Marcus Licinius Crassus - Fictional Depictions

Fictional Depictions

  • Marcus Licinius Crassus is a major character in the 1956 Alfred Duggan novel, Winter Quarters. The novel follows two fictional Gallic nobles who join Julius Caesar's cavalry then find their way into the service of Marcus' son, Publius Licinius Crassus, in Gaul. The characters eventually become clients of Publius Crassus and by extension, his father Marcus. The second half of the novel is related by its Gallic narrator from within the ranks of Crassus' doomed army en route to do battle with Parthia. The book depicts an overconfident and militarily incompetent Crassus up to the moment of his death.
  • Marcus Licinius Crassus is a principal character in the 1960 film Spartacus, played by actor Laurence Olivier. The film is based on Howard Fast's 1951 novel of the same name.
  • Marcus Crassus, along with Palene, is one of the two narrators in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of Spartacus. He is played by Anthony Hopkins.
  • Marcus Licinius Crassus is a principal character in the 2004 TV film, Spartacus, played by actor Angus Macfadyen.
  • Crassus is a major character in the novels Fortune's Favourites and Caesar's Women by Colleen McCullough. He is portrayed as a brave but mediocre general, a brilliant financier, and a true friend of Caesar.
  • Crassus is a major character in the 1992 novel Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor. He is portrayed as the cousin and patron of Lucius Licinius, the investigation of whose murder forms the basis of the novel.
  • He also appeared in the video game Spartan: Total Warrior, as one of the villains. In this interpretation, he has supernatural powers.
  • In David Drake's Ranks of Bronze, the Lost Legion is the major participant, although Crassus himself has been killed before the book begins.
  • Crassus is a major character in Conn Iggulden's Emperor series
  • The story of the Battle of Carrhae is the centrepiece of Ben Kane's novel The Forgotten Legion (2008). Crassus is depicted as a vain man with poor military judgement.
  • Crassus is a major character in Robert Harris's novel "Lustrum" (published as "Conspirata" in the USA), the sequel to "Imperium", which both chronicle the career of Marcus Tullius Cicero.
  • Crassus appears in a third season episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, where he is beheaded in the Colosseum.
  • He is a highly fictionalised enemy figure in the film "Amazons and Gladiators", played by Patric Bergin- he's known as 'Marcus Crassius'. They mention his defeating Spartacus, that Caesar exiles him due to his popularity, to a poor province- where he's very cruel to the populace; he conquers the Amazons, under Queen Zenobia (who apparently rules a tribe of Amazons in the same province, Pannae . In this film, he's killed by a young girl whose family he killed.

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