Μᾶρκος δὲ Κράσσος ἦν τιμητικοῦ καὶ θριαμβικοῦ πατρός, ἐτράφη δʼ ἐν οἰκίᾳ μικρᾷ μετὰ δυοῖν ἀδελφῶν. καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς αὐτοῦ γυναῖκες ἦσαν ἔτι τῶν γονέων ζώντων, καὶ πάντες ἐπὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ἐφοίτων τράπεζαν, ὅθεν οὐχ ἥκιστα δοκεῖ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο σώφρων καὶ μέτριος γενέσθαι περὶ τὴν δίαιταν. ἀποθανόντος δὲ τοῦ ἑτέρου τῶν ἀδελφῶν τῇ γυναικὶ συνῴκησε καὶ τοὺς παῖδας ἐξ ἐκείνης ἔσχεν, οὐδενὸς ἧττον καὶ περὶ ταῦτα Ῥωμαίων εὔτακτος γενόμενος.
Marcus Crassus was the son of a man who had been censor and had enjoyed a triumph; but he was reared in a small house with two brothers. His brothers were married while their parents were still alive, and all shared the same table, which seems to have been the chief reason why Crassus was temperate and moderate in his manner of life. When one of his brothers died, Crassus took the widow to wife, and had his children by her, and in these relations also he lived as well-ordered a life as any Roman.
καίτοι προϊὼν καθʼ ἡλικίαν αἰτίαν ἔσχε Λικιννίᾳ συνιέναι τῶν Ἑστιάδων μιᾷ παρθένων· καὶ δίκην ἔφυγεν ἡ Λικιννία Πλωτίου τινὸς διώκοντος. ἦν δὲ προάστειον αὐτῇ καλόν, ὃ βουλόμενος λαβεῖν ὀλίγης τιμῆς ὁ Κράσσος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο προσκείμενος ἀεὶ τῇ γυναικὶ καὶ θεραπεύων, εἰς τὴν ὑποψίαν ἐκείνην ἐνέπεσε καὶ τρόπον τινὰ τῇ φιλοπλουτίᾳ τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς φθορᾶς ἀπολυσάμενος ὑπὸ τῶν δικαστῶν ἀφείθη, τὴν δὲ Λικιννίαν οὐκ ἀνῆκε πρότερον ἢ τοῦ κτήματος κρατῆσαι.
And yet when he was further on in years, he was accused of criminal intimacy with Licinia, one of the vestal virgins, and Licinia was formally prosecuted by a certain Plotius. Now Licinia was the owner of a pleasant villa in the suburbs which Crassus wished to get at a low price, and it was for this reason that he was forever hovering about the woman and paying his court to her, until he fell under the abominable suspicion. And in a way it was his avarice that absolved him from the charge of corrupting the vestal, and he was acquitted by the judges. But he did not let Licinia go until he had acquired her property.
Ῥωμαῖοι μὲν οὖν λέγουσι πολλαῖς ἀρεταῖς τοῦ Κράσσου κακίαν μόνην ἐπισκοτῆσαι τὴν φιλοπλουτίαν· ἔοικε δὲ μία πασῶν ἐρρωμενεστέρα τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ κακιῶν γενομένη τὰς ἄλλας ἀμαυρῶσαι. τεκμήρια δὲ τῆς φιλοπλουτίας αὑτοῦ μέγιστα ποιοῦνται τόν τε τρόπον τοῦ πορισμοῦ καὶ τῆς οὐσίας τὸ μέγεθος.
The Romans, it is true, say that the many virtues of Crassus were obscured by his sole vice of avarice; and it is likely that the one vice which became stronger than all the others in him, weakened the rest. The chief proofs of his avarice are found in the way he got his property and in the amount of it.
τριακοσίων γὰρ οὐ πλείω κεκτημένος ἐν ἀρχῇ ταλάντων, εἶτα παρὰ τὴν ὑπατείαν ἀποθύσας μὲν τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ τὴν δεκάτην καὶ τόν δῆμον ἑστιάσας, τρεῖς δὲ μῆνας ἑκάστῳ Ῥωμαίων σιτηρέσιον ἐκ τῶν αὑτοῦ παρασχών, ὅμως πρὸ τῆς ἐπὶ Πάρθους στρατείας αὐτὸς αὐτῷ θέμενος ἐκλογισμὸν τῆς οὐσίας εὗρεν ἑκατὸν ταλάντων τίμημα πρὸς ἑπτακισχιλίοις.
For at the outset he was possessed of not more than three hundred talents; then during his consulship he sacrificed the tenth of his goods to Hercules, feasted the people, gave every Roman out of his own means enough to live on for three months, and still, when he made a private inventory of his property before his Parthian expedition, he found that it had a value of seventy-one hundred talents.
τὰ δὲ πλεῖστα τούτων, εἰ δεῖ μετὰ βλασφημίας εἰπεῖν τὸ ἀληθές, ἐκ πυρὸς συνήγαγε καὶ πολέμου, ταῖς κοιναῖς ἀτυχίαις προσόδῳ τῇ μεγίστῃ χρησάμενος. ὅτε γὰρ Σύλλας ἑλὼν τὴν πόλιν ἐπώλει τὰς οὐσίας τῶν ἀνῃρημένων ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ, λάφυρα καὶ νομίζων καὶ ὀνομάζων, καὶ βουλόμενος ὅτι πλείστοις καὶ κρατίστοις προσομόρξασθαι τὸ ἄγος, οὔτε λαμβάνων οὔτʼ ὠνούμενος ἀπεῖπε.
The greatest part of this, if one must tell the scandalous truth, he got together out of fire and war, making the public calamities his greatest source of revenue. For when Sulla took the city and sold the property of those whom he had put to death, considering it and calling it spoil of war, and wishing to defile with his crime as many and as influential men as he could, Crassus was never tired of accepting or of buying it.
πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ὁρῶν τὰς συγγενεῖς καὶ συνοίκους τῆς Ῥώμης κῆρας ἐμπρησμοὺς καὶ συνιζήσεις διὰ βάρος καὶ πλῆθος οἰκοδομημάτων, ἐωνεῖτο δούλους ἀρχιτέκτονας καὶ οἰκοδόμους, εἶτʼ ἔχων τούτους ὑπὲρ πεντακοσίους ὄντας, ἐξηγόραζε τὰ καιόμενα καὶ γειτνιῶντα τοῖς καιομένοις, διὰ φόβον καὶ ἀδηλότητα τῶν δεσποτῶν ἀπʼ ὀλίγης τιμῆς προϊεμένων, ὥστε τῆς Ῥώμης τὸ πλεῖστον μέρος ὑπʼ αὐτῷ γενέσθαι.
And besides this, observing how natural and familiar at Rome were such fatalities as the conflagration and collapse of buildings, owing to their being too massive and close together, he proceeded to buy slaves who were architects and builders. Then, when he had over five hundred of these, he would buy houses that were afire, and houses which adjoined those that were afire, and these their owners would let go at a trifling price owing to their fear and uncertainty. In this way the largest part of Rome came into his possession.
τοσούτους δὲ κεκτημένος τεχνίτας οὐδὲν ᾠκοδόμησεν αὐτὸς ἢ τὴν ἰδίαν οἰκίαν, ἀλλʼ ἔλεγε τοὺς φιλοικοδόμους αὐτοὺς ὑφʼ ἑαυτῶν καταλύεσθαι χωρὶς ἀνταγωνιστῶν, ὄντων δʼ αὐτῷ παμπόλλων ἀργυρείων, πολυτιμήτου δὲ χώρας καὶ τῶν ἐργαζομένων ἐν αὐτῇ, ὅμως ἄν τις ἡγήσαιτο μηδὲν εἶναι ταῦτα πάντα πρὸς τὴν τῶν οἰκετῶν τιμήν·
But though he owned so many artisans, he built no house for himself other than the one in which he lived; indeed, he used to say that men who were fond of building were their own undoers, and needed no other foes. And though he owned numberless silver mines, and highly valuable tracts of land with the labourers upon them, nevertheless one night regard all this as nothing compared with the value of his slaves;
τοσούτους ἐκέκτητο καὶ τοιούτους, ἀναγνώστας, ὑπογραφεῖς, ἀργυρογνώμονας, διοικητάς, τραπεζοκόμους, αὐτὸς ἐπιστατῶν μανθάνουσι καὶ προσέχων καὶ διδάσκων καὶ ὅλως νομίζων τῷ δεσπότῃ προσήκειν μάλιστα τὴν περὶ τοὺς οἰκέτας ἐπιμέλειαν ὡς ὄργανα ἔμψυχα τῆς οἰκονομικῆς.
so many and so capable were the slaves he possessed,—readers, amanuenses, silver- smiths, stewards, table-servants; and he himself directed their education, and took part in it himself as a teacher, and, in a word, he thought that the chief duty of the master was to care for his slaves as the living implements of household management.
καὶ τοῦτο μὲν ὀρθῶς ὁ Κράσσος, εἴπερ, ὡς ἔλεγεν, ἡγεῖτο τὰ μὲν ἄλλα διὰ τῶν οἰκετῶν χρῆναι, τοὺς δὲ οἰκέτας διʼ αὑτοῦ κυβερνᾶν τὴν γὰρ οἰκονομικήν ἐν ἀψύχοις χρηματιστικὴν οὖσαν, ἐν ἀνθρώποις πολιτικὴν γιγνομένην ὁρῶμεν ἐκεῖνο δὲ οὐκ εὖ, τὸ μηδένα νομίζειν μηδὲ φάσκειν εἶναι πλούσιον, ὃς οὐ δύναται τρέφειν ἀπὸ τῆς οὐσίας στρατόπεδον
And in this Crassus was right, if, as he used to say, he held that anything else was to be done for him by his slaves, but his slaves were to be governed by their master. For household management, as we see, is a branch of finance in so far as it deals with lifeless things; but a branch of politics when it deals with men. He was not right, however, in thinking, and in saying too, that no one was rich who could not support an army out of his substance;
(ὁ γὰρ πόλεμος οὐ τεταγμένα σιτεῖται, κατὰ τόν Ἀρχίδαμον, ὥσθʼ ὁ πρὸς πόλεμον πλοῦτος ἀόριστος), καὶ πολὺ τῆς Μαρίου γνώμης ἀπηρτημένως. ἐκεῖνος γὰρ, ἐπεὶ κατʼ ἄνδρα νείμας ἑκάστῳ δέκα καὶ τέσσαρα πλέθρα γῆς ἔγνω πλέον ἐπιζητοῦντας, μηδείς, ἔφη, γένοιτο Ῥωμαίων ὀλίγην ἡγούμενος τὴν τρέφειν ἀρκοῦσαν.
for war has no fixed rations, as King Achidamus said, and therefore the wealth requisite for war cannot be determined. Far different was the opinion of Marius, who said, after distributing to each of his veterans fourteen acres of land and discovering that they desired more, May no Roman ever think that land too small which suffices to maintain him.
οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ ξένους ἦν φιλότιμος ὁ Κράσσος· ἀνέῳκτο γὰρ ἡ οἰκία πᾶσι, καὶ τοῖς φίλοις ἐδάνειζεν ἄνευ τόκων, ἀπῄτει δʼ ἀποτόμως τοῦ χρόνου παρελθόντος εἰς ὃν ἐδάνεισε, καὶ τὸ προῖκα πολλῶν ἐγίνετο τόκων ἐπαχθέστερον. ἐν δὲ τοῖς δείπνοις ἡ μὲν κλῆσις ἦν ὡς τὰ πολλὰ δημοτικὴ καὶ λαώδης, ἡ δʼ εὐτέλεια τὴν καθαριότητα καὶ τὴν φιλοφροσύνην ἡδίονα τοῦ πολυτελοῦς εἶχε.
However, Crassus was generous with strangers, for his house was open to all; and he used to lend money to his friends without interest, but he would demand it back from the borrower relentlessly when the time had expired, and so the gratuity of the loan was more burdensome than heavy interest. When he entertained at table, his invited guests were for the most part plebeians and men of the people, and the simplicity of the repast was combined with a neatness and good cheer which gave more pleasure than lavish expenditure.
παιδείας δὲ τῆς περὶ λόγον μάλιστα μὲν τὸ ῥητορικὸν καὶ χρειῶδες εἰς πολλοὺς ἤσκησε, καὶ γενόμενος δεινὸς εἰπεῖν ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα· Ῥωμαίων ἐπιμελείᾳ καὶ πόνῳ τοὺς εὐφυεστάτους ὑπερέβαλεν. οὐδεμίαν γὰρ οὕτω δίκην φασὶ μικράν οὐδʼ εὐκαταφρόνητον γενέσθαι πρὸς ἣν ἀπαράσκευος ἦλθεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ Πομπηΐου πολλάκις ὀκνοῦντος καὶ Καίσαρος ἐξαναστῆναι καὶ Κικέρωνος, ἐκεῖνος ἀνεπλήρου τὴν συνηγορίαν. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μᾶλλον ἤρεσκεν ὡς ἐπιμελὴς καὶ βοηθητικός.
As for his literary pursuits, he cultivated chiefly the art of speaking which was of general service, and after making himself one of the most powerful speakers at Rome, his care and application enabled him to surpass those who were most gifted by nature. For there was no case, they say, however trifling and even contemptible it might be, which he undertook without preparation, but often, when Pompey and Caesar and Cicero were unwilling to plead, he would perform all the duties of an advocate. And on this account he became more popular than they, being esteemed a careful man, and one who was ready with his help.
ἤρεσκε δὲ καὶ τὸ περὶ τὰς δεξιώσεις καὶ προσαγορεύσεις φιλάνθρωπον αὐτοῦ καὶ δημοτικόν. οὐδενὶ γὰρ οὕτως ἀπήντησε Ῥωμαίων ἀδόξῳ καὶ ταπεινῷ Κράσσος ὃν ἀσπασάμενον οὐκ ἀντιπροσηγόρευσεν ἐξ ὀνόματος, λέγεται δὲ καὶ πολυμαθὴς καθʼ ἱστορίαν γενέσθαι, καί τι καὶ φιλοσοφῆσαι τοῖς Ἀριστοτέλους λόγοις προσθέμενος, ὧν διδάσκαλον εἶχεν Ἀλέξανδρον, ἄνθρωπον εὐκολίας καὶ πρᾳότητος ἀπόδειξιν διδόντα τὴν πρὸς Κράσσον συνήθειαν.
He pleased people also by the kindly and unaffected manner with which he clasped their hands and addressed them. For he never met a Roman so obscure and lowly that he did not return his greeting and call him by name. It is said also that he was well versed in history, and was something of a philosopher withal, attaching himself to the doctrines of Aristotle, in which he had Alexander as a teacher. This man gave proof of contentedness and meekness by his intimacy with Crassus;
οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀποφήνασθαι ῥᾳδίως πότερον προσῆλθεν αὐτῷ πενέστερος ἢ προσελθὼν ἐγένετο. μόνος γοῦν ἀεὶ τῶν φίλων αὐτῷ συναποδημῶν στέγαστρον ἐλάμβανεν εἰς τὴν ὁδόν καὶ τοῦτʼ ἐπανελθὼν ἀπῃτεῖτο. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ὕστερον.
for it is not easy to say whether he was poorer before or after his relations with his pupil. At any rate he was the only one of the friends of Crassus who always accompanied him when he went abroad, and then he would receive a cloak for the journey, which would be reclaimed on his return. But this was later on.
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