The Execution of Crassus. What's to be the right wing of a big triptych I have going. The left wing being my rendition of the cleansing of the temple motif, titled "Who Elected the Oligarchs?"

A little background on guy - Crassus was the richest man of his time, the final years of the Roman Republic. His vainglorious greed led him to invade Parthia because these soft-handed rich boys are always sensitive about their masculine credibility. Of course, he did not seek a formal declaration of war from the senate. Well, the legend goes that following his army's utter defeat at Carrhae, more of a massacre than a battle, the Parthians sent a message through time to you and me by pouring molten gold down his greedy old throat. Funny enough, the heart of the Parthian empire was largely situated in modern day Iran. So, one could say that the self-obsessed ultra-wealthy have been going there to die for a very long time.

My triptych will be a gift for those devout followers of the Americanized Jesus. I was thinking, rather than pretending homeboy said the opposite of everything quoted in gospels about the accumulation of wealth or caring for your fellow man, they could adopt a new messiah more in line with their own conception of reality. They can ditch the cleansing of the temple version of a savior depicted on the left wing, the sell all of your possessions and give the money to the poor before coming to follow me version, and adopt one more aligned with their own vicious pursuit of greed and vanity. They even get to keep wearing pendants of a man being tortured to death but now it will be totally justified for the thing to be cast in gold. No need to melt your stash and feed the homeless, you can feed it to Crassus guilt-free.

C-A P

4/17/26