As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Historical person
116 BCE–54 BCE
Marcus Licinius Crassus was one of the wealthiest men in the Roman Republic and built influence through property, patronage and military command. He defeated the revolt of Spartacus, then formed the political alliance known as the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey. Seeking comparable military glory, Crassus invaded Parthia in 53 BC without adequate preparation. His army was destroyed at Carrhae, and he was killed during a failed negotiation.
Crassus is a major figure in Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series and appears in Ben Kane’s Spartacus novels. Fiction often stresses greed and the legend that molten gold was poured into his mouth after death. His career also reveals how wealth, command and political competition became inseparable during the republic’s decline.
In Steven Saylor’s Arms of Nemesis, a steward is murdered at the villa of Marcus Licinius Crassus, and two enslaved men disappear. In Colleen McCullough’s Fortune’s Favourites, Pompey converts private armies into public command, Marcus Licinius Crassus turns wealth and patronage into authority, and Caesar begins the patient ascent that will make him their rival. Other novels featuring Marcus Licinius Crassus include Robert Harris’s Imperium, Ben Kane’s The Forgotten Legion, Colleen McCullough’s Caesar’s Women, Conn Iggulden’s The Death of Kings, and Conn Iggulden’s The Field of Swords.
Series
The Emperor series is a highly fictionalised retelling of Julius Caesar’s life and the violent end of the Roman Republic. It follows Caesar from youth through war, political ascent and conquest, then continues beyond his assassination into the struggle between Octavian, Antony and Caesar’s killers.
All books in this series
The Masters of Rome series reconstructs the final century of the Roman Republic from the rise of Gaius Marius in 110 BCE to the settlement that made Octavian Augustus in 27 BCE. Across seven novels, military commands, elections, family alliances, provincial wealth and personal patronage become instruments in…
All books in this series
Robert Harris’s Cicero Trilogy reconstructs the final decades of the Roman Republic through Tiro, Cicero’s enslaved secretary and eventual freedman. Imperium follows the advocate’s prosecution of Verres and campaign for the consulship; Lustrum places his consulship inside the Catilinarian crisis; and Dictator carries him through exile, Caesar’s civil…
All books in this series
The Forgotten Legion Chronicles follow the enslaved twins Romulus and Fabiola, the Etruscan seer Tarquinius and the gladiator Brennus during the final decades of the Roman Republic. Their stories stretch from Rome and Gaul to Carrhae, Parthia, Egypt and Asia Minor, intersecting with Crassus, Caesar, Brutus and Mark…
All books in this series
Epic Historical Adventure is Colin Falconer's publisher-defined collection of stand-alone historical thrillers rather than a continuous narrative sequence. The novels range from Alexander the Great, Cleopatra and the Mongol Empire to the Ottoman court, the conquest of Mexico, colonial India, shipwreck and twentieth-century Palestine. Most volumes can be…
All books in this series
The Roma Sub Rosa series follows Gordianus the Finder through the last generation of the Roman Republic. His investigations begin in the aftermath of Sulla’s dictatorship and continue through slave revolt, aristocratic trials, Catiline’s conspiracy, Caesar’s civil war and the assassination of Julius Caesar. The series uses murder…
All books in this series
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
