Crassus for once kept himself together, and made no outward show of dismay. He even tried to exhort his men with a patriotic speech, but Plutarch claimed that he saw but few who gave much heed to him. When he ordered a cheer, the army only made a faint and unsteady noise.

Whether Crassus knew it or not, the battle of Carrhae was lost, but his legions, seeing no better option, fought on, suffering heavy losses, until nightfall. At that point, Plutarch wrote, Crassus wrapped his cloak around him, and hid himself.

That night, Cassius and some other officers who saw that he had suffered a complete breakdown, took upon themselves the decision to withdraw all the able-bodied troops they could to the town of Carrhae, leaving their wounded behind. When the retirement began, however, and the wounded realized they were being abandoned, Plutarch noted that a strange confusion and disorder, with an outcry and lamentation, seized the camp. This dreadful wailing of the wounded seems to have horrified the escaping legionaries, so that instead of slipping away quietly they simply ran, as if the enemy were at their heels. In the confusion and the dark the fleeing columns became separated, with the result that some groups never made it to Carrhae, and those that did wandered in throughout the long night.

The Parthians, though aware of the Romans’ escape that night, made no effort to pursue them. The next morning they entered the abandoned camp and slaughtered the surviving wounded, to the number of 4,000. They also picked off a number of stragglers who got lost on the night march to Carrhae. Four companies were surrounded on a nearby hill and all but 20 killed-the survivors escaping with their lives only because the Parthians let them go, out of admiration for their bravery.

While that slaughter went on, the main Parthian force was laying siege to Crassus and the surviving Romans in Carrhae. Surena himself rode to the city gate and demanded the delivery of Crassus in chains as a precondition of any negotiations. Incredibly, Crassus at first entertained the fantastic hope that the Armenians would come to his rescue, until his officers brought him to his senses. The Romans ultimately decided to split divide their army into small groups and go their separate ways under different commanders, again under cover of darkness.

The final pathetic phase of Crassus’ campaign began when he opted once again to hire a local guide to lead him and his 1,500-man contingent in their breakout. Not surprisingly, that guide also turned out to be a spy. That night, Plutarch wrote, he led Crassus out of Carrhae and into the midst of morasses and places full of ditches, so that the Romans were hopelessly lost as morning broke, then disappeared. Crassus’ band did find their way to a road, but were immediately forced to retreat back into the thickets when the Parthians discovered them. The Parthians attacked, but Crassus was momentarily saved when another band of wandering Romans, also misled, spotted his position and came to his rescue.

By then the spy had informed Surena of Crassus’ position and the Parthian general treacherously offered the Romans a truce, claiming that he intended to let them go home under honorable terms. Crassus reluctantly went to Surena’s camp to discuss the terms and was promptly murdered. The rest of the Romans in Crassus’ contingent either surrendered or were hunted down and killed.

A number of Romans did manage to escape from Carrhae that night, including the group led by Cassius. Plutarch estimated the final count of Roman casualties to be 20,000 killed and 10,000 captured.

In the aftermath of Carrhae, Surena led his army back to Seleucia in a procession he mockingly called a triumph. A captured Roman soldier who physically resembled his late commander was placed at the head of the army, forced forced to wear women’s clothes and to answer to the name of Crassus. Surena’s soldiers marched behind, each carrying a Roman head. Behind them came Parthian singing women, chanting what Plutarch described as abusive songs on the cowardice and effeminacy of Crassus. Surena delivered Crassus’ head and one of his dismembered hands to King Orodes at a feast, which was held to celebrate the marriage of Orodes’ son to the sister of the Armenian king.

Surena’s reward for his great victory, according to Plutarch, was to be executed, out of mere envy. But Orodes would join the general he betrayed in 38 BC, at the hands of his own son, Phraactes. The young man at first tried to poison his father, but when Orodes began to recover, Phraactes was forced to take the shortest course, and strangled him. As for Rome, the immediate effect of Carrhae, apart from the disgrace, was the upsetting of the political situation caused by the death of a triumvir. With Crassus dead, the rule of three became a rule of two. But even that proved to be one ruler too many. The way was now clear for civil war, as Pompey and Caesar squared off to fight for supremacy in Rome.

Parthian Sequel: Mark Antony in the East

Seventeen years after the Battle of Carrhae, Marcus Antonius, aka Mark Antony, tried to redeem Roman honor by re-invading Parthia. But his campaign fared little better than that of Marcus Licinius Crassus, with the notable exception that Antony came back alive. Antony’s official pretext for the campaign was to recover the standards and prisoners lost by Crassus, but his true motives were remarkably similar to Crassus.’ As a member of the Second Triumvirate, Antony sought military glory to counter-balance the power of his co-ruler, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, the future Emperor Augustus. Indeed, only the threat of losing his political prestige could bestir Antony from the bed of his paramour, the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII. Antony’s first move upon entering Parthian territory in 36 BC was to lay siege to the city of Phraata. But Antony was in such haste to depart for Phraata (according to Plutarch, to conquer it quickly and return to Cleopatra) that he failed to bring along any siege equipment, including his 80-foot ram. As a result his army was routed and he decided to suspend the campaign. Antony’s troubles were only beginning. As he tried to march his army back to the safety of Armenia, he was abandoned by his disgusted ally, King Artavasdes-the same Artavasdes who so preoccupied Crassus’ thoughts in 53 BC. Food supplies ran out, and many of the soldiers became sick. Meanwhile, the Parthians, led by King Phraates IV-the regicidal son of the late Orodes II-harassed the column throughout its march. At least Antony did not repeat the most glaring mistakes of Crassus’ venture. He did not trust Phraates’ offer of safe passage in return for surrender, and refused the services of a guide in a journey across the desert, instead following a course over hilly terrain that was unfavorable to Parthian cavalry. He also made better use of his own cavalry, actually driving the Parthians from the field in several skirmishes. Hunger and disease continued to wrack the army, however, and at one point some of Antony’s troops actually mutinied. Plutarch reported that rioting legionaries stormed into his tent, and broke all his rich tables and cups, dividing the fragments among them. Antony thought that the Parthians were attacking the camp, and ordered his armor-bearer to run him through with his sword if the base should be overrun. Order was finally restored the next morning. At last, 27 days after the retreat from Phraata, Antony’s ragged troops reached safety, where Plutarch said they kissed the ground for joy, shedding tears and embracing each other in their delight. Twenty-four thousand Romans perished in this ill-starred campaign, half from disease. Antony next went into winter quarters, where Plutarch wrote that he anxiously awaited Cleopatra’s arrival and passed his time in wine and drunkenness. Blaming Artavasdes for his failure, Antony kidnapped the Armenian king, had him bound and displayed him in Egypt, where the Roman commander awarded himself a triumph for this great victory. But triumph or not, it would be many years before Rome dared venture again into a war with the Parthians or their successors, the Sassanids. B.D.

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This article was written by Belleville, Illinois-based contributor Bryan Dent. For further reading, he recommends: Plutarch’s Lives and Warfare in the Classical World by John Warry.

This article was originally published on TheHistoryNet.com in June 2005 issue for Military History magazine.

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