The number of details has led many scholars to accuse him of inventing some of them, such as the story involving Crassus’ severed head. Out of the thirty-three chapters of Crassus’ biography, chapters sixteen onwards are devoted to his Parthian campaign, and provide a highly detailed narrative of the events. Plutarch’s biography of Marcus Crassus, paired up with that of Nicias, the Athenian politician and general of the fifth century BC, provides the bulk of the details for Crassus’ life. We know that he died at some point in the 120s AD. He wrote them late in his life, either at the end of the first century, or the beginning of the second century AD. These are a series of biographies of the most famous Greek and Roman figures, with one Greek and one Roman figure paired together. He wrote several works, of which his Parallel Lives are the most famous. He was born in Boeotia in Greece around AD 45, and grew up under the Roman emperors of the Julio-Claudian and Flavian dynasties.

The best account comes from the Romano-Greek historian Plutarch, who wrote a series of biographies of the leading Greek and Roman figures of the ancient world. Plutarch – Life of Crassus (first century AD) Surviving Original Sources for the BattleĪs we have seen, there are two substantive surviving accounts that detail the campaign and the battle itself. Furthermore we can examine the question of what the original sources were and how this affects our understanding of the events that transpired. It will be useful to briefly detail both the existing ancient sources that relate the Battle of Carrhae, as well as the First Romano-Parthian War as a whole, in order to gain a fuller understanding of the campaign. Appendix II Sources for the Battle of Carrhae

Rome total war parthians