Carrhae, Battle of

Disastrous defeat in 53 BC of the invading Roman governor of Syria Marcus Licinius Crassus by the Parthians at the ancient town of Carrhae, near Haran, Turkey. All but 500 of the 6,000-strong Roman force was wiped out; the remainder, including Crassus, were captured along with their standards, a grave blow to Roman pride. Crassus himself was executed and his head delivered to the Parthian king Orontes.

Crassus had had an excellent military record under Sulla and in defeating the Thracian gladiator Spartacus, and was perhaps over-eager to revive his fame as a general to counterbalance the reputations of Pompey and Julius Caesar (his partners in the so-called ‘First Triumvirate’) and consequently allowed himself to be drawn too deep into Parthian territory by a Parthian cavalry force under Sillaces. The Parthians drew up for battle then withdrew, drawing the cumbersome Roman legionaries after them; they repeated this tactic until the Roman column was severely extended then turned, enveloped the head of the column, massacred them, and moved back to the next part of the column until the Romans were more or less entirely wiped out.

The disaster at Carrhae was a great shock. The emperor Augustus made much of his achievement when he bloodlessly recovered the standards and surviving prisoners by military threats and diplomatic pressure 20 BC.