A report on Marcus Licinius Crassus, Battle of Carrhae, Orodes II, Pompey and Parthian Empire

The Battle of Carrhae was fought in 53 BC between the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire near the ancient town of Carrhae (present-day Harran, Turkey).

Orodes II (also spelled Urud II; Wērōd), was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 57 BC to 37 BC. He was a son of Phraates III, whom he murdered in 57 BC, assisted by his elder brother Mithridates IV.

An invading force of seven legions of Roman heavy infantry under Marcus Licinius Crassus was lured into the desert and decisively defeated by a mixed cavalry army of heavy cataphracts and light horse archers led by the Parthian general Surena.

Meanwhile, the Roman general and triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus had made an attempt to extend his share of Roman territory by eastward conquest.

This attempt proved disastrous, with Crassus meeting his end in 53 BC, in the Battle of Carrhae, by Orodes' general Surena.

Crassus rose to political prominence following his victory over the slave revolt led by Spartacus, sharing the consulship with his rival Pompey the Great.

During the Roman Republican civil wars, the Parthians sided first with Pompey and then with Brutus and Cassius, but took no action until 40 BC, when Pacorus, assisted by the Roman deserter Quintus Labienus, conquered a great part of Syria and Asia Minor, but was defeated and killed by Ventidius in 38 BC. Orodes, who was deeply afflicted by the death of his favourite son, relinquished the throne to his son Phraates IV, and died soon afterward.

Crassus used Syria as the launchpad for a military campaign against the Parthian Empire, Rome's long-time eastern enemy.

In 60 BC, Pompey joined Crassus and Caesar in the military-political alliance known as the First Triumvirate.

Crassus' campaign was a disastrous failure, ending in his defeat and death at the Battle of Carrhae.

The following four-year period of peace between the remaining two members of the Triumvirate, Julius Caesar and Pompey, argues against the view that Crassus had been a peacekeeper within the group and supports the views of most Roman historians that friction between Crassus and Pompey had always been a greater cause of tension than that between Caesar and Pompey.

The Parthians destroyed the army of Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, and in 40–39 BC, Parthian forces captured the whole of the Levant except Tyre from the Romans.

Meanwhile, in Parthia, a war of succession had broken out in 57 BC after King Phraates III had been killed by his sons Orodes II and Mithridates IV, who then began fighting each other over the throne.

It is only with the beginning of the reign of Orodes II in c. 57 BC, that the line of Parthian rulers can again be reliably traced.

The account given in Plutarch's biography of Crassus also mentions that, during the feasting and revelry in the wedding ceremony of Artavazdes' sister to the Parthian king Orodes II's son and heir Pacorus in the Armenian capital of Artashat, Crassus' head was brought to Orodes II.

When this siege failed, Tigranes the Younger once again fled, this time to the Roman commander Pompey.

Soon after this, Phraates III, the king of Parthia asked to be given the son in exchange for an agreement to set the river Euphrates as the boundary between Parthia and Rome, but Pompey refused.

Shortly after the death of Julia, Crassus died at the Battle of Carrhae (May 53 BC), bringing the first triumvirate to an end.

According to Plutarch, Pompey considered going to Parthia, but was advised Parthia's king, Arsaces, was untrustworthy and the place unsafe for Pompey's wife.