Marcus Crassus essays

Marcus Crassus essays In the Roman era there were many great noble men but one in particular stands out named Marcus Licinius Crassus. He rose to power quickly and became the wealthiest man in Rome. He became colleagues with Caesar and Pompey and helped them achieve the high status that they had. He did not have a good childhood and came from a poor family. This mad the wealth and prestige that he gained that much more respectable. Crassus was born about 115 B.C., in Rome. He had an older and a younger brother who were both married and lived with them and his parents in a small house in Rome. He was educated out of his house by his parents. His father married a woman whom was from a well to do family. His father was born into the office of a censor and was given great honor. In battle his father perished along with his older brother. From this happening Crassus inherited his fathers money and ended up marrying his brothers widow named Licinia. He ended up staying with her till death and together they had many children. Some of the ways that he went about getting his money were sneaky yet smart. He took notice to how close and tall the houses in Rome were and that they would be easily susceptible to fire. Rome also had no public fire brigades. He formed the first fire brigade from his host of slaves that he owned. His idea was to set fire to houses then buy those houses from the owners. The owners would sell the houses cheaply because they were on fire and were no use to them anymore. By doing this he soon owned a majority of Roman land. He also bought many slaves who were architects and builders. He had them rebuild the burned down houses. Crassus never built one house other than his own. Even though Crassus owned many silver mines, land, and had other workers to work on them, he valued his slaves the most. He owned over five hundred slaves and all different talents. They were excellent readers, silversmiths, table-waiters, ...