 5b.) 20. P. LiciNius M. F. Crassus Dives, younger son of the triumvir, was Caesar's legate in Gaul from B. c. 58 to the second consulship of his fether. In b. c. 58, he fought against Ariovistus ; in the following year, against the Veneti and other tribes in north-western Gaul ; and in B. c. 6^., he distinguished himself in Aquitania. In the next winter, Caesar sent him to Rome with a party of soldiers who were intended to forward the election of the triumvirs Pompey and Crassus, and he also brought home 1000 Gallic cavalry, who afterwards took part in the Parthian war. Notwithstanding the mutual dislike of Cicero and Crassus the trium- vir, Publius was much attached to the great orator, and derived much pleasure and benefit from his society. In b. c. 58, he strove to prevent the banishment of Cicero, and with other young Ro- mans appeared in public clad in mourning ; and, on his return to Rome, in B. c. 55, he exerted himself to procure a reconciliation between Cicero and his father. (Cic. ad Qu. Fr. ii. 9. § 2.) At the end of the year b. c. 54, he followed the trium- vir to Syria, and, in the fatal battle near Carrhae, behaved with the utmost gallantry. (Plut Crass. 25.) Seeing that he could not rescue his troops, CRASSUS. 879 he refused to provide for his own safety, and, m his hand was disabled by being transfixed with an arrow, he ordered his sword-bearer to run him through the body. Though he was more ambitious of militar)'- renown than of the fame of eloquence, he was fond of literature. He was a proficient in the art of dancing (Macrob. ii. 10 fin.), and under the teaching of his friend and freedman ApoUonius, became well skilled in Greek. (Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 16.) There is extant a Roman denarius ( posi^ p. 882) which has been usually supposed to refer to him, although the name inscribed and the device on the reverse would equally or better apply to his grandfather, Publius the censor. No. 14. See below, p. 882, a. (Eckhel, v. p. 232 ; Spanh. ii. p. 99.) 21. M. LiciNius M. F. Crassus Dives, son of No. 19. In b. c. 30, he was consul with Octa- vian, and in the following year, as proconsid of Macedonia, he fought with success against the sur- rounding barbarians. (Liv. Epit. cxxxiv., cxxxv.) 22. M. LiciNius M. F. Crassus Dives, son of No. 21, was consul B. c. 14. (Dion Cass. liv. 24.) 23. L. LiciNius L. F. Crassus, the orator. His pedigree is unknown. He was bom b. c. 140, was educated by his father with the greatest care, and received instruction from the celebrated histo- rian and jurist, L. Caelius Antipater. (Cic. Brut. 26.) At a verj'- early age he began to display his oratorical ability. At the age of twenty-one (or, according to Tacitus, Dial, de Orat. c. 34, two years earlier) he accused C, Carbo, a man of high nobility and eloquence, who was hated by the aristocratic party to which Crassus belonged. Val. Maximus (vi. 5. § 6) gives an instance of his hon- ourable conduct in this case. When the slave of Carbo brought to Crassus a desk filled with his mas- ter's papers, Crassus sent back the desk to Carbo with the seal unbroken, together with his slave in chains. Carbo escaped condemnation by poisoning himself with cantharides (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 21, BrtU. 27) ; and Crassus, pitying his fate, felt some remorse at the eagerness and success of his accusation. (Cic. Verr. iii. 1.) In the following year (b. c. 118) he defended the proposal of a law for establishing a new colony at Narbo in Gaul. The measure was opposed by the senate, who feared that by the assignation of lands to the poorer citizens, the aerariura would suffer from a diminution of the rents of the ager publicus ; but, on this occasion, Crassus preferred the quest of popularity to the reputation of consistent adherence to the aristo- cracy. (Cic. Brut. 43, de Of. ii. 18.) By eloquence above his years, he succeeded in carrying the law, and proceeded himself to found the colony. In B. c. 114, he undertook the defence of his kins- woman, the vestal Licinia, who, with two other vestals, Marcia and Aemilia, were accused of in- cest; but, though upon a former trial his client had been acquitted by L. Caecilius Mettius, pon- tifex maximus, and the whole college of pontiffs, the energy and ability of his defence were unable to prevail against the severity of L. Cassius, the scopulus reoruiriy who was appointed inquisitor by the people for the purpose of reviewing the former lenient sentence. (Veil. i. 15 ; Cic. de Orat. ii. 55, de Of. ii. 18; Macrob. i. 10 ; Clinton, Fasti, B. c. 114; Ascon. in Mil. p. 46, ed. Orelli.) In his quaestorship he was the colleague of Q. Mucins Scaevola, with whom, as colleague, he served every other office except the tribunate of
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