Crassus, Marcus Licinius°
CRASSUS, MARCUS LICINIUS°
CRASSUS, MARCUS LICINIUS ° (d. 54 b.c.e.), prominent Roman toward the end of the republican period. Crassus served as consul together with Pompey in 70 b.c.e. He was consul again in 55, and was appointed proconsul of Syria for five years in order to wage war against the Parthians. The war began in 54 b.c.e., and continued until the following year, when Crassus was defeated and killed by the Parthians. Crassus was the first Roman to seize the funds of the Temple, to the amount of 2,000 talents of gold, despite the golden ingot offered him by Eleazar, the priest in charge of the curtains of the sanctuary.
bibliography:
Schuerer, Hist, 104–5; M. Radin, The Jews among the Greeks and Romans (1915), 265–6, 397 n. 20; Regling, in: Klio, 7 (1907), 357–94; Jos., Ant., 14:105ff.; Jos., Wars, 1:179; Jos., Apion, 2:82.
[Menahem Stern]