Could Caesar have conquered the Parthians like he was planning to do before he was assassinated?

Could Caesar have conquered the Parthians like he was planning to do before he was assassinated?

He could probably have curbstomped them in a good campaign. No reason why he couldn't have achieved what Trajan or Septimius Severus later did. He could have annex some or all of Mesopotamia, or just ransacked the place and carted off shit tons of gold and slaves. But actually conquering Parthia was simply an impossibility.

Rome probably would've conquered to China if not for the frequent civil wars in the late republican period.

So many good generals wasted killing each other.

Would they have been as good if they hadn't.

Even Crassus could have but for some reason Crassus trusted the locals

The Parthians would've made Caesar their bitch. They were stable and prospering at the time of Caesar's death.

What was his, or the roman response to Parthian tactics?

Crassus' response was to curl up into ball and cry

Nobody knows for sure and anyone who says otherwise is talking out their ass.

Well yea, but did the romans have no defense for hit and run/heavy cavalry tactics?

Yeah, employ skirmishing cavalry of their own as auxiliary units

The force crassus' encountered wasn't even the main parthian army. His troops were just so exhausted because the guy literally walked around in circles for weeks that the parthians chose to engage. He employed no sensible tactics. His main tactic was to try and wait out if arrows which didn't work because they had a supply line replenishing them. His other tactic was to send his tired cav into a headlong charge towards cataphracts

waiting out of arrows was a tactic that usually worked

He probably would have made some kind of Faustian bargain with the Arab tribes in exchange for cavalry support so I'm gonna say yes but with terrible consequences.

Didn't he seek peace with Parthians?

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He was organizing legions to perform a large invasion of Parthia, according to Plutarch. After he died, the legions that were ready and waiting would be used as instruments of power in the upcoming conflicts

Could he have?

Probably.

WOULD he have?

I suspect it is less likely. I for no other reason, he was getting older, his health was starting to decline, and the Parthians were pretty fucking hard to beat. Recall how many years it took Caesar to beat the Gauls sufficiently to call it a win. He may not have lived enough years to accomplish conquest.

And then you had the conspirators and malcontents at home, who, having not assassinated him, would still be in Rome ready to Sulla his ass and undercut his ability to fight a successful war.

It seems to me, given all that, he may not have seriously been considering conquest at all. Pull off a big victory in a battle, proclaim himself Victor over the Parthians, accept some tribute and go home as the undisputed greatest general in Roman history may have been a sufficient definition of success for him.

That last is speculative, of course.

>What was his, or the roman response to Parthian tactics?

The usual response was to bleed, stop breathing, and then decompose.

Yeah, but s the other guy noted, Crassus had no knowledge of the Parthian resupply system they'd set up as a little surprise.

If he had trustworthy allies, he might have gotten some intelligence about this. But that is moot.

Parthia was a prospering nation at the time, with huge armies and incredible wealth, mainly from being in the center of the silk road.

Rome just suffered the worst civil war it had yet, but most historians agree the transition period of the late republic was when Rome was truly at it's peak from both an economic and a military standpoint. Still, after Caesar's death, his right hand man, Antony, which was with him on most of his battles and was known to be a capable if somewhat careless commander, suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Parthians, just like Crassus did before.

The Parthian battle strategy heavily relied on the use of it's cavalry, and the Romans had a reputation of having shit cavalry of their own and being fucked by armies of riders. Still, Caesar had the whole republic bowing to him, he could've raised auxiliaries in high number and achieve a composition specifically tailored against the Parthians, backed up by client states, promising better conditions to the Parthian vassals to convince them to switch sides the same way he did with many tribes in Gaul . I'd wager he would've won.

>Still, after Caesar's death, his right hand man, Antony, which was with him on most of his battles and was known to be a capable if somewhat careless commander, suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Parthians, just like Crassus did before.

True enough, but Crassus was not anywhere near the general Caesar was, and Anthony was not either. Especially given the likelihood that alcoholism was beginning to decrease Anthony's mental acuity.

"could caesar have"
almost any question with these words will have the answer "yes". there has literally never been a greater person before or after

I don’t think so he was getting really old, and if I remember correctly (basically I’m not sure) he was basically acting like an old guy who was past his prime...

Greatest!!! Just imagine how the celts woulda defined him especially the ones who were screaming when getting burned alive

>but most historians agree the transition period of the late republic was when Rome was truly at it's peak from both an economic and a military standpoint.

even over augustus' reign or the five good emperors?

Crassus was a rich man playing general