Battle of Carrhae

In June 53 BC, on the open plains near Carrhae, today's Harran in south-eastern Turkey, a Roman army under Marcus Licinius Crassus was destroyed by a much smaller force of Parthian cavalry led by the general Surena. Crassus, his son Publius and most of their men were killed or captured. One of the heaviest defeats in Roman history, it opened centuries of rivalry between Rome and the Parthian Empire and helped unravel the political alliance that held the late Roman Republic together.

Crassus was the richest man in Rome and, with Pompey and Julius Caesar, one of the three partners in the informal alliance known as the First Triumvirate. In 56 BC the three agreed to renew their pact, and Crassus and Pompey became consuls for 55 BC. A law then gave each of them a five-year provincial command: Spain for Pompey and Syria for Crassus, who clearly meant to use it for war against Parthia. His military reputation rested mainly on his defeat of Spartacus in the Third Servile War. Ancient writers, especially Plutarch, blamed greed; modern historians also point to rivalry with Pompey and Caesar.

Parthia had been weakened by a succession war between the brothers Orodes II and Mithridates IV, which Orodes won. Crassus reached Syria late in 55 BC and raised an army that Plutarch puts at seven legions, about 28,000 to 35,000 heavy infantry, with some 4,000 light infantry and 4,000 cavalry. After early successes in northern Mesopotamia he wintered in Syria. The Armenian king Artavasdes II twice offered troops if Crassus would advance through Armenia and avoid the desert, but Crassus chose the direct route across Mesopotamia.

In spring 53 BC Orodes led most of his army against Armenia and sent Surena with an all-cavalry force to delay the Romans. Plutarch describes it as 1,000 armoured cataphracts and a larger number of horse archers, about 10,000 men in all, backed by a train of 1,000 camels. Guided by Ariamnes, a chieftain from Osroene who, according to Plutarch, was secretly in Parthian pay, Crassus pressed on and met Surena near Carrhae.

Crassus formed his army into a large hollow square. The Parthians unnerved the Romans with drums and by suddenly revealing the gleaming armour of the cataphracts. The horse archers then circled the square and shot into it while keeping out of javelin range, retreating whenever the legionaries charged. When the Romans locked shields against the arrows, the cataphracts charged; when they loosened ranks, the archers resumed. Camel trains kept the archers supplied, ending Crassus's hope that they would run out of arrows.

Crassus sent Publius with about 1,300 Gallic horsemen, 500 archers and eight cohorts to drive the archers off. The Parthians feigned retreat, drew the detachment away and surrounded it, and Publius and his officers killed themselves. His head was displayed to the main army on a spear. The attacks continued until nightfall, when Crassus retreated to Carrhae, abandoning some 4,000 wounded.

Surena offered a truce. Crassus was reluctant to meet him but went when his soldiers threatened mutiny, and he and his officers were killed in a scuffle at the meeting. Plutarch puts Roman losses at about 20,000 killed and 10,000 captured; Parthian losses were small. Gaius Cassius Longinus led roughly 10,000 survivors back to Syria. The Parthians captured several legionary eagles, and the prisoners are said to have been deported to Merv, on the empire's north-eastern frontier.

Surena's success aroused the jealousy of Orodes, who had him executed. Parthia went on to raid Syria and Armenia several times. In Rome, the loss of Crassus removed one partner of the triumvirate and contributed to the breakdown between Caesar and Pompey that ended in civil war. The lost standards remained a source of shame until they were handed back under Augustus, who hailed their return on coins as a political victory over Parthia.

Our 100 BCE map shows the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire before the battle, and our 1 BCE map shows the frontier between them that followed. The battlefield lies in modern Turkey.