Crassus: The First Tycoon (Ancient Lives)

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Romans saw the value of precious metals but also the danger of mining them—for pollution of mind and the land. The central message is a topical one - even if someone is good at amassing wealth and political clout, they may be very bad at war.

Here he cleverly explores the life of one of the most puzzling and elusive ‘big men’ in the history of Rome, and why it matters. Dip Into NEW PAPERBACKS [jsb_filter_by_tags count="15" show_more="10" sort_by="total_products"/] A selection of recent paperbacks. Douglas Boin is Professor of History at Saint Louis University and the author of Alaric the Goth (W. Crassus usually appears in biographies of Caesar or Spartacus, so it was interesting to read a book focusing on the man himself. See our Remarkables Archive list for what is no longer in print, but which we are happy to track down.I wanted to learn more about Crassus after enjoying Robert Harris's Cicero Trilogy, in which the First Tycoon features as one of the main villains. Lesser known probably because he was not so much renowned for his battlefield exploits than the other two, he preferred the shadows and finance was his strength. Crassus, by contrast, owned shares in Spanish mines and lent the proceeds to politicians whom he kept as clients, playing one against the other in the hope that none would ever exceed his own influence on events. Pentru cei care nu se gândesc zilnic la Imperiul Roman, merită amintit faptul că Crassus, acest tycoon cum îl numește autorul, a făcut parte din "Primul Triumvirat", acționând ca o contrapondere pentru ceilalți doi colegi ai săi: mai faimoșii Iuliu Caesar și Pompei cel Mare. Since the Romans were certain that their country was the greatest country of its time, the underground wealth had surely to be somewhere.

It moves quickly and feels jumpy at times but it is informative and tries to stick to the source material. For a book titled “The First Tycoon” I know little of his financial innovations, and one would be already familiar with the stories told in this book if they had prior knowledge of Caesar, Pompey and Cicero.

After a string of horrible decisions, Crassus got outwitted by his counterpart who strung together 1000 camels to continuously resupply archers, something the Romans could not have conceived. Stothard is British and some of his idioms and sentence structures can be a bit challenging for the American audience. Peter Stothard's 'Crassus' is a new biography written for Yale University Press's Ancient Lives series, which aims to prove that the lives of ancient thinkers, rulers, warriors, and politicians are still relevant today. Marcus Licinius Crassus (115–53 BCE) was a modern man in an ancient world, a pioneer disrupter of finance and politics, and the richest man of the last years of the Roman republic.