The Ancients

The Defeat of Rome: Crassus and the Battle of Carrhae

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Episode notes

Gareth Sampson, author of Defeat of Rome in the East: Crassus, the Parthians, and the Disastrous Battle of Carrhae, 53 BC came on the podcast to provide an in depth account of Marcus Crassus’ disastrous campaign east of the Euphrates River in 53 BC. Gareth sorted the fact from the fiction. He dispelled the idea that Crassus was this incompetent general, highlighting the questionable impartiality of our surviving sources that are at pains to suggest the campaign was plagued by disastrous omens from start to finish. In fact it was quite the opposite. Gareth is also the author of Rome and Parthia: Empires at War, his most recent book. Quick note: The Seleukid Empire: A Hellenistic Kingdom that once ruled much of the ancient Near-East. One of its key kings was Antiochus III, also known as Antiochus 'the Great'.  

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