Page "Bastarnae" Paragraph 31

The Bastarnae provided the casus belli by crossing the Haemus and attacking the Dentheletae, a Thracian tribe who were Roman allies.

Crassus marched to the Dentheletae's assistance, but the Bastarnae host hastily withdrew over the Haemus at his approach.

Crassus followed them closely into Moesia but they would not be drawn into battle, withdrawing beyond the Tsibritsa.

Crassus now turned his attention to the Moesi, his prime target.

After a successful campaign which resulted in the submission of a substantial section of the Moesi, Crassus again sought out the Bastarnae.

Discovering their location from some peace envoys they had sent to him, he lured them into battle near the Tsibritsa by a stratagem.

Hiding his main body of troops in a wood, he stationed as bait a smaller vanguard in open ground before the wood.

As expected, the Bastarnae attacked the vanguard in force, only to find themselves entangled in the full-scale pitched battle with the Romans that they had tried to avoid.

The Bastarnae tried to retreat into the forest but were hampered by the wagon-train carrying their women and children, as these could not move through the trees.

Trapped into fighting to save their families, the Bastarnae were routed.

Crassus personally killed their king, Deldo, in combat, a feat which qualified him for Rome's highest military honour, spolia opima, but Augustus refused to award it on a technicality.

Augustus also forbade Crassus to accept the honorary title of imperator (" supreme commander ") from his troops, traditional for victorious generals.

Instead, Augustus claimed the title for himself ( for the 7th time ).

Finally, although Dio states that Crassus was voted a Triumph in Rome by the Senate, there is no evidence in inscriptions of that year ( 27 BC ) that it was actually celebrated.

After his return to Rome, Crassus disappears from the record altogether, both epigraphic and literary.

This is highly unusual in a relatively well-documented period for a person of such distinction who was still only about 33 years old.

His tomb has not been found in the excavated Crassus family mausoleum in Rome.

This official " air-brushing from history " may imply punitive internal exile to a remote location, similar to that inflicted on the contemporary poet, Ovid, who in AD 8, for an unknown offence, was ordered by Augustus to spend the rest of his life in Tomis ( Constanţa ) on the Black Sea.

Ronald Syme points out the similarity of Crassus ' removal from the official record with that of Cornelius Gallus, the contemporary disgraced governor of Egypt, who was recalled by Augustus for assuming inappropriate honours.

Thousands of fleeing Bastarnae perished, many asphyxiated in nearby woods by encircling fires set by the Romans, others drowned trying to swim across the Danube.

Nevertheless, a substantial force dug themselves into a powerful hillfort.

Crassus laid siege to fort, but had to enlist the assistance of Rholes, the Getan petty king to dislodge them, for which service Rholes was granted the title of socius et amicus populi Romani (" ally and friend of the Roman people ").