ounts gives of the transaction by Thucydides and Philistus.]

LIFE OF CRASSUS.

I. Marcus Crassus[5] was the son of a father who had been censor, and
enjoyed a triumph; but he was brought up with his two brothers in a
small house. His brothers were married in the lifetime of their
parents, and all had a common table, which seems to have been the
chief reason that Crassus was a temperate and moderate man in his way
of living. Upon the death of one of his brothers, Crassus married the
widow,[6] and she became the mother of his children; for in these
matters also he lived as regular a life as any Roman. However, as he
grew older, he was charged with criminal intercourse with Licinia,[7]
one of the Vestal Virgins, who was brought to trial; the prosecutor
was one Plotinus. Licinia had a pleasant estate in the suburbs, which
Crassus wished to get at a small price, and with this view he was
continually about the woman and paying his court to her, which brought
on him the suspicion of a criminal intercourse; but he was acquitted
by the judices, being indebted in some degree to his love of money for
his acquittal from the charge of debauching the vestal. But he never
remitted his attentions to Licinia till he got possession of the
property.

II. Now, the Romans say that the many good qualities of Crassus were
obscured by one vice, avarice; but the fact appears to be that one
vice, which was more predominant in his character than all the rest
hid his other vices. They allege, as the chief proof of his avarice,
the mode in which he got his money and the amount of his property.
Though he did not at first possess above three hundred talents, and
during his first consulship he dedicated the tenth part of his
property to Hercules,[8] and feasted the people, and gave every Roman
out of his own means enough to maintain him for three months; yet,
before the Parthian expedition, upon making an estimate of his
property, he found it amount to seven thousand one hundred talents.
The greatest part of this, if one must tell the truth, though it be a
scandalous story, he got together out of the fire and the war, making
the public misfortunes the source of his wealth; for, when Sulla took
the city, and sold the property of those whom he put to death,
considering it and calling it spoil, and wishing to attach the infamy
of the deed to as many of the most powerful men as he could, Crassus
was never tired of receiving or buying. Besides