During Cæsar’s campaigns in Gaul (where his government was prolonged for
a second five-year term), Crassus disappeared from the triumvirate.
After holding the consulship with Pompey, in 55 B. C., he went as
proconsul to the province of Syria, in 54 B. C. His greed of wealth, and
desire for the military fame which he envied in Cæsar and Pompey,
brought him to ruin, by inducing him to attack the kingdom of
Parthia,[5] where he was soon afterward murdered. So that the
triumvirate became a duumvirate, or league of two men,--Cæsar and
Pompey.
[5] Parthia had the rare distinction of being a country the prowess
of whose warriors baffled the efforts of Rome for her subjection.
The Parthian kingdom, southeast of the Caspian Sea, came into
existence about 250 B. C., by revolt from the Seleucids, the
monarchs of Syria, and became a powerful realm after the death of
Alexander the Great. It included Parthia proper, Hyrcania, and
afterwards (130 B. C.) Bactria, so that at last its dominions
stretched from the Euphrates to the Indus, and from the river Oxus
to the Indian Ocean. The Parthians adopted the Greek religion,
manners, and customs, which had been introduced into that part of
Asia by Alexander’s conquests.
The renowned cavalry of Parthia seem to have been all-powerful only
on their own soil, for their invasions of the Roman province of
Syria in 39 and 38 B.C. were utterly defeated, while the invasion of
Parthia by the great Roman general and triumvir, Mark Antony, in 36,
was repulsed with loss of a great part of his army. In 20 B. C. the
Parthian king Phraates restored, chiefly as a friendly concession,
the standards and prisoners taken from Crassus and Antonius, and
this is the event commemorated by the Roman poets of the day as
equivalent to a submission by Parthia. Under the Roman emperors the
Parthians sometimes courted and were sometimes at war with Rome, and
were partially conquered for a time under Trajan. The Parthian kings
encouraged Christianity. In A. D. 226 a revolt of the Persians put
an end to the Parthian kingdom, revived the religion of Zoroaster,
stopped the eastward progress of Christianity in Asia, and began
modern history in Persia.
Now between these two men there had for some time been a growing
coldness. It was said that Cæsar was a man who could brook no equal, and
Pompey a man who could suffer no superior. A feeling of rivalry having
once arisen, naturally grew till Cæsar and Pompey became the bitterest
enemies. Pompey went over to the aristocratic party to which he had
originally belonged, and having been made sole consul for the year 52 B.
C., he began to exert his great influence against Cæsar. In this he was
supported by the nobles, who dreaded Cæsar’s immense power.