Eran Spahbodh Rustaham Suren-Pahlav (c.84 BCE-54 BCE) was a Parthian general during the reign of Orodes II. By Western accounts, he is known only as "the Suren" or "Surena" (Persian ﺎﻧﺭﻮﺳ). He was the son of Arash and Massis.
He was the Parthian general who defeated Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae. He was executed shortly after the Battle of Carrhae due to the jealousy of his king. It is believed that the character Rostam in Ferdowsi's epic The Shahnameh was based on Surena.
In one of the essays in Moralia, Plutarch wrote about Surena:
- For Suren was no ordinary person; but in fortune, family and honour the first after the king; and in point of courage and capacity, as well as size and beauty, superior to the Parthians of his time. If he went only on an excursion into the country, he had a thousand camels to carry his baggage and two hundred carriages for his concubines. He was attended by a thousand heavy-armed horse, and many more of the light-armed rode before him. Indeed his vassals and slaves made up a body of cavalry little less than ten thousand. He had the hereditary privilege in his family of putting the diadem upon the king's head, when he was crowned. When Orodes was driven from throne, he restored him; and it was he who conquered for him the great city of Selucia, being the first scale the wall, and beating off the enemy with his own hand. Though he was not then thirty years old, his discernment was strong, and his counsel esteemed the best.
Alternate Spellings: Surena, Suren, Sourena, Soorena, Sorena
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