Ben Kane

So in the civil wars in the sort of 20 years before or 15 to 20 years before this, his father had committed suicide when he wouldn't back Marius.

And so the young Crassus had had to flee to Spain and he then ended up joining the army of Sulla who was marching on Rome.

And when Sulla was attacking Rome,

And his army was losing the battle to take Rome.

It was Crassus on the right flank who actually won the battle for Sulla.

But he then fell foul of Sulla, although made himself very rich during the proscriptions.

So, hey, you supported the wrong guy.

So did you.

We're taking your property.

And he was very good at doing that and indeed may have added someone's name to the list who...

hadn't been a supporter of the previous regime.

He was also astute.

Fire was a really big problem in ancient Rome because most buildings were made of wood and streets were really narrow, so fire spread very readily.

No fire brigade, no aqueducts at this time.

He had his own private fire brigade of slaves, so when a street was busy burning down, he'd come along

Let's say there was a wine merchants at the end of the street, which wasn't burning yet.

And he would be there with his fire brigade of slaves with, you know, instruments to pull down buildings to stop a fire from spreading.

And the wine merchant would say, well, save my property.

And he'd say, of course, I'll buy your, I'll buy your business from you for 10% of what it's worth.

It's, I'm going to take your business.