Carrhae - could Crassus have won?

[Sean Manning]

BTW, Plutarch says that the Parthians wore "breastplates of raw hide and steel" (Crassus, 25). Does this mean they wore two kinds of "breastplates" or one kind that used both materials ?

~Theo

Either is possible. Rawhide or composite rawhide/scale armour was standard in the armies of the Bronze Age chariot kingdoms, and the Dura Europos find shows that the technology didn't die out. I think that a capaphract would need a suit that was at least half metal, though, because he would face many blows at short range without a shield.

With only 4,000 light troops, I think that Crassus had no chance of winning (although he wouldn't have lost his army if he hadn't been such a fool). Beating off horse archers isn't hard if you have large numbers of both heavy infantry (to stop them and any other cavalry from charging) and archers or slingers (to kill them if they get close enough to cause serious damage with arrows) and use them in concert. Of course, they can do lots of nasty things without facing you in open battle ...