Deschutes Public Library

Crassus, the first tycoon, Peter Stothard

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-157) and index

individual biography

maps

index present

non fiction

Crassus

bibliography

1309869482

Peter Stothard

Ancient Lives

the first tycoon

Marcus Licinius Crassus (115-53 BCE) was a modern man in an ancient world, a pioneer disrupter of finance and politics, and the richest man of the last years of the Roman republic. Without his catastrophic ambition, this trailblazing tycoon might have quietly entered history as Rome's first modern political financier. Instead, Crassus and his son led an army on an unprovoked campaign against Parthia into what are now the borderlands of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, losing a battle at Carrhae which scarred Roman minds for generations.0 After Crassus was killed, historians told many stories of his demise. Some said that his open mouth, shriveled by desert air, had been filled with molten gold as testament to his lifetime of greed. His story poses both immediate and lasting questions about the intertwining of money, ambition, and power

Machine generated contents note:, chapter One, The Secret Disrupter, chapter Two, A Faraway Place, chapter Three, Nothing to Laugh About, chapter Four, Inside the Cave, chapter Five, Crassus at War, chapter Six, Ways of Revenge, chapter Seven, Parthian Faces, chapter Eight, Fire and Finance, chapter Nine, Problems with Foreigners, chapter Ten, Spartacus, chapter Eleven, Eastern Questions, chapter Twelve, The Nature of Money, chapter Thirteen, A Three-Headed Monster, chapter Fourteen, How to Be First, chapter Fifteen, A Divine Bull's Warning, chapter Sixteen, Hairs on a Man's Palm, chapter Seventeen, Camels and Bows, chapter Eighteen, A Brawl over a Horse, chapter Nineteen, Crassus's Triumph