Battle of Carrhae

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Battle of Carrhae

A Parthian returning Legio X standard captured at Carrhae, on a Roman coin struck in 19 BC

Date	53 BC
Location	Near Carrhae (Harran)
Result	Decisive Parthian victory

Combatants

Roman Republic

Parthia

Commanders

Marcus Licinius Crassus †, Publius Crassus †

Surena

Strength

35,000 Roman legionnaires
4,000 cavalry
4,000 light infantry

9,000 cavalry archers
1,000 Cataphract

Casualties

20,000 dead
10,000 captured
4,000 wounded

Minimal

The Battle of Carrhae was a decisive battle fought in the year 53 BC near the town of Carrhae (now the present-day ruins of Harran, Turkey) between the Roman Republic under the Roman general Crassus and the Parthian Empire under the Parthian Spahbod Surena. The result of the battle was an overwhelming victory for the Parthian Empire.

1 Background
2 The battle
3 Aftermath
4 Legacy
5 External links

[edit] Background

In 55 BC, Marcus Licinius Crassus had just finished serving his joint-consul year with Pompey. At the time, Crassus, Pompey, and Julius Caesar formed a powerful triumvirate that all but controlled Rome. As a part of this élite group, Crassus felt a great desire to add new glory to his name. He had seen no action since his defeat of Spartacus nearly 20 years earlier. Crassus drew out the maps of the Roman Imperium looking for a target to attack, and decided that the most glorious one would be the Parthian Empire. Many members of the Roman Senate tried to dissuade him from this course of action, but Caesar and Pompey stood firmly behind him and the senate relented.

Crassus arrived in Syria in late 55 BC. With the aid of Hellenic settlements in Syria and support from Artavasdes, the Armenian king, Crassus marched directly to the Parthian mainland instead of attacking from the mountains of Armenia. In response, the Parthian king Orodes II divided his army and sent half, which were infantry troops, to punish the Armenians and sent the other half, which were cavalry units, to combat Crassus. The enemy armies subsequently encountered each other near the town of Carrhae.

[edit] The battle

The Parthian army, under the leadership of General Surena, was outnumbered, but used 1,000 heavily armed and armored horsemen, called "cataphracts", in conjunction with 9,000 horse archers to defeat the Roman heavy infantry. The horse archers shot repeated volleys of arrows into the densely packed formation of the Roman legionaries. To sustain their barrage, the Parthians employed camels to carry additional arrow loads.

The Romans attempted to charge the horse archers, but the Parthians feigned retreat, then turned suddenly and shot arrows at their enemy while fleeing (a custom known as the "Parthian shot"). The Romans then tried to form into a protective testudo, but the cataphracts charged back at them. The legionnaires were unable to fight effectively in their tight formation. Although the Romans' large scuta gave them some measure of protection against the volleys of arrows, many soldiers eventually collapsed from thirst and heat exhaustion even when otherwise unwounded, due to the exertion of defending themselves from the seemingly endless fusillades. The Parthian assault was devastating. "When Publius urged them to charge the enemy's mail-clad horsemen, they showed him that their hands were riveted to their shields and their feet nailed through and through to the ground, so that they were helpless either for flight or for self-defence." (Plutarch, Life of Crassus, XXV) Parthia employed the use of composite bows at this time, which were more powerful than traditional bows. Arrows fired from these bows were able to penetrate the thick legionnaires' armour, to the horror of the heavy Roman infantry.

[edit] Aftermath

The result was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Roman Republic in its entire history. During the battle, Crassus's son Publius was slain and his head was put on a pike for the legionaries to see. Crassus himself was tortured by having molten gold poured down his throat (an ironic jest at his notorious greed) and decapitated after the battle. His head was sent to the Parthian king, Orodes II (who allegedly permitted its use as a stage prop). The other half of the Parthian army defeated the Armenians and captured their country. However, these victories made the Parthian king suspicious and jealous of Surena, and he ordered his execution. Following Surena's death, Orodes II himself took command of the Parthian army and led an unsuccessful military campaign into Syria.

Gaius Cassius Longinus, a legatus under Crassus, led approximately 10,000 surviving soldiers from the battlefield back to Syria, where he governed as a proquaestor for two years, defending Syria from Orodes II's further attacks. He would eventually defeat the Parthians and receive praise from Cicero for his victory. Cassius later played a key role in the conspiracy to assassinate C. Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.

An interesting fact is that Surena, Crassus and Cassius were all involved in internal conspiring and factionalism at one time or another in their respective empires. The 1st Triumvirate was at first a secret pact, Cassius and Brutus conspired against Caesar (and assassinated Caesar), and Surena was murdered by Orodes II whilst he was young out of fear of his sheer power, and fear of what Surena may become.

[edit] Legacy

The capture of the golden Aquila (legionary battle standards) by the Parthians was considered a grave moral defeat and evil omen for the Romans. It required a generation of diplomacy before the Parthians returned them.

Another result of the disaster for the Romans was the endurance of the idea that legionary armies could not successfully fight Parthian cavalry—a myth that even the sacking of the Parthian capital three times in the 2nd century CE could not quash. Nevertheless, Rome could never permanently defeat Parthia, and was thus unable to expand its eastern frontier, the most prosperous frontier for conquest. Therefore, a strong truth lies in the myth: the faults of the Roman army exposed at Carrhae (such as its vulnerability to cavalry on open ground) were never fixed, and even recurred, as in the much later catastrophe at Adrianople against German cavalry.

An important and unexpected implication of this battle was that it opened up the European continent to a new and beautiful material: silk. The Romans that managed to survive the battle reported seeing brilliant, shimmering banners (apparently made of silk) used by the Parthians as they slaughtered the fleeing legions. Subsequently, interest in Europe grew for this material and trade routes were extended from China to Western Europe. This effectively marked the beginnings of the Silk Road, one of the greatest and richest trade routes in history.

The battle is also believed to have eventually led to the first Sino-Roman relations. According to Pliny, in 54 BC, after losing at the battle of Carrhae, 10,000 Roman prisoners were sent by the Parthians to Margiana to help guard the eastern frontier of the Parthian Empire. The Han Chinese later captured this area and the Roman prisoners were likely among the first westerners to meet the Chinese directly[1]

However, the most immediate effect of the battle was that Carrhae was an indirect cause for the fall of the Republic, and the rise of the Empire. Crassus' death left the relationship between Caesar and Pompey as distant and unstable; the 1st Triumvirate no longer existed. The triumvirate's balanced structure had helped to prevent a power struggle; but with only 2 of the generals still alive, conflict was now inevitable. As a result, civil war broke out, Caesar won, and the Republic was permanently tainted, quickly and uncontrollably becoming an empire.