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Carrhae
About
Parthian horse-archers and cataphracts under the general Surena wore down and destroyed seven legions under Marcus Licinius Crassus, killing roughly 20,000 Romans and capturing the legionary standards. Crassus himself died in the aftermath, reportedly with molten gold poured down his throat. It was Rome's worst defeat since Cannae and left the eastern frontier an open wound for a century. Trajan's ongoing Parthian War answers that old humiliation.
What happened here
A Roman army fights the way it camps: in lines, by drill, on ground chosen if possible. The legions form up in cohorts with gaps that let ranks rotate, throw a volley of heavy javelins at close range, and then close with the short sword, pushing behind the shield. Auxiliaries hold the flanks and do most of the cavalry work and most of the skirmishing. Battles are short and decided by whether one line breaks, and the killing happens in the pursuit rather than the fighting. The camp is dug and palisaded every night regardless. Afterwards the dead are stripped and the field is looted for days; the ground is remembered locally long after the campaign is a paragraph in someone's history.
In ancient writing
- Plutarch, Crassus 23–31
The Parthian horse archers and the camel train that kept them supplied with arrows, and the retreat that ended with Crassus dead under a truce.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →