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However, Crassus was overconfident and believed that his army was invincible. The Romans outnumbered the Parthians and their allies by up to four to one. The Parthians were mainly cavalry and they had little infantry. They were led by a general of genius Surena, who came from Central Asia. Suren adopted guerrilla tactics at first and used his superior cavalry to harass and inflict casualties on the Romans.<ref>Sicker, p.150</ref>. Surena decided to confront the advancing Crassus at the small town of Carrhae in modern Turkey. The Parthians used their cavalry archers to launch hit and runs attacks on the Romans who were in tight formations. Crassus hoped that the Parthians would run out of arrows, but Suren used Bactrian camels to re-supply his forces with arrows. Under the relentless showers of arrows, the Roman legionnaires could not move, and their supplies ran low.<ref>Sampson, p. 117</ref>
According to Plutarch "Now if they had hopes that the enemy would exhaust their missiles and desist from battle or fight at close quarters, the Romans held out; but when they perceived that many camels laden with arrows were at hand, from which the Parthians who first encircled them took a fresh supply.’</ref>, Plutarch, Life of Crassus, xxi </ref> The Roman commander repeatedly ordered that his army move forward and engage with the enemy. However, each time the legions advanced the Parthian cavalry retreated and firing arrows as they did. This caused many casualties among the Romans and their morale began to collapse.<ref>Sicker, p. 149</ref> It is claimed that many of the Parthian arrows could pierce armor and pinned Romans to the ground. After several days, the army of Crassus was on the verge of mutiny. They forced Crassus to negotiate with Suren. At these negotiations a tenative agreement was reached which could have have allowed the Romans to withdraw safely from Parthian territory in return for the evacuation of several Roman garrisons from east of the Euphrates (in modern Iraq).
However, during the meeting between the Roman and the Parthian commanders one of the soldiers of Suren seized the reins of Crassus horse and this lead to a skirmish.<ref>Plutarch, xxiii</ref> In this Crassus and his son were killed, leaving the Romans leaderless and they were effectively cut off in enemy territory.<ref>Sampson, p. 119</ref> Surena then ordered his heavy cavalry the cataphracts (the forerunners of the medieval knight) to charge into the Roman lines. They were ineffective, but they caused panic among the legionnaires. The Romans began a disorganized retreat and they came under constant attack from the forces of Suren. Many Romans made it back safely to Syria, but it is estimated that some 20,000 legionnaires were killed and another 10,000 captured during the chaotic retreat. Those captured were paraded through the Parthian Capital and later made to work as slaves in Central Asia.<ref>Sicker, p. 151</ref>
