In 53 B.C., seven Roman legions, some 50,000 men, marched into the searing Mesopotamian desert. They had come to this eastern province of the kingdom of Parthia seeking conquest and plunder but, deceived by a false guide and commanded by an arrogant blunderer, the legions were almost annihilated. Aside from a lucky few, the Romans were either slaughtered and their bodies mutilated, or else were captured and enslaved. Their commander was decapitated, and his head was used as an ornament at the banquet of the Parthian king.

Such was the Battle of Carrhae, a disaster almost unmatched in the otherwise glorious history of Roman arms. It was a battle of shocking brutality, even by ancient standards. It was also an early example of hit-and-run, guerrilla-style warfare, carried out in a manner that would stand up well by 21st century standards. Most of all, it was a monument to the delusions, conceits and military incompetence of the Roman commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus.

Our guide across this ancient battlefield will be the famous 1st-century Greek biographer, Plutarch. Where quotation marks are used in this article, the words are his.

Rome at the time of Carrhae, though still a republic, was ruled by three powerful public figures known as the First Triumvirate: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus-known to posterity as Pompey the Great-Gaius Julius Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassus. Pompey was Rome’s most famous general, having earned his honorific title of Magnus for his many victories and conquests. The young aristocrat Caesar had been known mostly for his eloquent speeches in the Senate, but the martial talents he had recently displayed in Gaul and Britannia were fast giving rise to a new legend. Crassus, a nouveau riche entrepreneur, was both a successful politician and the richest man in Rome. For all of his wealth and political power, Crassus, according to the 1st century Greek historian Plutarch, had always envied Pompey’s military fame. When Caesar too began to exhibit military prowess, Crassus, then aged 60, suddenly decided to seek conquests of his own. ‘Being strangely puffed up, and his head heated, Plutarch wrote, he proposed himself in his hopes to pass as far as Bactria and India, and the utmost ocean.

Crassus had some military accomplishments on his resum. He was one of Lucius Cornelius Sulla’s lieutenants during the early civil wars, alongside young Pompey-the future triumvirs’ rivalry dated from that time. Crassus’ first substantial opportunity to show his martial mettle came in 73 BC, when a band of gladiators, armed with cooking knives and led by a Thracian named Spartacus, broke out of their training school in Capua and managed to capture a wagonload of weapons. Before long the breakout snowballed into a full-fledged slave revolt throughout Italy that became known as the Third Servile War. Under Spartacus’ leadership the slaves won several pitched battles over Roman troops, and were soon well on their way to marching out of Italy to freedom. Alarmed, the Roman Senate gave Crassus command of an army. One of his first acts was to revive the ancient practice of decimation: every tenth man in a unit that had been routed by Spartacus was punished with death. Next, in 71 BC Crassus maneuvered Spartacus onto the peninsula of Rhegium, where he bottled up the slave army by building a trench across the isthmus, described by Plutarch as three-hundred furlongs long, fifteen feet broad and as much in depth. Spartacus and one-third of his force managed to break out on a wild, snowy night, however, by filling a section of the trench with earth, thereby making it passable.

Spartacus still hoped to fight his way out of Italy. But after winning another battle over one of Crassus’ lieutenants, the slaves, over-confident and never really disciplined, persuaded him to lead them in a final, decisive battle. This was exactly what Crassus wanted, since Pompey was coming with an army from Iberia, and Crassus desperately needed a quick victory before his old rival arrived. In this final battle the slave army was indeed destroyed and according to Plutarch Spartacus himself, deserted by those that were about him…surrounded by the enemy and bravely defending himself, was cut in pieces.

Pompey arrived in Italy in time to assist Crassus in rounding up the surviving slaves, who were crucified on rows of crosses that lined the Appian Way. For that mopping up operation, coupled with his more significant conquests in Iberia, the Senate awarded him a formal triumph, while Crassus had to settle for a mere ovation. What is more, the Roman citizens, according to Plutarch, thought Crassus petty for accepting even that much-a victory over slaves was not thought to be very heroic. Perhaps Crassus recalled that turn of events 18 years later, when his mind turned once again to thoughts of military glory.

When Crassus revived his army career, the opponent he chose was the Parthian kingdom. The Parthians were Iranian, inheritors of the old Persian Empire that had been destroyed by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. The Parthians were not at war with Rome, and both Sulla and Pompey, on previous tours of duty in the east, had negotiated with them on friendly terms. But Parthia was big enough and close enough to be a potential nuisance to Rome, and Crassus was looking for new worlds to conquer.

For all the preparations he made in mobilizing a mighty invasion force, Crassus’ first mistake was his failure to acquaint himself with the tactics of the Parthian army. This was a significant error, because the Parthians waged war like no nation Rome had ever faced.

The Parthians occasionally employed mercenaries or raised militia to serve as infantry, but very often-including at Carrhae-their forces were entirely mounted. Their heavy cavalrymen were called cataphracts, from the Greek word cataphractoi, which means covered over. The cataphract wore scale body armor, articulated plating on his arms and greaves on his legs. With a long lance as his primary weapon, he looked like a forerunner of the medieval knight, differing only in the absence of stirrups hanging from his saddle.

More important to the Parthians than their armored cataphracts were their light cavalry, the horse-archers. These used a very short composite bow, stiff to pull but accurate and with tremendous firepower. Horse-archers would ride swiftly at the enemy, loose an arrow at the enemy and then wheel around and retreat short range. This, the proverbial Parthian shot, was the sort of tactic that the Romans were apt to regard with disdain, as being cowardly.

Crassus nearly failed to launch his campaign at all. Public opinion at Rome, led by a tribune named Ateius, was for calling off the whole expedition, on the grounds that the war he sought was arbitrary and immoral. Pompey and Caesar had at least conquered enemies that were perceived as a threat to Rome. As to this Parthian war, though, Plutarch wrote that Ateius and many others murmured that one man should undertake a war against a people that had done them no injury, and were at amity with them.

Ateius went so far as to have Crassus arrested. Crassus was forced to call for help from, of all people, his bitter rival Pompey, who was popular among both the senators and the citizens. Pompey appeared with a pleasing countenance, interceded for Crassus and escorted him out of Rome unmolested.

Before Crassus departed Rome, however, Ateius publicly cursed him, setting down a chafing-dish with lighted fire in it, pouring incense and burning libations on it, Plutarch reported, and calling upon and naming several strange and horrible deities. So terrible were these curses, according to Plutarch, that they doomed the utterer as well as the person he cursed.

Crassus next went to the port of Brundusium (now Brindisi in southern Italy). He decided to sail immediately, despite the appearance of a storm, and so began his campaign by losing a number of ships. Arriving in Syria in the autumn of 54, Crassus relieved the local commander and set about some minor conquests before next year’s major campaign. Crossing the Euphrates, he occupied and garrisoned a few Mesopotamian towns. All surrendered to the Romans voluntarily, except for Zenodotia. Plutarch reported Crassus took it by storm, plundered the goods, and sold the inhabitants. He then required his army to salute him as Imperator (or field marshal) for what he regarded as a great victory. What he failed to do, though, was continue on to occupy the cities of Babylon and Seleucia, which had large Greek-speaking populations and were not friendly to their Parthian occupiers.

Before withdrawing into winter quarters, Crassus was joined in Syria by his son, Publius, who had been serving with distinction under Caesar in Gaul. He brought with him 1,000 Gallic cavalry, who would play an important part at the battle to come.

Crassus spent his time in Syria during the winter of 54-53, more like an userer than a general, Plutarch wrote, noting that it pleased him to weigh, by scale and balance, all the treasures in the local temples he had captured. He accepted cash payments from the native citizens, in lieu of levies of militia for the coming campaign.

Emerging from winter quarters in 53 BC, the Romans were met by an embassy from King Orodes II of Parthia. The king’s message was that if Crassus’ army was sent by the people of Rome, Parthia would have no mercy; but if the invasion was Crassus’ private adventure, for his own profit, Orodes would take pity on Crassus’ dotage, and allow the army to depart. Crassus replied scornfully that he would give his answer at Seleucia. The Parthian ambassador laughed and showed Crassus the palm of his hand, saying, hair will grow there before you see Seleucia.

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