CARACALLA 198AD Marcianopolis ASCLEPIUS Medicine God w Serpent Roman Coin i57534

Caesar: 
195-198 A.D. (under
Septimius Severus
)
Augustus: 198-217 A.D. (198-209 A.D. with

Septimius Severus
) (209-211 A.D. with

Septimius Severus
and

Geta
) (211 A.D. with

Geta
) (211-217 A.D. Sole Reign)

Son of
Septimius Severus
and

Julia Domna
| Brother of

Geta
| Husband of

Plautilla
| Nephew of

Julia Maesa
| Cousin of

Julia Soaemias
and

Julia Mamaea
|

Caracalla (Latin:
Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus;4 
April 188 – 8 April 217) was
Roman emperor
from 198 to 217 The eldest son of
Septimius Severus
, for a short time he ruled 
jointly with his younger brother
Geta
until he had him murdered in 211. 
Caracalla is remembered as one of the most notorious and unpleasant of emperors 
because of the massacres and persecutions he authorized and instigated 
throughout the Empire.

Caracalla’s reign was also notable for the
Constitutio Antoniniana
(also called the 
Edict of Caracalla), granting

Roman citizenship
to all freemen throughout the
Roman Empire
, which according to historian
Cassius Dio
, was done for the purposes of 
raising tax revenue. He is also one of the emperors who commissioned a large 
public bath-house (thermae) 
in Rome. The remains of the
Baths of Caracalla
are still one of the major 
tourist attractions of the Italian capital.

Early life

Caracalla, of mixed
Punic
–Roman 
and Syrian
descent, was born Lucius Septimius 
Bassianus in Lugdunum
,

Gaul (now Lyon
,
France
), the son of the later Emperor Septimius 
Severus and
Julia Domna
. At the age of seven, his name was 
changed to Marcus Aurelius Septimius Bassianus Antoninus to create a connection 
to the family of the philosopher emperor
Marcus Aurelius
. He was later given the
Caracallanickname
, 
which referred to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore and which he made 
fashionable.

Reign (211)

Murder of brother 
(211)

His father died in 211 at
Eboracum
(now

York) while on campaign in northern Britain. Caracalla was present 
and was then proclaimed emperor by the troops along with his brother
Publius Septimius Antoninus Geta
. Caracalla 
suspended the
campaign in Caledonia
and soon ended all 
military activity, as both brothers wanted to be sole ruler thus making 
relations between them increasingly hostile. When they tried to rule the Empire 
jointly they actually considered dividing it in halves, but were persuaded not 
to do so by their mother.

Then in December 211 at a reconciliation meeting arranged by their mother 
Julia, Caracalla had Geta assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard loyal 
to himself, Geta dying in his mother’s arms. Caracalla then persecuted and 
executed most of Geta’s supporters and ordered a
damnatio memoriae
pronounced by the Senate 
against his brother’s memory.

Geta’s image was simply removed from all coinage, paintings and statues, 
leaving a blank space next to Caracalla’s. Among those executed were his former 
cousin-wife
Fulvia Plautilla
, his unnamed daughter with 
Plautilla along with her brother and other members of the family of his former 
father-in-law
Gaius Fulvius Plautianus
. Plautianus had 
already been executed for alleged treachery against emperor Severus in 205.

About the time of his accession he ordered the
Roman currency
devalued, the silver purity of 
the denarius
was decreased from 56.5% to 51.5%, the 
actual silver weight dropping from 1.81 grams to 1.66 grams – though the overall 
weight slightly increased. In 215 he introduced the
antoninianus
, a “double denarius” weighing 
5.1 grams and containing 2.6 grams of silver – a purity of 52%.

In the Roman provinces

In 213, Caracalla went north to the German frontier to deal with the
Alamanni
tribesmen who were raiding in the
Agri Decumates
. The Romans did defeat the 
Alamanni in battle near the river
Main
, but failed to win a decisive victory over 
them. After a peace agreement was brokered and a large bribe payment given to 
the invaders, the Senate conferred upon him the empty title of Germanicus 
Maximus. He also acquired the surname Alemannicus at this time. The 
following year the tyrant traveled to the East, to Syria and Egypt never to 
return to Rome.

Gibbon
in his work describes Caracalla as “the 
common enemy of mankind”. He left the capital in 213, about a year after the 
murder of Geta, and spent the rest of his reign in the provinces, particularly 
those of the East. He kept the Senate and other wealthy families in check by 
forcing them to construct, at their own expense, palaces, theaters, and places 
of entertainment throughout the periphery. New and heavy taxes were levied 
against the bulk of the population, with additional fees and confiscations 
targeted at the wealthiest families.

When the inhabitants of
Alexandria
heard Caracalla’s claims that he had 
killed Geta in self-defense, they produced a satire mocking this as well as 
Caracalla’s other pretensions. In 215, Caracalla savagely responded to this 
insult by slaughtering the deputation of leading citizens who had unsuspectingly 
assembled before the city to greet his arrival, and then unleashed his troops 
for several days of looting and plunder in Alexandria. According to historian 
Cassius Dio, over 20,000 people were killed.^{[citation 
needed]}

Domestic Roman policy

Affiliation with 
the army

During his reign as emperor, Caracalla raised the annual pay of an average 
legionary to 675
denarii
and lavished many benefits on the 
army which he both feared and admired, as instructed by his father Septimius 
Severus who had told him on his deathbed to always mind the soldiers and ignore 
everyone else. Caracalla did manage to win the trust of the military with 
generous pay rises and popular gestures, like marching on foot among the 
ordinary soldiers, eating the same food, and even grinding his own flour with 
them.

With the soldiers, “He forgot even the proper dignity of his rank, 
encouraging their insolent familiarity,” according to Gibbon. “The vigour of the 
army, instead of being confirmed by the severe discipline of the camps, melted 
away in the luxury of the cities.”

His official portraiture marks a break with the detached images of the 
philosopher–emperors who preceded him: his close-cropped haircut is that of a 
soldier, his pugnacious scowl a realistic and threatening presence. This rugged 
soldier–emperor iconic archetype was adopted by most of the following emperors 
who depended on the support of the troops to rule, like his eventual successor
Maximinus Thrax
.

Seeking to secure his own legacy, Caracalla also commissioned one of Rome’s 
last major architectural achievements, the
Baths of Caracalla
, the 2nd largest public 
baths ever built in ancient Rome. The main room of the baths was larger than
St. Peter’s Basilica
, and could easily 
accommodate over 2,000 Roman citizens at one time. The bath house opened in 216, 
complete with libraries, private rooms and outdoor tracks. Internally it was 
lavishly decorated with gold-trimmed marble floors, columns, mosaics and 
colossal statuary.

Edict of 
Caracalla (212)

The
Constitutio Antoniniana
(Latin: “Constitution 
[or Edict] of Antoninus”) (also called Edict of Caracalla) was an edict 
issued in 212 by Caracalla which declared that all free men in the Roman Empire 
were to be given full Roman citizenship and all free women in the Empire were 
given the same rights as Roman women.

Before 212, for the most part only inhabitants of Italia held full Roman 
citizenship. Colonies of Romans established in other provinces, Romans (or their 
descendants) living in provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout 
the Empire, and small numbers of local nobles (such as kings of client 
countries) held full citizenship also. Provincials, on the other hand, were 
usually non-citizens, although many held the
Latin Right
.

The Roman Historian
Cassius Dio
contended that the sole motivation 
for the edict was a desire to increase state revenue.At the time aliens did not 
have to pay most taxes that were required of citizens, so although nominally 
Caracalla was elevating their legal status, he was more importantly expanding 
the Roman tax base. The effect of this was to remove the distinction that 
citizenship had held since the foundation of Rome and as such the act had a 
profound effect upon the fabric of Roman society.

War with Parthia

According to the historian Herodian, in 216, Caracalla tricked the Parthians 
into believing that he accepted a marriage and peace proposal, but then had the 
bride and guests slaughtered after the wedding celebrations. The thereafter 
ongoing conflict and skirmishes became known as the
Parthian war of Caracalla
.

Assassination (217)

The Roman Empire during the reign of Caracalla.

While travelling from
Edessa
to continue the war with
Parthia
, he was assassinated while urinating at 
a roadside near
Carrhae
on 8 April 217 (4 days after his 29th 
birthday), by Julius Martialis, an officer of his personal bodyguard.
Herodian
says that Martialis’ brother had been 
executed a few days earlier by Caracalla on an unproven charge; Cassius Dio, on 
the other hand, says that Martialis was resentful at not being promoted to the 
rank of centurion. The escort of the emperor gave him privacy to relieve 
himself, and Martialis then ran forward and killed Caracalla with a single sword 
stroke. While attempting to flee, the bold assassin was then quickly dispatched 
by a Scythian archer of the Imperial Guard.

Caracalla was succeeded by his
Praetorian Guard Prefect
,
Macrinus
, who (according to Herodian) was most 
probably responsible for having the emperor assassinated.

His nickname

According to
Aurelius Victor
in his Epitome de Caesaribus, 
the agnomen
“Caracalla” refers to a Gallic
cloak
that Caracalla adopted as a personal 
fashion, which spread to his army and his court. Cassius Dio and the
Historia Augusta
agree that his nickname 
was derived from his cloak, but do not mention its country of origin.

Legendary king of 
Britain

Geoffrey of Monmouth
‘s legendary
History of the Kings of Britain
makes 
Caracalla a king of Britain, referring to him by his actual name “Bassianus”, 
rather than the nickname Caracalla. In the story, after Severus’s death the 
Romans wanted to make Geta king of Britain, but the Britons preferred Bassianus 
because he had a British mother. The two brothers fought a battle in which Geta 
was killed and Bassianus succeeded to the throne. He ruled until he was betrayed 
by his Pictish
allies and overthrown by
Carausius
, who, according to Geoffrey, was a 
Briton, rather than the historically much later
Menapian
Gaul that he actually was.