Marcus Cressus, richest man in Rome, one of the original triumvirate with Pompey and Caesar.

And of course, the man who met his end in the Near East whilst fighting the Parthians

in the aftermath of the Battle of Carai.

And this podcast, we're going to be talking all about this famous battle of the first century

BC.

And joining me today is Gareth Sampson.

Gareth is the author of a new book all about Cressus and the Parthian campaign, his ill-fated

Parthian campaign.

And we talk about why it happened, the course of the campaign, how it progressed, and what

drove Cressus to fight the Parthians and lose so spectacularly at Carai.

Here's Gareth.

Gareth, it's great to have you on the show to talk about one of the most interesting, most

significant clashes of the first century BC, but not one you might initially have thought

of.

No, it's often overlooked.

It's only ever studied from the Roman side as Cressus disappears to the East, always killed,

let's move onto the Roman civil war.

It's always viewed to that prism and not the prism of the actual war itself.

Not actually viewed who the correct prism you might say.

And of course we are talking about the Battle of Carai and Cressus' campaign in the East,

one of disaster famed for its disaster at Carai.

But to start off, if we start off talking about the man himself, Marcus Cressus.

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