Hall of Justice, Front Side, Piazza dei Tribunali. Marcus Licinius Crassus Dives (Latin: M·LICINIVS·P·F·P·N·CRASSVS·DIVES) (ca. 115 BC-53 BC) was a Roman general and politician who suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus and entered into a secret pact, known as the First Triumvirate, with Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar. He was known as one of the richest men of the era (Dives is Latin for "rich") and was killed after a defeat at Carrhae. Of the three informal triumvirs who helped bring an end to the Roman Republic, somehow Crassus, unlike Pompey and Caesar, stays in the shadows. This may be due to the fact that Crassus was the money-man and behind-the-scenes person, not the adored general or the genius. Perhaps Crassus is less visible because the sheer glamour of his two greatest contemporaries surpassed him in his own lifetime, as it has ever since. Crassus always maneuvered for power, money and glory; though he never had as much of any of them as he desired. Marcus Licinius Crassus was the son of a former consul and censor, Publius Licinius Crassus. He came from a respectable, well-established plebeian family. His father fought in the Social War under Lucius Julius Caesar III, grandfather of Mark Antony. Though his father had celebrated a triumph, Crassus grew up in a small house that was not only home to himself and his parents, but also to his two elder brothers and their families. Crassus grew to view the young general Pompey as his greatest rival, but knew he could not match Pompey's military achievements. So, he set about winning popularity by acting as an advocate in lawsuits where other advocates refused to act and lending money without charging interest, provided the loan was paid back on time. Crassus' death is important for a number of reasons. While one of the most successful businessmen in Roman history, he still hungered for the military glory of his colleagues, Caesar and Pompey. Instead, he would be remembered as the man responsible for one of Rome's greatest military disasters. More significantly, his death severed the bonds between Pompey and Caesar, already strained by the death of Pompey's wife, and Caesar's daughter, Julia, in 54 BC. It is possible that civil war would have resulted if Crassus had lived, but his death certainly made it inevitable.