Silaces (also spelled Sillakes) was a Parthian commander who fought against the Roman general and triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus. Initially the satrap of Ichnae, a fortress in Mesopotamia, he was defeated and wounded by Crassus' forces, and fled to the Parthian court, where he informed king Orodes II (r. 57–37 BC) of the Roman invasion.1 Silaces later commanded the Parthian contingent alongside Surena at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, where Crassus was defeated and killed.2 Crassus' defeat at Carrhae was one of the worst military defeats of Roman history.3 Parthia's victory cemented its reputation as a formidable if not equal power with Rome.4 While Orodes and Artavasdes II of Armenia were observing a play of The Bacchae of Euripides (c. 480–406 BC) at the Armenian court in honor of the wedding of Orodes' son Pacorus I and Artavasdes' sister, Silaces announced the news of the victory at Carrhae, and put the head of Crassus at Orodes' feet.5 The head was given to the producer of the play, who decided to use Crassus' actual severed head in place of the stage-prop head of Pentheus.6
References
References
- Cassius Dio, Book 40, 12.1.
- Plutarch, vol III. XXI.
- Kennedy 1996, p. 78.
- Bivar 1983, pp. 55–56; Brosius 2006, p. 96
- Dąbrowa 2018, p. 80; Bivar 1983, p. 56
- Bivar 1983, p. 56.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Ancient works
- Plutarch, Parallel Lives
- Cassius Dio, Roman History
Modern works
- Bivar, A.D.H. (1983). "The Political History of Iran Under the Arsacids". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran: The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods. Vol. 3(1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 21–99. ISBN 0-521-20092-X..
- Brosius, Maria (2006), The Persians: An Introduction, London & New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-32089-4.
- Dąbrowa, Edward (2018). "Arsacid Dynastic Marriages". Electrum. 25: 73–83. doi:10.4467/20800909EL.18.005.8925.
- Kennedy, David (1996), "Parthia and Rome: eastern perspectives", in Kennedy, David L.; Braund, David (eds.), The Roman Army in the East, Ann Arbor: Cushing Malloy Inc., Journal of Roman Archaeology: Supplementary Series Number Eighteen, pp. 67–90, ISBN 978-1-887829-18-2
Further reading
Further reading
- Overtoom, Nikolaus Leo (2021). "Reassessing the Role of Parthia and Rome in the Origins of the First Romano-Parthian War (56/5–50 BCE)". Journal of Ancient History. 9 (2): 238–268. doi:10.1515/jah-2021-0007.