Crassus

CRASSUS (literally "dense," "thick," "fat"), a family name in the Roman gens Licinia (plebeian). The most important of the name are the following: I. PUBLIUS LICINIUS CRASSUS,' surnamed Dives Mucianus, Roman statesman, orator and jurist, consul, 131 B.C. A friend of Tiberius Gracchus, he was chosen after his death to take his place on the agrarian commission (see GRACCHUS). In 131 when Crassus was consul with L. Valerius Flaccus, Aristonicus, a pretender, laid claim to Pergamum, which had been bequeathed by Attalus III. to Rome. Both consuls were anxious to obtain the command against him ; Crassus secured it, despite the rule which forbade him, as pontifex maximus, to leave Italy. Nothing is known of his military operations. But in the following year, when he was pre paring to return, he was surprised near Leucae, and taken prisoner by a Thracian band and put to death. Crassus does not seem to have possessed much military ability, but he was noted for his knowledge of law and his oratory.

See Cicero, De oratore, i. 5o ; Philippics, xi. 8 ; Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, 21 ; Livy, Epit. 59; Val. Max. iii. 2. 12, Viii. 7. 6; Vell. Pat. ii. 4; Justin xxxvi. 4; Orosius v. io.

2. LUCIUS LICINIUS CRASSUS

(14o-91 B.c.), the orator, of un known parentage. At the age of 19 (or 21) he made his reputation by a speech against G. Papirius Carbo, the friend of the Gracchi. The law passed by him and his colleague Q. Mucius Scaevola, dur ing their consulship (95), to prevent those passing as Roman citi zens who had no right to the title, was one of the prime causes of the Social War (Cicero, Pro Balbo, xxi., De Officiis, iii. 1i). Dur ing his censorship Crassus suppressed the newly founded schools of Latin rhetoricians (Aulus Gellius xv. I I) . Crassus is one of the chief speakers in the De Oratore of Cicero, who has also preserved a few fragments of his speeches.

3. PUBLIUS

LICINIUS CRASSUS, called Dives, father of the tri umvir. During his consulship (97) the practice of magic arts was condemned by a decree of the senate, and human sacrifice was abolished. He was governor of Spain and celebrated a triumph in 93 for successes over the Lusitanians. After the Social War, as censor with L. Julius Caesar, he had the task of enrolling in new tribes certain of the Latins and Italians as a reward for their loy alty to the Romans, but the proceedings seem to have been inter rupted by certain irregularities. Crassus committed suicide in 87, to avoid falling into the hands of the Marian party.

See Plutarch, Crassus, 4; Aulus Gellius ii. 24 ; Macrobius, Saturnalia, ii. 13 ; Livy, Epit. 8o ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxx. 3; Appian, Bell. Civ. i. 4. MARCUS LICINIUS CRASSUS (c. 115-53 B.C.), the triumvir, Roman financier. Cinna's proscription (87) obliged him to flee to Spain, but he returned to Italy with Sulla, and was one of his officers during the campaign of 83-82. In the proscriptions that followed he laid the foundation of his immense wealth by buying at nominal prices the confiscated estates of the proscribed. This fortune he increased by traffic in slaves, usury and other means, until he became the richest man in Rome. The power of the purse made him a force to be reckoned with in the corrupt politics of the day. In 7I, when praetor, he was given the command against Spar tacus, and succeeded in crushing the revolt which had kept Italy in terror for three years. Pompey, wishing to coerce the senate, now made a pact with Crassus, and the two, by exerting their in fluence with knights and people, were elected consuls for 7o. But their relations soon became strained, and in 67, when Pompey left Rome, a pact was made between Crassus and Caesar, the object of which was to counteract the influence of Pompey. It is likely that they were behind the conspiracy of Autronius (66-65), and the early plans of Catiline (q.v.), whose candidature they sup ported in 64. In 65 Crassus was censor, but resigned owing to quarrels with his colleague. In 6o, the refusal of the senate to ratify Pompey's Eastern settlement brought about the coalition between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus known as the First Trium virate. After Caesar's departure for Gaul, Crassus remained in Rome, and the jealousy between him and Pompey seems to have broken out afresh. But at the conference of Luca (56) Caesar managed to compose their differences; and in 55 Pompey and Crassus became consuls once more, and a law was passed assigning them the provinces of Spain and Syria respectively for five years. In November, Crasst;s, greedy of wealth, and jealous of Pompey's military renown, set out for the East, determined to make war on the Parthians, although they had given Rome no provocation. He spent the summer of 54 in ravaging Mesopotamia; next year, after wintering in Syria, and plundering the temple at Jerusalem, he invaded Parthia once more; his army was destroyed at Carrhae and Crassus himself captured and put to death. The defeat of Crassus, in a war which he had provoked, forced upon Rome the Parthian question which was to trouble her for many years to come; his death left his two colleagues face to face, and hastened the inevitable conflict for the mastery of the empire.

See Plutarch, Crassus; also CAESAR, GAIUS JULIUS ; POMPEY ; ROME, History.