What Happened to the Wealth of Crassus?

Transcript
0:00 · The
0:08 · Roman aristocracy was rich.
0:12 · Very rich. At a time when most families supported themselves on less than 1,000 sestertii a year,
0:20 · Roman senators of the imperial era were required to have fortunes of at least a million,
0:25 · and many were far wealthier. Crassus, worth a cool two hundred million, liked to say that no
0:32 · man could call himself rich unless he was able to support an army with his private fortune.
0:39 · Anecdotes about elite extravagance abound. We read about Roman magnates building private islands,
0:46 · importing water from the Dead Sea for their private baths, sailing to Africa to sample the
0:51 · local shrimp, and generally acting in ways that would make a Gilded Age tycoon blush.
0:58 · Even during late antiquity, as the frontiers crumbled and cities burned,
1:03 · the Roman aristocracy retained much of its wealth, building huge mansions like the villa
1:08 · outside Piazza Armerina in Sicily, with its acres of mosaics. The last time I visited that building,
1:15 · I found myself wondering what happened to the family that constructed it,
1:19 · and whether any of the vast fortunes assembled by the Roman elite survived into the Middle Ages.
1:26 · By one estimate, 90% of rich American families lose the bulk of their wealth
1:32 · by the third generation. Even in the relatively stable British aristocracy, few families have
1:39 · even a small fraction of the wealth they possessed in the late nineteenth century.
1:43 · Modern fortunes, in short, are fragile. Wealth in the Roman world was even more fleeting.
1:51 · Like most premodern elites, rich Romans kept most of their wealth in the form of land,
1:56 · especially estates that produced such lucrative products as wine and olive oil.
2:03 · But they also invested in urban real estate and dabbled in commerce, sponsored voyages as
2:09 · far afield as Arabia and India, lent money at 12% interest to friends and associates,
2:15 · and hired out their slaves as semi-independent craftsmen.
2:20 · When a wealthy Roman died, his wealth normally passed to his heirs in accordance with the
2:26 · provisions of his will. By law, any man with a legitimate son was required to name him the
2:32 · primary heir, unless he had been formally disinherited. But there were often dozens,
2:38 · even hundreds of other heirs, ranging from professional associates to newly-freed slaves.
2:45 · Augustus instituted a 5% estate tax on money willed to anyone outside the deceased’s immediate
2:52 · family. More onerous was the custom, dangerous to disregard, of willing a substantial portion
2:59 · of one’s property to the reigning emperor. In general, Roman law and Roman society made
3:07 · ample legal provision for the transfer of wealth from generation to generation.
3:12 · The problem, as we’ll see, is that the next generation often didn’t exist. Before we explore
3:19 · that, a brief word about this video’s sponsor. An indispensable sign of wealth in the
3:26 · Roman world was a villa gleaming with bronze and marble statues.
3:31 · [ad text redacted]
4:58 · Although wealthy Romans had many avenues for investing their wealth and legally protected
5:03 · means of transferring that wealth to their heirs, few Roman fortunes lasted more than two or three
5:09 · generations. Part of the problem was extravagant spending. Politics were expensive, especially
5:17 · during the Republic, when officials were expected to sponsor lavish games and entertainments.
5:23 · Even under the emperors, when the stakes of politics were lower,
5:26 · a single banquet for a priesthood might cost the host a million sestertii.
5:33 · The Roman elite also dissipated their wealth in vast dowries and lavish purchases.
5:39 · We read about men spending a million sestertii on a single table, buying crystal goblets that
5:45 · cost more than most villas, and snapping up antique Greek statues like Fabergé eggs.
5:52 · The fortunes of the elite were affected by economic crises, most notably amid the runaway
5:58 · inflation of the third and fourth centuries. The proscriptions that accompanied the civil
6:03 · wars of the late Republic destroyed the lives and fortunes of hundreds of elite families.
6:09 · So did the executions and confiscations that marked the reigns of the more tyrannical
6:14 · Roman emperors. Barbarian hordes, finally, were never good for business.
6:21 · But the single most important factor behind the rapid disappearance of most Roman family
6:26 · fortunes was nothing more or less than infertility – the fact that, from the
6:32 · beginning to the end of Roman history, most elite families failed to reproduce themselves.
6:39 · A careful study focused on the century between the reigns of Trajan and Commodus, for example,
6:44 · suggests that only about a quarter of senatorial families managed to survive for three generations.
6:52 · In part, this reflected the reluctance of some Roman aristocrats to marry. Despite the
6:59 · marriage legislation of Augustus, which imposed legal penalties on members of the elite who
7:04 · remained unwed, the childless old man, hounded by would-be heirs, was a trope in Roman literature.
7:12 · Even elite Romans who married tended to produce few children.
7:17 · The historian Polybius speculated that elite infertility reflected aggressive birth control,
7:23 · as parents attempted to limit the dispersal of family wealth by producing only one or two heirs.
7:31 · Most modern historians, however, think that few Romans, elite or otherwise,
7:36 · ever used such rigorous family planning, not least because many members of the Roman elite
7:42 · produced large families. Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina, for example, had 13 children.
7:51 · The reason most elite families were small seems to have been the terrible toll taken by childhood
7:56 · disease. Only about half of all Roman children, rich or poor, survived to their fifth birthday.
8:05 · Fronto, the tutor of Marcus Aurelius, lost five children, each dying before the next was born. Of
8:13 · the 12 children of Tiberius Gracchus and Cornelia, only three reached adulthood. Many elite Romans
8:19 · – even emperors, who were especially motivated to produce heirs – had no surviving children.
8:27 · The Romans were well aware how difficult it was to have large families. During the reign of Domitian,
8:32 · for example, a woman who had five living sons and five living daughters was publicly honored
8:38 · at a festival. Roman custom sanctioned elite adoption, whereby a childless father gave his
8:45 · family name (and eventually, property) to the adult son of one of his social peers.
8:51 · But even this practice could only preserve a small minority of families.
8:57 · Family fortunes were still more fragile, even when the heirs survived childhood.
9:02 · Take the example of Crassus, that ultra-wealthy magnate who said no man was rich who couldn’t
9:09 · afford to pay an army. One of Crassus’ two sons died with him at the disastrous Battle of Carrhae.
9:16 · But the other survived to marry Caecilia Metella, whose gargantuan
9:20 · tomb on the Appian Way is the sole extant physical monument to the family fortune.
9:25 · Yet Crassus’ direct line – and apparently his fortune – lasted only three generations.
9:33 · There were, of course, exceptions – families that produced heirs generation after generation. The
9:39 · Scipio clan, which remained at the forefront of Roman politics for centuries, is a famous example.
9:47 · There were also instances from the provinces: at the city of Oenoanda, in modern Turkey,
9:52 · the tomb of one aristocratic lady proudly traces her lineage back twelve generations.
9:59 · During late antiquity, some prominent families, such as Symmachi and Anicii, retained their
10:06 · prestige and wealth in the face of an increasingly hostile political climate, surviving even the
10:11 · collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Some of these families migrated to Constantinople,
10:16 · where their descendants long remained prominent. In Western Europe, a few families survived into
10:22 · the Middle Ages, producing magnates, bishops, gilded reliquaries,
10:27 · and Romanesque churches – the last generations of witnesses to the fortunes of the Roman elite.
10:37 · If you’re interested in more toldinstone content
10:40 · (including my podcast), check out my channel Toldinstone Footnotes.
10:45 · I also have a channel called Scenic Routes to the Past, which is dedicated
10:49 · to historically-themed travel. You'll find both channels linked in the description.
10:55 · Please consider joining other viewers in supporting toldinstone on Patreon.
11:00 · You might also enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants. Thanks for watching

(I haven't watched this yet)
Marcus Licinius Crassus: The Rise & Fall of the Richest Man in Rome | 22:45
Biographics | 2.24M subscribers | 232,111 views | June 18, 2021

0:50 - Chapter 1 - Early years
3:40 - Chapter 2 - The civil wars
6:55 - Chapter 3 - All the money in the world
11:00 - Mid roll ads
12:25 - Chapter 4 - The gladiator rebellion
16:00 - Chapter 5 - An alliance is born
18:10 - Chapter 6 - War with parthia

Transcript
0:00 · this video is brought to you by
0:01 · squarespace check out squarespace at
0:02 · squarespace.com forward slash
0:04 · biographics you'll get 10
0:05 · off your first purchase more on them in
0:07 · a bit
0:13 · they say the greed is the downfall of
0:15 · man it certainly was the downfall of one
0:17 · particular man despite having all the
0:19 · power and all the money in the world
0:21 · it was still not enough for marcus
0:24 · licinia's crassus he could have spent
0:26 · the rest of his life as one of rome's
0:27 · most influential citizens getting rich
0:30 · and fat off the countless properties and
0:32 · businesses that he owns
0:33 · but instead he marched to his doom out
0:35 · of greed and hubris and caused not only
0:37 · his own demise but embroiled rome in a
0:39 · conflict that would last
0:41 · over 250 years
0:48 · marcus cecinius crassus was born circa
0:51 · 115 bc into an old and respected roman
0:54 · family named licinia he was the second
0:56 · of three sons of publius lascinius
0:58 · crassus and
0:59 · vennalea his father was a very
1:01 · successful man he served as a senator
1:03 · then consul then censor then even
1:05 · had a roman triumph in his honor which
1:07 · was a public ceremony intended to
1:09 · celebrate a big
1:10 · military victory despite all of this
1:12 · they lived modestly
1:13 · plutarch who gives the most detailed
1:15 · account of crassus's life in
1:16 · the parallel lives said that the future
1:19 · general grew up in a small house and
1:20 · that both his brothers got married while
1:22 · their parents were still alive and
1:24 · they all lived under the same roof and
1:26 · ate at the same table
1:27 · one of crassus's brothers died in the
1:30 · early 80s bc and left behind a childless
1:32 · widow
1:33 · named tatula although unusual for that
1:35 · time crassus decided to marry her
1:37 · and they had two boys together marcus
1:40 · publius his older brother also died a
1:42 · few years later which meant that he
1:43 · received the full inheritance from his
1:45 · parents
1:46 · which was substantial despite their
1:48 · meager living conditions
1:49 · so just how substantial well of course
1:51 · it's hard to provide an
1:52 · accurate measurement of his wealth but
1:54 · plutarch said that when kratos started
1:57 · out
1:57 · he had around 300 talents which is great
2:00 · i mean but
2:01 · how much is her talent in today's money
2:03 · that's actually surprisingly difficult
2:04 · to answer since the value of the talent
2:06 · was tied to the value of silver
2:08 · and has varied wildly over the course of
2:10 · the centuries that it was in use
2:12 · originally the talent was simply a unit
2:14 · of weight first introduced in ancient
2:16 · mesopotamia and used by everyone
2:18 · the akkadians the sumerians the
2:19 · babylonians the phoenicians the
2:21 · egyptians the hebrews the talent that
2:23 · plutarch is referring to
2:24 · is the attic or greek talent it was
2:27 · still a unit of way which measured
2:28 · around 26 kilograms but it became
2:30 · far more commonly used as a unit of
2:32 · currency which represented the weight
2:34 · of a talent in pure silver so then how
2:37 · much was an
2:38 · attic talent worth fortunately others
2:40 · have already made some calculations so
2:42 · we don't have to the english translation
2:44 · of plutarch's book dated to 1916
2:46 · estimated that one talent was worth
2:48 · around one thousand two hundred dollars
2:50 · or around twenty nine thousand dollars
2:51 · in today's money another estimate was
2:53 · provided in 1885 by william watson
2:55 · goodwin who taught greek studies at
2:57 · harvard and he calculated that
2:59 · one talent was around a thousand dollars
3:01 · or twenty seven thousand five hundred
3:03 · dollars in modern currency so both
3:05 · estimates were in the same ballpark
3:06 · now going back to plutarch he said that
3:08 · crassus started out with 300 talent
3:10 · which would be around 8.6 million
3:12 · dollars today and by the time he left
3:14 · for the parthian expedition where he
3:15 · died
3:16 · crassus was worth around 7 100 talents
3:19 · which would be over 200 million dollars
3:21 · today
3:21 · of course this is just a rough estimate
3:23 · as some have placed his wealth in the
3:24 · billions and whether or not he
3:26 · truly was the richest man in rome is
3:28 · again something that is difficult for us
3:30 · to establish with any certainty
3:32 · [Music]
3:38 · crassus's rise through the ranks of rome
3:40 · came during a time of turmoil for the
3:41 · republic one that perhaps foreshadowed
3:43 · its eventual collapse just a few decades
3:45 · later
3:46 · the main cause for this turmoil was a
3:47 · rivalry between two men
3:49 · sulla and gaius marius who were both
3:52 · highly decorated military commanders but
3:54 · fierce opponents in 88 bc sulla who was
3:57 · a consul at the time was getting ready
3:58 · to take his army in march easter to
4:00 · fight the kingdom of
4:01 · pontus in modern-day turkey led by king
4:03 · mithradartes vi
4:05 · however gaius marius also wanted that
4:07 · position and he used his influence and
4:09 · intrigues to relieve sulla of his duty
4:12 · but he did not anticipate his opponent's
4:14 · next move
4:14 · instead of relinquishing command sulla
4:16 · took his troops and marched on rome the
4:18 · same as
4:19 · julius caesar would do 40 years later
4:21 · this became known as sulla's first civil
4:23 · war and the general garnered the
4:24 · distinction of being the first man to
4:26 · seize power of the roman republic
4:27 · through force gaius marius and his
4:29 · cohorts however managed to flee the city
4:31 · and retreat to africa where they
4:32 · regrouped
4:33 · back in rome sula consolidated his power
4:35 · enacted new policies placed his
4:37 · supporters in high-ranking offices then
4:39 · traveled to pontus to fight the king
4:40 · mithradartes as
4:42 · originally intended this provided gaius
4:44 · marius with the time he needed to raise
4:45 · an army so
4:46 · the following year he entered rome and
4:48 · successfully ousted solar supporters
4:50 · erasing all the changes enacted by his
4:52 · enemy the conquest
4:53 · was a lot bloodier as it was followed by
4:56 · the marian purges where
4:57 · marius and his allies assassinated a lot
4:59 · of solar supporters this included
5:01 · lucius licinius crassus older brother of
5:04 · marcus crassus and presumably also his
5:06 · father who died around the same time
5:08 · although were unsure of the exact
5:10 · circumstances it's possible that
5:11 · publius sliciness crassus committed
5:13 · suicide knowing that a
5:14 · far worse fate was awaiting him with the
5:17 · senate at his mercy marius organized
5:19 · elections for consulships but
5:21 · only two people were allowed to take
5:22 · part himself and his second in command
5:24 · lucius cornelius sinner unsurprisingly
5:27 · they became the new consuls once he
5:29 · fulfilled all of his goals gaius marius
5:30 · died just a few days later
5:32 · and sinner took over eager to avoid the
5:34 · same fate as his father and brother
5:36 · crassus fled rome and traveled to espana
5:39 · to meet some of his father's friends he
5:40 · spent the next few years there living in
5:42 · a cave near the sea making arrangements
5:44 · building an army
5:45 · knowing that another battle between the
5:47 · two sides was inevitable however cena
5:49 · would not take part
5:50 · in 84 bc he thought he would launch a
5:52 · surprise attack on his enemies by
5:53 · crossing the adriatic sea into dalmatia
5:56 · although the circumstances are a bit
5:58 · murky sinner angered his own soldiers
6:00 · somehow and he was killed in a mutiny
6:01 · the leadership of his faction was passed
6:03 · on to others such as gaius marius the
6:05 · younger and
6:06 · a consul named cabo it was in 83 bc that
6:09 · sulla launched his second offensive on
6:11 · rome predictably
6:12 · named sulla's second civil war he was
6:14 · joined by crassus but
6:15 · also by pompeii who was an up-and-coming
6:17 · general at the time
6:18 · the decisive moment in the war came at
6:20 · the battle of colleen gate in november
6:22 · of 82 bc
6:24 · where marcus cress has played a pivotal
6:25 · role he was in charge of the right wing
6:27 · and while sulla's troops were getting
6:29 · pushed back into the center
6:30 · crassus was victorious on his side and
6:32 · completely routed their enemies
6:34 · once sulla was in charge of rome again
6:36 · he declared himself dictator and spent
6:37 · the next couple of years hunting down
6:39 · the remaining members
6:40 · of the marian faction at the same time
6:42 · he was also very generous when it came
6:44 · to rewarding his supporters and
6:45 · marcus crassus was at the top of the
6:47 · list
6:54 · this was the beginning of crassus path
6:56 · to exorbitant wealth
6:58 · he lost everything when he fled rome
7:00 · because his enemies enacted
7:01 · prescriptions and confiscated all of his
7:03 · family's property but
7:04 · now the same thing was happening to the
7:07 · marian supporters
7:08 · sulla took everything they owned which
7:10 · was now being sold off for peanuts and
7:11 · krasus was the main buyer letting his
7:14 · greed completely take over or as
7:15 · plutarch put it the many virtues of
7:17 · crassus were obscured by his soul vice
7:19 · of avarice and it is likely that
7:21 · the one vice which became stronger than
7:24 · all the others in him
7:25 · weakened the rest the astorian makes
7:27 · mention of one case in
7:28 · brotherum where crassus prescribed a
7:30 · wealthy man without sula's permission
7:32 · just so that he could buy his estate at
7:34 · auction
7:34 · another even more scandalous episode
7:36 · occurred when crassus was accused of
7:38 · corrupting a vestal virgin named lycinia
7:40 · when in fact he
7:41 · kept visiting her because he wanted to
7:43 · buy her villa but this was
7:44 · not enough for crassus once there was no
7:47 · more confiscated property to purchase he
7:48 · moved
7:49 · on to derelict and destroyed buildings
7:50 · that had been damaged after years of
7:52 · fighting
7:53 · he also bought hundreds of slaves who
7:54 · were skilled laborers particularly
7:56 · builders and architects so he purchased
7:58 · ruined buildings for next to nothing
7:59 · repaired or rebuilt them using slave
8:01 · labor and then sold them off for a large
8:02 · profit
8:03 · next up crassus realized that many
8:05 · houses were damaged by fires in rome
8:07 · almost every day so he established his
8:08 · own private fire department
8:10 · of course they did not perform this
8:12 · service out of the goodness of their
8:13 · hearts
8:13 · no if a person's house caught on fire
8:15 · the brigade would rush over there but
8:17 · then they would just sit back and relax
8:19 · ready to watch the fire
8:20 · burn the whole thing down that was when
8:22 · crassus showed up
8:23 · ready to make an offer to buy the
8:25 · property while it still had some little
8:27 · value if the person accepted then the
8:28 · brigade put out the fire
8:30 · if they didn't then the house burned
8:31 · down to ashes and crassus made a new
8:33 · offer this time
8:34 · much lower than the previous one one way
8:36 · or another
8:37 · he almost always came out on top in
8:39 · addition to his ever-growing real estate
8:41 · empire crass has also derived his
8:43 · massive wealth from
8:44 · other sources such as slaves silver
8:46 · mines and the land used for agriculture
8:48 · despite
8:49 · all his actions plutarch did not
8:50 · consider crass as an unpleasant man
8:52 · quite the country in fact the historian
8:54 · said the wealthy roman won
8:55 · everyone over with universal kindness
8:57 · dignity of person
8:58 · persuasiveness of speech and winning
9:00 · grace a feature despite his
9:02 · obsession with making money crassus was
9:04 · never loathed to spend it and he was
9:06 · generous with strangers and kept his
9:07 · house open to all
9:08 · he was an esteemed and careful man and
9:11 · one who was ready with his help
9:12 · he pleased people also by the kindly and
9:15 · unaffected manner
9:16 · with which he clasped their hands and
9:18 · dressed them for he never met a roman so
9:20 · obscure and so lowly that he did not
9:22 · return his greeting
9:24 · and call him by name but wealth alone
9:26 · was not enough for a roman of note he
9:28 · also needed
9:29 · status and influence so to gain these
9:31 · crassus had two choices politics
9:34 · or the military he chose the former
9:35 · because he was better suited for it and
9:37 · it would have been undoubtedly aided by
9:39 · his wealth and his lineage meanwhile
9:42 · being a successful military commander
9:43 · would have meant being away from rome
9:44 · for long periods of time which would
9:46 · have adversely affected his businesses
9:48 · unsurprisingly krasus turned out to be a
9:50 · naval politician and a skilled orator as
9:52 · he pursued the
9:53 · cursus honorum aka the tradition of
9:56 · sequence of public officers held by
9:58 · senators as they steadily climbed the
9:59 · political ladder he was described as
10:01 · making
10:02 · very many changes in his political views
10:04 · and was neither a steadfast friend nor
10:06 · an implacable enemy
10:07 · but readily abandoned both his favors
10:10 · and his resentments at the dictates of
10:12 · his interest
10:13 · so that frequently within a short space
10:15 · of time the same men and the same
10:17 · measures found in him boasts an
10:18 · advocate and an opponent throughout his
10:21 · life it did seem to bother crassus that
10:23 · he never achieved the same kind of
10:24 · military glory as some of his colleagues
10:26 · he had a particular chip on his shoulder
10:28 · about pompeii who
10:29 · went away to fight and amassed victories
10:31 · while crassus was building his real
10:33 · estate empire despite his young age he
10:35 · was
10:35 · already being called pompei the great
10:37 · and plutarch related one incident when
10:39 · somebody announced the arrival
10:41 · of pompeii the great and crassus fell to
10:43 · the floor laughing
10:44 · asking how great is he but in 73 bc
10:48 · marcus crassus was granted the
10:49 · opportunity to gain some prestige for
10:51 · himself as
10:51 · he was tasked with putting down a
10:53 · rebellion started by an escaped slave
10:55 · named spartacus...
10:56 · [ad text redacted]
12:25 · a lot of you are probably already
12:26 · familiar with spartacus if you're not
12:29 · or if you simply want to learn about his
12:30 · rebellion in more detail we actually
12:32 · already did a biographics video all
12:34 · about spartacus which you should check
12:36 · out
12:36 · after you watch this video if you
12:38 · haven't seen it already here is the
12:39 · cliffnotes version though spartacus and
12:41 · a bunch of other slaves escaped from a
12:42 · gladiator school in kapua in 73 bc and
12:45 · started raiding the italian countryside
12:47 · such revolts were not
12:48 · unheard of in fact the war of spartacus
12:51 · is also known as the third serval war
12:53 · part of a series of conflicts caused by
12:55 · slave uprisings that is why the roman
12:57 · senate did not really
12:58 · show much concern at first only sending
13:01 · militia and local patrols after
13:02 · spartacus and
13:04 · assuming that they would be enough to
13:05 · put down the rebellion none of them
13:07 · could get the job done however they were
13:08 · defeated by the slaves whose numbers
13:10 · kept growing as
13:11 · more and more people joined their cause
13:13 · eventually even properly trained roman
13:15 · legions led by consoles were bested
13:17 · by the rebels and well the senate
13:19 · started a panic
13:20 · that is when they gave the task of
13:22 · defeating spartacus to marcus crassus
13:24 · also
13:25 · making him a prey tour and giving him
13:27 · command of eight legions
13:29 · this was something that crassus needed
13:30 · in order to advance his career and to
13:32 · achieve it he showed a degree of
13:34 · ruthlessness he never really displayed
13:36 · before this was exemplified after an
13:38 · incident with his legate
13:39 · marmius who was given command of two
13:41 · legions and told to follow spartacus and
13:43 · his army without engaging them in combat
13:45 · mummius however
13:47 · thought that he had the upper hand so he
13:48 · attacked the rebels and
13:50 · lost to punish him crassus revived the
13:52 · practice of decimation he took the 500
13:55 · soldiers who were the first to retreat
13:56 · divided them into groups of 10 and made
13:58 · them draw lots
13:59 · with one man being executed from each
14:01 · group despite the rocky start crassus
14:04 · soon had the advantage
14:05 · he had trapped spartacus and his army in
14:07 · bratium and
14:08 · had ditches and walls erected to prevent
14:10 · the enemy from running away
14:11 · his plan was to wither his opponents
14:13 · down through attrition and leave them
14:15 · vulnerable for one final attack however
14:17 · he soon received terrible news the
14:18 · senate was sending him reinforcements
14:20 · now this might sound like
14:21 · good news but it wasn't because pompey
14:24 · was the one leading those reinforcements
14:25 · crassus knew that the only reason they
14:27 · chose him in the first place was because
14:29 · pompei was busy putting down a revolt in
14:31 · espana but he had been successful and
14:33 · now he was heading this way and krasus
14:35 · realized that if the gladiator rebellion
14:37 · ended when pompe arrived
14:38 · he would be the one receiving all the
14:40 · glory unfortunately for crassus that is
14:42 · exactly what happened
14:43 · he met spartacus in one decisive action
14:45 · known as the battle of solaris river
14:47 · despite sustaining significant losses
14:49 · the roman was triumphant spartacus was
14:51 · killed in the battle as were tens of
14:53 · thousands of his soldiers
14:54 · thousands more were taken prisoner and
14:56 · later crucified along the appian way on
14:58 · crassus's orders but around 5000 also
15:01 · still managed to plead the battle they
15:02 · ran
15:02 · into pompei's army and were cut down
15:04 · without hesitation but this allowed
15:06 · pompeii
15:06 · to write to the senate saying that
15:08 · krasus had conquered the slaves but that
15:10 · he himself had extipated the war for his
15:12 · efforts not just against spartacus but
15:14 · also in hispania pompei was awarded a
15:16 · major triumph upon his return to rome
15:18 · grasses meanwhile did not object as he
15:20 · knew it'd make him seem petty and
15:21 · ignoble
15:22 · instead what he did was ask pompe for
15:24 · help despite his young
15:26 · age and experience when it came to
15:27 · public office pompeii had been
15:29 · asked to stand for consoleship which was
15:31 · the highest position
15:32 · of the cursus honorum typically two
15:34 · consuls were elected to serve a one-year
15:36 · term so
15:36 · crassus asked pompe to endorse him as
15:39 · the other candidate which pompey did
15:40 · because he thought it would be useful to
15:42 · have kratos a favor
15:44 · so the two became consoles together in
15:46 · 17 bc although plutarch specified that
15:48 · their terms ended without anything of
15:50 · significance happening because each one
15:52 · tried to undo the measures of the other
15:59 · although the relationship between
16:01 · crassus and pompeii was never openly
16:03 · hostile
16:03 · it was contentious since the two of them
16:05 · usually had the same ambitions but a
16:07 · third element was introduced into the
16:09 · equation
16:10 · which changed the dynamic and that
16:11 · element was julius caesar
16:13 · caesar was another prominent citizen of
16:15 · rome who was climbing the ranks and saw
16:17 · the potential for a powerful alliance if
16:18 · crassus and pompey
16:20 · were able to put aside their differences
16:21 · at first caesar was actually the junior
16:24 · in the partnership
16:25 · pompeii was rome's most celebrated
16:26 · military commander while crassus was the
16:28 · city's most influential landowner
16:30 · and both were more powerful than him
16:32 · caesar didn't want to risk making an
16:33 · enemy out of one of them by fully
16:35 · supporting the other so instead he
16:37 · persuaded them that it would be in all
16:38 · their best interests if they worked
16:40 · together
16:40 · against other prominent statesmen such
16:42 · as carto and cicero who
16:45 · opposed them all that is how the first
16:47 · trumper was born around 60 bc
16:49 · in the words of livy it was a conspiracy
16:51 · against the state
16:52 · by its three leading citizens they did
16:54 · not share an agenda but
16:56 · they sought to help each other out so
16:58 · that they could bypass the senate in
16:59 · order to accomplish their goals plutarch
17:01 · said that rome was divided into three
17:03 · powerful parties that of pompei that of
17:05 · caesar
17:06 · and that of crassus it was the
17:08 · thoughtful and conservative part of the
17:10 · city which attached itself to pompeii
17:12 · the violent and volatile part which
17:14 · supported the hopes of caesar while
17:15 · crassus took a middle ground
17:17 · and drew from both caesar was the one
17:19 · who most benefited from this triumvirate
17:21 · with the support of his allies he was
17:22 · elected consul and was granted an army
17:24 · and then went off to fight the gauls
17:26 · after a few years his military success
17:28 · made caesar very popular and influential
17:30 · and his two co-conspirators
17:31 · started feeling like they were getting
17:33 · the short end of the stick although they
17:35 · faced heavy resistance from their
17:36 · enemies in the senate in 56 bc
17:38 · pompei and marcus crass has secured
17:40 · another consulship for themselves
17:42 · and afterwards were assigned
17:43 · governorships of roman provinces pompeii
17:46 · received two provinces in hispania while
17:48 · crassus received syria
17:49 · the exact circumstances behind this
17:51 · political move are uncertain some
17:52 · historians claimed that caesar helped
17:54 · them become consuls again in an attempt
17:56 · to
17:57 · preserve their waning alliance while
17:59 · others said that crassus and pompeii did
18:01 · this
18:01 · without caesar's approval specifically
18:03 · to counter his growing influence
18:11 · back then being made a governor of a
18:12 · province meant that you had carte
18:14 · blanche to do whatever you wanted
18:16 · more or less that was receive bribes
18:17 · take loans start new businesses etc it
18:20 · was usually regarded as a reward from
18:22 · the senate to make yourself as rich as
18:23 · possible while you served as governor
18:25 · this should have been an ideal position
18:27 · for crassus but
18:28 · he wanted more not satisfied with the
18:30 · riches found in syria he thought about
18:32 · expanding to the east into the parthian
18:34 · empire the two nations had
18:35 · a complicated and violent relationship
18:37 · for most of the 500-year existence of
18:39 · the parthian empire
18:40 · founded in the mid 3rd century bc
18:42 · parthia was an iranian civilization that
18:44 · became a powerhouse in the middle east
18:46 · when it defeated the seleucid empire
18:47 · it took over all of their territory and
18:49 · just kept expanding
18:51 · the problem with expansion is that
18:52 · eventually you run into other people who
18:54 · would prefer to stop your expansion
18:56 · that's what happened
18:57 · to parthia it expanded westward until it
18:59 · reached roman territory
19:01 · even so for about 200 years the two
19:03 · sides coexisted using the kingdom of
19:05 · armenia as a useful buffer between their
19:07 · lands
19:07 · this changed in 54 bc however when the
19:09 · first of a series of conflicts known as
19:11 · the roman parthian wars began
19:13 · after crassus decided to rekindle his
19:15 · military career nobody knows what
19:17 · brought this on crassus was over 60
19:19 · years old and
19:20 · he had not taken part in a military
19:21 · campaign for almost 20 years since he
19:23 · fought spartagus was it merely his greed
19:26 · that spurred him on
19:27 · or was it also his desire not to be
19:28 · outshined by pompei and caesar according
19:31 · to plutarch in private crass has made
19:33 · youthful boasts which
19:34 · ill become his years saying that he will
19:37 · go beyond
19:38 · parthia into india and baktria and make
19:40 · pompei's campaigns against mithridates
19:42 · look like
19:43 · child's play so it definitely seems like
19:45 · he was motivated by more than just
19:47 · money as a governor crassus had the
19:48 · power to levy an army so
19:50 · in 53 bc even without senate approval he
19:53 · invaded mesopotamia at first things went
19:55 · quite well for the roman commander most
19:57 · cities offered tribute and allied
19:58 · themselves with the romans willingly
19:59 · particularly the greek cities that had
20:01 · been founded by the macedonians during
20:03 · the time of alexander one exception was
20:05 · a city called
20:06 · zenodotian which arrested and killed
20:08 · some of crassus's soldiers so in return
20:10 · crassus plundered it
20:11 · and enslaved all of its citizens the
20:13 · roman general made his first mistake
20:15 · when winter came because instead of
20:17 · pressing the attack he retreated to
20:18 · syria until spring
20:20 · waiting for his son publius to arrive
20:22 · with reinforcements by this point of
20:24 · course the parthians received word of
20:25 · his incursions and this gave them time
20:27 · to prepare they even
20:28 · sent an enboy to crassus from king
20:30 · orodes ii
20:31 · of parthia giving him one last chance to
20:34 · stop his invasion
20:34 · boastfully crassus replied that he would
20:36 · give the king his response in solution
20:39 · meaning that he planned to take the
20:40 · parthian capital to this the envoy burst
20:43 · out in laughter and
20:44 · pointing at his palm said oh crassus
20:46 · hair will grow there before
20:48 · thou shalt see seleucia his second
20:50 · mistake came when he refused the aid of
20:51 · king artavastis ii of armenia who
20:53 · offered crassus safe passage and
20:55 · reinforcements if he invaded parthia
20:57 · through his land
20:58 · instead crassus accepted the help of
21:00 · aryamnis leader of the kingdom of
21:02 · osharone and
21:03 · crossed the euphrates into mesopotamia
21:05 · ariemnes had served pompei in the past
21:07 · and proved himself a
21:08 · friend of rome but on this occasion he
21:10 · was working with the parthians and lead
21:12 · crassus and his troops into the open
21:14 · desert completely weakened tired and
21:16 · demoralized the roman troops fought the
21:17 · parthians at the battle of kharhai in 53
21:20 · bc located in modern day haran turkey
21:22 · the parthians led by a general named
21:24 · serena slaughtered the romans even
21:26 · though they were severely outnumbered
21:28 · crassus had clearly lost the battle his
21:29 · son publius had
21:30 · been killed and most of his remaining
21:32 · men were getting ready to mutiny he
21:34 · tried making a truce but this was a trap
21:36 · and marcus crassus and his entire
21:38 · retinue were killed when they met the
21:39 · parthians according to plutarch crassus
21:41 · killer was a man named pomax threes who
21:43 · then
21:44 · cut off his head and one hand and sent
21:46 · them to the parthian king a much more
21:48 · notorious death was told by cassius dio
21:50 · said that crassus had molten gold pulled
21:52 · down his throat to punish him
21:54 · prison ending greed although he didn't
21:56 · specify if the roman general was alive
21:58 · or dead when this happened back home his
21:59 · death had important consequences
22:01 · for starters it was a humiliating defeat
22:03 · for rome one that had to be answered for
22:05 · so parthia became one of its fiercest
22:07 · enemies for the next 250 years but
22:09 · crassus's demise also meant the end of
22:11 · the first triumvirate pompe and caesar
22:13 · were already on hostile terms by this
22:15 · point and
22:15 · with crassus gone the two of them were
22:17 · firmly placed on a collision course
22:19 · which prompted the fall of the republic
22:22 · and gave rise
22:23 · to the roman empire
22:26 · so i really hope you found that video
22:28 · interesting if you did please do hit
22:29 · that thumbs up button below don't forget
22:30 · to subscribe also thank you to
22:32 · squarespace for sponsoring it there's a
22:33 · link to them below
22:35 · and thank you for watching
22:40 · [Music]
22:45 · you

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Transcript
0:00	·	The
0:08	·	Roman aristocracy was rich.
0:12	·	Very rich. At a time when most families supported themselves on less than 1,000 sestertii a year,
0:20	·	Roman senators of the imperial era were required to have fortunes of at least a million,
0:25	·	and many were far wealthier. Crassus, worth a cool two hundred million, liked to say that no
0:32	·	man could call himself rich unless he was able to support an army with his private fortune.
0:39	·	Anecdotes about elite extravagance abound. We read about Roman magnates building private islands,
0:46	·	importing water from the Dead Sea for their private baths, sailing to Africa to sample the
0:51	·	local shrimp, and generally acting in ways that would make a Gilded Age tycoon blush.
0:58	·	Even during late antiquity, as the frontiers crumbled and cities burned,
1:03	·	the Roman aristocracy retained much of its wealth, building huge mansions like the villa
1:08	·	outside Piazza Armerina in Sicily, with its acres of mosaics. The last time I visited that building,
1:15	·	I found myself wondering what happened to the family that constructed it,
1:19	·	and whether any of the vast fortunes assembled by the Roman elite survived into the Middle Ages.
1:26	·	By one estimate, 90% of rich American families lose the bulk of their wealth
1:32	·	by the third generation. Even in the relatively stable British aristocracy, few families have
1:39	·	even a small fraction of the wealth they possessed in the late nineteenth century.
1:43	·	Modern fortunes, in short, are fragile. Wealth in the Roman world was even more fleeting.
1:51	·	Like most premodern elites, rich Romans kept most of their wealth in the form of land,
1:56	·	especially estates that produced such lucrative products as wine and olive oil.
2:03	·	But they also invested in urban real estate and dabbled in commerce, sponsored voyages as
2:09	·	far afield as Arabia and India, lent money at 12% interest to friends and associates,
2:15	·	and hired out their slaves as semi-independent craftsmen.
2:20	·	When a wealthy Roman died, his wealth normally passed to his heirs in accordance with the
2:26	·	provisions of his will. By law, any man with a legitimate son was required to name him the
2:32	·	primary heir, unless he had been formally disinherited. But there were often dozens,
2:38	·	even hundreds of other heirs, ranging from professional associates to newly-freed slaves.
2:45	·	Augustus instituted a 5% estate tax on money willed to anyone outside the deceased’s immediate
2:52	·	family. More onerous was the custom, dangerous to disregard, of willing a substantial portion
2:59	·	of one’s property to the reigning emperor. In general, Roman law and Roman society made
3:07	·	ample legal provision for the transfer of wealth from generation to generation.
3:12	·	The problem, as we’ll see, is that the next generation often didn’t exist. Before we explore
3:19	·	that, a brief word about this video’s sponsor. An indispensable sign of wealth in the
3:26	·	Roman world was a villa gleaming with bronze and marble statues.
3:31	·	[ad text redacted]
4:58	·	Although wealthy Romans had many avenues for investing their wealth and legally protected
5:03	·	means of transferring that wealth to their heirs, few Roman fortunes lasted more than two or three
5:09	·	generations. Part of the problem was extravagant spending. Politics were expensive, especially
5:17	·	during the Republic, when officials were expected to sponsor lavish games and entertainments.
5:23	·	Even under the emperors, when the stakes of politics were lower,
5:26	·	a single banquet for a priesthood might cost the host a million sestertii.
5:33	·	The Roman elite also dissipated their wealth in vast dowries and lavish purchases.
5:39	·	We read about men spending a million sestertii on a single table, buying crystal goblets that
5:45	·	cost more than most villas, and snapping up antique Greek statues like Fabergé eggs.
5:52	·	The fortunes of the elite were affected by economic crises, most notably amid the runaway
5:58	·	inflation of the third and fourth centuries. The proscriptions that accompanied the civil
6:03	·	wars of the late Republic destroyed the lives and fortunes of hundreds of elite families.
6:09	·	So did the executions and confiscations that marked the reigns of the more tyrannical
6:14	·	Roman emperors. Barbarian hordes, finally, were never good for business.
6:21	·	But the single most important factor behind the rapid disappearance of most Roman family
6:26	·	fortunes was nothing more or less than infertility – the fact that, from the
6:32	·	beginning to the end of Roman history, most elite families failed to reproduce themselves.
6:39	·	A careful study focused on the century between the reigns of Trajan and Commodus, for example,
6:44	·	suggests that only about a quarter of senatorial families managed to survive for three generations.
6:52	·	In part, this reflected the reluctance of some Roman aristocrats to marry. Despite the
6:59	·	marriage legislation of Augustus, which imposed legal penalties on members of the elite who
7:04	·	remained unwed, the childless old man, hounded by would-be heirs, was a trope in Roman literature.
7:12	·	Even elite Romans who married tended to produce few children.
7:17	·	The historian Polybius speculated that elite infertility reflected aggressive birth control,
7:23	·	as parents attempted to limit the dispersal of family wealth by producing only one or two heirs.
7:31	·	Most modern historians, however, think that few Romans, elite or otherwise,
7:36	·	ever used such rigorous family planning, not least because many members of the Roman elite
7:42	·	produced large families. Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina, for example, had 13 children.
7:51	·	The reason most elite families were small seems to have been the terrible toll taken by childhood
7:56	·	disease. Only about half of all Roman children, rich or poor, survived to their fifth birthday.
8:05	·	Fronto, the tutor of Marcus Aurelius, lost five children, each dying before the next was born. Of
8:13	·	the 12 children of Tiberius Gracchus and Cornelia, only three reached adulthood. Many elite Romans
8:19	·	– even emperors, who were especially motivated to produce heirs – had no surviving children.
8:27	·	The Romans were well aware how difficult it was to have large families. During the reign of Domitian,
8:32	·	for example, a woman who had five living sons and five living daughters was publicly honored
8:38	·	at a festival. Roman custom sanctioned elite adoption, whereby a childless father gave his
8:45	·	family name (and eventually, property) to the adult son of one of his social peers.
8:51	·	But even this practice could only preserve a small minority of families.
8:57	·	Family fortunes were still more fragile, even when the heirs survived childhood.
9:02	·	Take the example of Crassus, that ultra-wealthy magnate who said no man was rich who couldn’t
9:09	·	afford to pay an army. One of Crassus’ two sons died with him at the disastrous Battle of Carrhae.
9:16	·	But the other survived to marry Caecilia Metella, whose gargantuan
9:20	·	tomb on the Appian Way is the sole extant physical monument to the family fortune.
9:25	·	Yet Crassus’ direct line – and apparently his fortune – lasted only three generations.
9:33	·	There were, of course, exceptions – families that produced heirs generation after generation. The
9:39	·	Scipio clan, which remained at the forefront of Roman politics for centuries, is a famous example.
9:47	·	There were also instances from the provinces: at the city of Oenoanda, in modern Turkey,
9:52	·	the tomb of one aristocratic lady proudly traces her lineage back twelve generations.
9:59	·	During late antiquity, some prominent families, such as Symmachi and Anicii, retained their
10:06	·	prestige and wealth in the face of an increasingly hostile political climate, surviving even the
10:11	·	collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Some of these families migrated to Constantinople,
10:16	·	where their descendants long remained prominent. In Western Europe, a few families survived into
10:22	·	the Middle Ages, producing magnates, bishops, gilded reliquaries,
10:27	·	and Romanesque churches – the last generations of witnesses to the fortunes of the Roman elite.
10:37	·	If you’re interested in more toldinstone content
10:40	·	(including my podcast), check out my channel Toldinstone Footnotes.
10:45	·	I also have a channel called Scenic Routes to the Past, which is dedicated
10:49	·	to historically-themed travel. You'll find both channels linked in the description.
10:55	·	Please consider joining other viewers in supporting toldinstone on Patreon.
11:00	·	You might also enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants. Thanks for watching