In 53 B.C. a Roman army confronted a force one quarter its strength yet suffered Rome's bloodiest defeat in more than a hundred years. The Battle of Carrhae pitted 40,000 Roman soldiers against an army of a mere 10,000 of the Parthian Empire on the sands of Mesopotamia. The humiliating loss rippled through Rome and crumbled the fragile foundation of the Republic; from this rubble rose the Roman Empire. And the disaster of Carrhae, and the folly leading to it, would write a bloody epitaph of the Roman commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus. Dur: 32mins File: .mp3