Marcus Licinius Crassus

Marcus Licinius Crassus, who lived from 115 to 53 BC, was a Roman general and statesman, often called the richest man in Rome, who played a central role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He began his public career as a military commander under Lucius Cornelius Sulla during Sulla's civil war, and after Sulla became dictator, Crassus amassed an enormous fortune through property speculation, reportedly buying burning and condemned buildings cheaply and having his own private fire brigade extinguish them for later resale. He rose to political prominence after defeating the slave revolt led by Spartacus, sharing the consulship afterward with his rival Pompey the Great, and he later became a political and financial patron of Julius Caesar, joining Caesar and Pompey in the unofficial political alliance historians call the First Triumvirate, an arrangement the three renewed at the Luca Conference in 56 BC. Following a second consulship Crassus was appointed governor of Roman Syria, which he used as the launching point for a military campaign against the Parthian Empire, a campaign that ended in catastrophic failure at the Battle of Carrhae, where Crassus was defeated and killed; his death removed the figure whose wealth and influence had balanced the rivalry between Caesar and Pompey, and within four years Caesar crossed the Rubicon to begin the civil war that ended the Republic.