The Parthians at Carrhae

The Battle of Carrhae was fought in 53 BC near the town of Carrhae, modern Harran in southeastern Turkey. Marcus Licinius Crassus, partner of Pompey and Julius Caesar in the alliance known as the First Triumvirate, led seven legions across the Euphrates against the Parthian empire. His opponent was the commander Plutarch calls Surena, a young nobleman from one of Parthia's great families.

Plutarch tells how Surena first hid his heavy cavalry, the cataphracts, under cloaks and skins, then let their armor flash in the sun all at once. The Romans formed a hollow square. Instead of closing, the horse archers rode around it shooting, and a train of camels kept them supplied with arrows. Crassus' son Publius led a breakout and was cut off and killed. Days later Crassus himself was killed at a parley, and Plutarch counts some 10,000 Romans taken prisoner. The captured standards stayed in Parthia until Augustus recovered them by treaty in 20 BC.