Arveh, and welcome to Emperors of Rome, a Roman history podcast from La Trobe University.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Rianna Evans, Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at Latrobe University.

This is episode CCXL, Crassus versus Spartacus.

In the tales of Hollywood, Crassus will always be the antagonist to the slave hero Spartacus,

but is that how he would see himself?

A war against slaves is something that no self-respecting Roman would want to be pushed into.

And yet here we are, and here is Riannon Evans.

Even though Krasis had been instrumental in helping Sulla to win the civil war over the Marians,

he's still somehow secondary in what follows.

And we're told, especially by Plutarch, that he really envies Pompey the great success

and that he kind of makes sarcastic remarks about it.

So Pompey's title, Pompey the great Pompeius Magnus, he mocks the Magnus.

And he says, well, how great is he? How big? The word he uses

in Greek is really sarcastic. You used to say, it's not as big as you think, kind of thing.

Yeah. And Plutarch suggests, Pluto always wants us to do a bit of kind of armchair psychology,

really, that it's jealousy over Sulla preferring

Pompey. Pompi's still quite young at this point and Sulla's hailing him as imperator, standing

up for him when he comes in the room kind of thing. And so everyone's kind of looking around and

feeling like Pompey has been preferred over all other.

Then Plutarch says, well, Krasa's kind of realizes that his strength is money.

So rather than trying to compete with him on the military side, he gains his influence through

helping people out politically and in the law courts.

...