His father was a quaestor to Julius Caesar, and a son of Marcus Licinius Crassus possibly by his wife Tertulla (widow of an elder brother killed in December 87 BC).
Appointed proconsul of Macedonia in 29 BC, he moved against the Bastarnae, a tribe of mixed ethnicity (Scythian, Dacian, and Germanic) who had crossed the Danube and threatened Roman allies in neighboring Thrace.
[4] By Roman tradition, he was thus entitled to the Spolia opima, but Octavian blocked the privilege, apparently wishing to downplay the successes of individual generals in favor of his own prestige.
It is assumed that Crassus also fought against the Dacians but that this victory was downplayed by order of Octavian who did not want a rival to get the prestige connected with this military success.
[7] A fictional version of Crassus is portrayed by actor Lex Shrapnel in the Sky Atlantic television series Domina.