A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

874 CRASSUS.
cus, who was flamen Martialis, to undertake the
command against Aristonicus, and imposed a fine
upon him, in case of his leaving the sacred rites.
The people remitted the fine, but shewed their
sense of due priestly subordination by ordering the
flamen to obey the pontiff. (Cic. Phil. xi. 8.)
Crassus, though his own absence was liable to
similar objection, proceeded to oppose Aristonicus,
who had occupied the kingdom of Pergamus, which
had been bequeathed by Attalus to the Roman
people. His expedition to Asia was unfortunate.
He suffered a defeat at Leucae, and was overtaken
in his flight between Elaea and Smyrna by the
body-guard of the enemy. In order that he might
not be taken alive, he struck a Thracian in the eye
with his horse-whip, and the Thracian, smarting
with the blow, stabbed him to death. (Val. Max.
iii. 2. ~ 12.) His body was buried at Smyrna,
and his head was brought to Aristonicus, who, in
the following year, surrendered to Perperna, and
was put to death at Rome. He was so minutely
skilled in the Greek language, that when he presided in Asia, he was in the habit of giving judgment to those who resorted to his tribunal in any
one of five dialects in which they preferred their
claim. (Quintil. xi. 2, fin.) Cicero extols him as
a good orator and jurist (Cic. Brut. 26; compare
Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 4), and Gellius (who gives an example
of the strictness of his military discipline) says that,
according to Sempronius Asellio and other writers
of Roman history, he possessed five of the best of
good things, " quod esset ditissimus, quod nobilissimus, quod eloquentissimus, quod jurisconsultissimus, quod pontifex maximus." (Gell. i. 13.) How
the legal lore of Crassus was on one occasion wellnigh foiled in contest with the superior eloquence
of Ser. Sulpicius Galba (whose son married the
daughter of Crassus) may be read in Cicero (de
Orat. i. 56). By Heineccius (Hist. Jur. Rom. i.
143) and many others, he has been confounded
with L. Licinius Crassus, the orator, No. 23.
(Rutilius, Vitae JCtorum, c. xviii.)
9. M. LICINIUS CRASSUS AGELASTUS, son of
No. 7, and grandfather of Crassus the triumvir. He
derived his cognomen from having never laughed
(Plin. H. N. vii. 18), or, as Cicero says, he was
not the less entitled to the designation, though
Lucilius reports that he laughed once in his life.
(Cic. de Fin. v. 30.)
10, 11, 12. LICINIAE. [LICINIA.]
13. M. LICINIUS CRASSUS, son of No. 9, was
praetor B. c. 107.
14. P. LICINIUS M. F. P. N. CRASSUS DIVES,
brother of No. 13 and father of the triumvir. He
was the proposer of the lex Licinia, mentioned by
Gellius (ii. 24), to prevent excessive expense and
gluttony in banquets. The exact date of this law
is uncertain, but it was alluded to by the poet
Lucilius, who died before the consulship of Crassus,
which took place B. c. 97. The sumptuary law of
Crassus was so much approved of, that it was
directed by a decree of the senate to take effect
immediately after its publication, and before it had
been actually passed by the populus. (Macrob. ii.
13.) It was abolished at the proposition of Duronius in B.C. 98. (Val. Max. ii. 9. ~ 5.) The extravagance of the games and shows given by the
aediles had now become unreasonably great, and
Crassus during his aedileship yielded to the prevailing prodigality. (Cic. de Of. ii. 16.) During
the consulship of Crassus, the senate made a re

CRASSUS.
markable decree, by which it was ordained " no
homo immolaretur,"--a monstrous rite, says Pliny,
which up to that time had been publicly solemnized. (Plin. H. N. xxx. 3.) After his consulship, he took the command in Spain, where
he presided for several years, and, in the year B. c.
93, was honoured with a triumph for his successes
in combating the Lusitanian tribes. In the social
war, B. c. 90, he was the legate of L. Julius
Caesar, and in the following year his colleague in
the censorship (Festus, s. v. refsrri), and with him
enrolled in new tribes certain of the Latini and
Itali, who were rewarded for their fidelity with
the rights of citizenship. In the civil war which
commenced soon afterwards, he took part with
Sulla and the aristocracy. When Marius and
Cinna, after being proscribed, returned to Rome in
the absence of Sulla, he stabbed himself in order to
escape a more ignominious death from the hands
of their partisans. (Liv. Epit. lxxx.)
15. P. LicINIUS CRASSUS DIVES, son of No.
14, by Venuleia. (Cic. ad Alt. xii. 24.) In B. c.
87, he was put to death by the horsemen of Fimbria, who belonged to the party of Marius, and, according to Florus (iii. 21. ~ 14), was massacred
before his father's eyes. Appian (B. C. i. p. 394)
differs from other historians in his account of this
transaction. Hie relates that the father, after slaying his son, was himself slaughtered by the party
in pursuit.
16. LICINIUS CRASSUS DIVES, a younger brother of No. 15. His praenomen is unknown, and
the only particulars of his history which have been
recorded are the fact of his marriage in the lifetime
of his parents, and his escape from the massacre of
the year B. c. 87. (Plut. Crass. 1, 4.)
17. M. LICINIus P. F. M. N. CRASSUS DIVES,
the younger son of No. 14. The date of his birth
is not precisely recorded, but it is probable that
he was born about the year B. c. 105, for Plutarch
states, that he was younger than Pompey (Plut.
Crass. 6), and that he was more than sixty years
old when he departed (in the year B. c. 55) to
make war against the Parthians. (lb. 17.)
In the year B. C. 87, when his father and brother suffered death for their resistance to Marius
and Cinna, he was not considered of sufficient importance to be involved in the same doom; but he
was closely watched, and after some time he
thought it prudent to make his escape to Spain,
which he had visited some years before, when his
father had the command in that country. How
he concealed himself in a cavern near the sea upon
the estate of Vibius Paciaecus, and how he passed
his life in this strange retreat, is related in detail
by the lively and amusing pen of Plutarch. After
a retirement of eight months, the death of Cinna
(B. c. 84) relieved him from his voluntary confinement. He put himself at the head of a needy
rabble, for whose sustenance he provided by marauding excursions, and, with 2500 men, made his
way to Malaca. Thence, seizing the vessels in
the port, he set sail for Africa, where he met Q.
Metellus Pius, who had escaped from the party of
Marius. He soon quarrelled with Metellus, and
did not remain long in Africa, for when Sulla
(B. c. 83) landed in Italy, Crassus proceeded to
join that successful general.
He was now brought into competition with
Pompey, who also served under Sulla. The mind
of Crassus was of an essentially vulgar type. He