Crassus

All this inflamed and goaded Crassus, although it was not without good reason that Sulla thus made less of him. For he was lacking in experience, and his achievements were robbed of their favour by the innate curses of avarice and meanness which beset him. For instance, when he captured the Umbrian city of Tuder, it was believed that he appropriated to himself most of the spoil, and charges to this effect were laid before Sulla.

But in the struggle near Rome, which was the last and greatest of all, while Sulla was defeated and his army repulsed and shattered, Crassus was victorious with the right wing,[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Sulla, xxix. 5. ) pursued the enemy till nightfall, and then sent to Sulla informing him of his success and asking supper for his soldiers. However, during the proscriptions and public confiscations which ensued, he got a bad name again, by purchasing great estates at a low price, and asking donations.

It is said that in Bruttium he actually proscribed a man without Sulla’s orders, merely to get his property, and that for this reason Sulla, who disapproved of his conduct, never employed him again on public business. And yet Crassus was most expert in winning over all men by his flatteries; on the other hand, he himself was an easy prey to flattery from anybody. And this too is said to have been a peculiarity of his, that, most avaricious as he was himself, he particularly hated and abused those who were like him.

Now it vexed him that Pompey was successful in his campaigns, and celebrated a triumph before becoming a senator, and was called Magnus (that is, Great) by his fellow-citizens. And once when some one said: Pompey the Great is coming, Crassus fell to laughing and asked: How great is he?