Rome Tries and Fails to Occupy Persia (The Parthian War)(53 BC)
The only thing more vulgar than the abuse of historical analogy is the willful ignorance of history. Such reckless disregard for what has come before is the very root of America’s disaster in the Persian Gulf. As the Bush-Cheney Administration has shown, even what Byron called the "World’s Lords" can be brought to ruin in a startlingly short span, merely by the applied ignorance of history and geography, and an overextended and underdeveloped sense of imperial power.
Just look at the damage done by Crassus, the Dubya of Rome, when he tried to invade and occupy Persia in the last decades of the Republic. His fatal gullibility as a leader, unwillingness to listen to diplomatic and military advise, led to an unprecedented defeat of Roman arms. Worse still, he was so bad a commander that his recklessness led to the mutiny and split of his legions, fueling civil war, bringing the Republic to an end.
If Crassus is any indicator, this too will be Dubya’s legacy, with which we now have to deal.
Read this as history, but do not ignore it as warning.
BELOW . . .
[IMAGE] http://upload.wikimedia.org/...
Parthia was an Iranian civilization situated in the northeast of modern Iran, but at its height covering all of Iran proper, as well as regions of the modern countries of Armenia, Iraq, Georgia, eastern Turkey, eastern Syria, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and UAE.
Parthia was led by the Arsacid dynasty (Middle Persian: اشکانیان Ashkâniân), which reunited and ruled over the Iranian plateau, after defeating the Seleucids, beginning in the late 3rd century BC, and intermittently controlled Mesopotamia between about 150 BC and 224 AD. Parthia was the arch-enemy of the Roman Empire in the east. Wiki, adapted from http://pejman.azadi.googlepages.com/...
Crassus - The Roman Dubya
In 53 BC, the Roman consul Marcus Licinius Crassus invaded Parthia in search of desperately needed gold to fund Roman military campaigns. Crassus was then one of the richest men in Rome, his father and grandfather having been consuls and censors before him.
He added to his father’s fortune by buying burning houses and the property of political enemies of the state. Rome’s fire brigades were private companies dispatched to burning properties coveted by speculators. Those homeowners who did not sell out cheap on the spot, watched their houses and all their belongings burn to a cinder. The frequent civil wars of the era also spawned a new class of disenfranchised widows and orphans, who were forced to sell their remaining property for any price which might be offered. Crassus, the very personification of the "vulture capitalist" of his day, also traded in vast numbers of slaves and gladiators.
[IMAGE] http://www.indiana.edu/...
Crassus
The name Crassus will always be intertwined with that of Spartacus, who led the slave rebellion that Crassus put down with the sword, ordering the crucifiction of all those captured. 7,000 bodies were left to rot in a long line of crosses leading all along the Appian Way to the Gates of Rome.
While a fortunate son, who had amassed wealth and overseen the suppression of revolt, Crassus had no real skills as a general. He also refused to listen to the advise of experienced military officers who served him. In 55 BC, Crassus took it upon himself to raise an army of 40,000, marching into what is today Armenia to sack Parthia, the great, unconquered empire to the East. In Armenia, a no-man’s land on the Euphrates River which marked the boundary between the two empires, Crassus stopped to parlay with the king, who advised Crassus against marching straight through the deserts of Turkey. With an inadequate number of troops, ill-equipped to meet an enemy he did not understand, Crassus proceeded on toward Parthia, against the strong warnings of the Armenian king and of his own officers. Everyone but Crassus seemed to grasp the dangers and the toll on the troops of a rapid, forced march across hundreds of miles of hot, barren, unfamiliar ground. Regardless, Crassus pushed onward, becoming lost, and asked directions of a local tribal leader. Military historian Eric Margolis tells us what happened next:
Ignoring cautionary advice from his generals and warnings from Armenia’s king, Crassus crossed the Euphrates and led his army deep into the wastes of what is today western Iraq. [Ftn 1.] A local Nabatean chieftain, secretly working for Parthia, assured Crassus Parhtians would greeted him as a liberator, and the Parthian army would flee at the sight of the first Roman legion.
At Carrhae - which is close to where US Marines were fighting in Iraq’s Anbar province . . . - Crassus’ plodding army was outmaneuvered and annihilated by Parthian mailed knights, known as `cataphracts’ and horse archers, whose deadly arrow fire gave posterity the wonderful term for a parting zinger, `Parthian shaft.’
Crassus legions arrived inside Parthian territory exhausted and depleted. Hearing of the Parthian forces nearby, Crassus ordered his forces (again, against the better advise of his officers) to move his infantry out of a fortress into the open. In the little village of Carrhea, the legions were set upon by armoured Parthian cavalry and mounted bowmen. Finding themselves trapped without effective cover, facing unfamiliar tactics and weapons, Crassus lost half his troops to a hail of Parthian archers who kept up their barrage far longer than expected. The surviving Roman troops, facing annihilation, heard that Crassus had rejected terms offered by the Parthian general. The legions threatened mutiny. Crassus soon met his end, one story has it he was taken prisoner and molten gold poured down his throat as punishment for his greed.
While the Roman legions returned a few years later and stemmed the Parthians at the gates of Antioch (Syria), the folly of Crassus and the defeat at Carrhae of Roman’s renowned legions remains an enduring lesson that resonates to this day. See, George Rawlinson The Seven Great Monarchies of the Eastern World, Vol. III, Ch. 6, pp. 97-98 tells us: http://www.persianempire.info/...
Such was the result of this great expedition, the first attempt of the grasping and ambitious Romans, not so much to conquer Parthia, as to strike terror into the heart of her people, and to degrade them to the condition of obsequious dependants on the will and pleasure of the "world's lords." The expedition failed so utterly, not from any want of bravery on the part of the soldiers employed in it, nor from any absolute superiority of the Parthian over the Roman tactics, but partly from the incompetence of the commander, partly from the inexperience of the Romans, up to this date, in the nature of the Parthian warfare and in the best manner of meeting it.
SNIP
But an ignorant and inexperienced commander, venturing on a trial of arms with an enemy of whom he knew little or nothing, in their own country, without support or allies, and then neglecting every precaution suggested by his officers, allowing himself to be deceived by a pretended friend, and marching straight into a net prepared for him, naturally suffered defeat. The credit of the Roman arms does not greatly suffer by the disaster, nor is that of the Parthians greatly enhanced. The latter showed, as they had shown in their wars against the Syro-Macedonians, that there somewhat loose and irregular array was capable of acting with effect against the solid masses and well-ordered movements of disciplined troops.
They acquired by their use of the bow a fame like that which the English archers obtained for the employment of the same weapon at Crecy and Agincourt. They forced the arrogant Romans to respect them, and to allow that there was at least one nation in the world which could meet them on equal terms and not be worsted in the encounter. They henceforth obtained recognition from Graeco-Roman writers—albeit a grudging and covert recognition—as the second Power in the world, the admitted rival of Rome, the only real counterpoise upon the earth to the power which ruled from the Euphrates to the Atlantic Ocean.
One unprecedented outcome of the ill-led and ill-advised invasion of Parthia was a split of the Roman military. One-quarter of the survivors of the 40,000 man force originally commanded by Crassus went over to the victors after the battle with the Parthians, and they were eventually resettled at the eastern frontier of Persia. Not long after, as the civil wars intensified, the breakdown of government and command within the Roman military was so intense that a leading General, Quintus Labienus, allied himself with the Persians. Labienus led the Roman garrisons in Syria to revolt, and his legions helped to defeat the armies of Antony and Octavian in Syria and Cilicia (western Armenia) in 41 BC, and the Parthians moved to occupy nearly all the Levant, including Judaea and Palestine.
Repeated disasters in wars with Parthia, and the reduction of the Roman military into warring private armies, were major factors that led to the formal dissolution of the Republic and the proclamation of the unitary dictatorship, the Principate, in 27 BC.
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Caesarian Dictatorship, and The Roman Civil Wars
http://totalwar.wargamer.com/... http://totalwar.wargamer.com/... [IMAGES] [See, Azadi, Id.] In the years following the battle of Carrhae, the Romans were divided in civil war between the adherents of Pompey and those of Julius Caesar and hence unable to campaign against Parthia. Although Caesar was eventually victorious against Pompey and was planning a campaign against Parthia, his subsequent murder led to another Roman civil war.
The Roman general Quintus Labienus, who had supported Caesar's murderers and feared reprisals from his heirs, Mark Antony and Octavian (later Augustus), sided with the Parthians under Pacorus I. In 41 BC Parthia, led by Labienus, invaded Syria, Cilicia, and Caria and attacked Phrygia in Asia Minor. A second army intervened in Judaea and captured its king Hyrcanus II. The spoils were immense, and put to good use: King Phraates IV invested them in building up Ctesiphon.
In 39 BC, Antony retaliated, sending out general Publius Ventidius Bassus and several legions to secure the conquered territories. The Parthian King Pacorus was killed along with Labienus, and the Euphrates again became the border between the two nations. Hoping to further avenge the death of Crassus, Antony invaded Mesopotamia in 36 BC with the Legion VI Ferrata and other units. Having cavalry in support, Antony reached Armenia but failed to make much impact and withdrew with heavy losses.
Antony's campaign was followed by a break in the fighting between the two empires as Rome was again embroiled in civil war. When Octavian defeated Mark Antony, he ignored the Parthians, being more interested in the west. His son-in-law and future successor Tiberius negotiated a peace treaty with Phraates (20 BC).
Roman civil wars Conflicts that afflicted the last century of the Roman republic (88 BC–c.28 BC) and led to the inevitable institution of the unchallenged authority of one man, the Principate. Political life in Rome was unsettled from the period of SULLA's dictatorship and the Catiline conspiracy (64–63 BC).
Rivalry between the republican military leader Julius Caesar and POMPEY began after the collapse of their alliance. Caesar defeated the Pompeian army in Spain at Ilerda (49 BC) and Pompey himself at Pharsalus (48 BC); he won further victories in Asia and Africa. Cato's suicide in 46 BC signified the collapse of the republican cause. On his return to Rome, Caesar was made dictator and virtually sole ruler. His plans for funding the empire by military expeditions against Dacia and Parthia were cut short by outraged republican traditionalists who murdered him in 44 BC. Further civil wars followed.
Caesar Assassinated at the Senate (44 BC)
http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/...
Initially Octavian (AUGUSTUS), supported by the republican party, struggled against MARK ANTONY. In 43 BC Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus formed a coalition whose forces defeated the republicans led by Brutus and Cassius at PHILIPPI. Antony meanwhile joined forces with Cleopatra and was defeated by Octavian at ACTIUM. The Roman world was united under the sole leadership of Octavian, who annexed Egypt.
In 68 AD civil war broke out in the empire in the struggle for succession after NERO's death. Galba was proclaimed emperor from Spain; he entered Rome in September but was murdered and succeeded by Otho; meanwhile Vitellius was proclaimed emperor in Germany and Otho committed suicide. VESPASIAN then invaded Italy and took the throne, making 68–69 "the year of the four emperors". This crisis period was followed by the settled rule of Vespasian.
Rome Burns (64 AD)
After the Republic fell, Rome was ruled by a series of degenerate Emperors. Rome, as a city and a civilization, become increasingly insecure, undemocratic, and cruel.
Crassus was a political force in his own right, much as G.H.W. Bush (and his family) has been within the American Republican Party. He is too often overlooked in the histories in favor of the more charismatic Caesar and Pompey, and their conflicts that tore Rome into two distinct factions, the republican and the imperial. One can not dispute that the parties of Julii and Pompey would have eventually clashed, but Crassus' military incompetence, along with his pursuit of wealth by the most predatory of means had a huge impact in making Rome an ever more corrupt and unjust place that became unable to support its excesses except by the self-destructive means of imperial overreach.
It is true the Roman military had already fragmented before that time. But, what's significant about Cassus' Parthian war is it marked both a decisive defeat for the Roman legions, which had happened before, and, the first time that substantial numbers of Roman officers and men actually went over to serve an opposing power.[Ftn. 2] That happened amidst the breakup of the military into private militias. That is politically significant, as are the signs in our own times of growing strain and rebellion against the Bush-Cheney Administration at the highest level of the U.S. military and Intelligence Community. Equally alarming is the rise under Bush-Cheney of private military, Blackwater, and predatory defense contractors, Halliburton, as a seemingly independent force within the Iraq theatre of war, operating with seeming immunity to Congressional control.
History tells us that division of the military, and its misuse by factions for partisan or mercenary purposes, are among the most ominous signs of the effective end of republican government and the beginning of civil war. This is a subject this writer has observed in the U.S. in recent years with growing unease and dreadful fascination. See,
- Subject: "CIA Iraq Covert Political Plan Aired and Then Axed", (09/27/2004), currently posted at: http://www.dailykos.com/... original publication at, http://mboard.rediff.com/... references: http://www.time.com/...
- Did Iran Win the Second US-Iraq War?, (05/01/2005), http://minstrelboy.blogspot.com/...
- Daily Kos: Reports Show Growing Military Discontent With Bush and Rumsfeld by leveymg Sat Mar 25, 2006 at 12:23:37 PM PST http://www.dailykos.com/...
- Daily Kos: How the U.S. military would remove Bush-Cheney by leveymg Sun Feb 18, 2007 at 08:59:48 AM PST ; http://www.dailykos.com/...
- Daily Kos: [UPDATE 2] Pace Fired Because He Balked at Iran http://www.leveymg.dailykos.com/...
- Response to Steve Clemons, The Washington Note: "Saudis Will Fill Vacuum Left by US in Iraq and Challenge Iran's Pretensions" Posted by leveymg at November 29, 2006 03:25 PM http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/...
- leveymg's Journal, The CIA OFFICER WHO OVERSAW TORTURE: Cofer Black http://journals.democraticundergroun...
But, the true legacy of Crassus was disaster capitalism, arson as a tool of state-sponsored commerce, which Nero employed during his reign to clear the two-thirds of Rome that did not suit his purposes, clearing space for the super-sized Circus Maximus where uncounted thousands more died for the sake of mere amusement, commercial gain, and public distraction. George W. Bush opportunistically used flood, and his own privatized "fire brigades", the captive federal bureaucracy, to the same effect in the city of New Orleans.
Conflagration, as we've seen, repeatedly consumes those who ignore the first smoke and flames of empire.
[IMAGE] http://www.combat-diaries.co.uk/...
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Ftn 1: Carrhae is proximate to the ancient city of Harran in Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey.
Ftn 2: Earlier in the civil wars there is case of Quintus Sertorius, a Roman general of Spanish descent, who commanded 2500 defecting legionaires against Roman Armies under Sulla and then Pompey in Spain. Sertorius is called the father of guerilla warfare for his ingenious, unconventional tactics, and successes against far larger opposing forces. See, cache of http://www.bbc.co.uk/... Sertorious appears to have provided at least part of the basis for the protagonist character in the movie, Gladiator. However, Sertorius was a case of rebellion in civil war rather than of defection to a foreign power at war with Rome.
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- Mark G. Levey
Crossposted (illustrated, abridged version) at: http://www.democraticunderground.com...