Chapters
| Name | Lucius Septimius Bassianus, from 195 CE: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus |
|---|---|
| Ruled as | Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Augustus |
| Reign | 4 February 211 – 18 April 217 CE. |
| Born | 4 April 188 CE |
| Died | 8 April 217 CE |
Caracalla was born on 4 April 188 CE in Lugdunum (today’s Lyon, France) as Lucius Septimius Bassianus. Then his name was changed to: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus, Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus, due to the fact that his father wanted to connect his family with the Antonines. Caracalla was the Roman emperor ruling from 211-217 CE. He was supported by praetorians and part of the army; he became famous for his cruelty and bloody spectacles.
Caracalla was the son of Emperor Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. His wife from 202 to 205 CE was Publia Fulvia Plautilla, daughter of Plautian – Commander of the Praetorian Guard and Septimius Severus’s favourite. Interestingly, Caracalla honestly hated his wife – for unknown reasons. After discovering the Plautian’s plot, his daughter was exiled to Lipari and killed c. 212 CE at the order of Caracalla. The relationship was childless.
Nickname Caracalla came from the name of a Gallic coat with a hood (called caracalla), which he liked to wear during the expeditions on the Rhine and the Danube. Officially, however, this nickname was not used. In the sources, he was referred to as Antonius. Cassius Dio describes Caracalla as Tarautas, referring to the famous gladiator from that time.
Reign
Caracalla was a co-emperor along with his father, Septimius Sever since 198 CE. The same title was given to his brother c. 209 or 210 CE. After his father’s death on 4 February 211 CE, Caracalla co-ruled with his brother Geta for a year. The brothers ended their father’s campaign in Caledonia and made peace, keeping the Roman border on the line demarcated by Hadrian’s Wall.
While returning to Tome, together with the ashes of his father, both brothers constantly quarrelled. Their mutual hatred was described by Herodian:
His sons, who were now young men, quarreled continually on the return journey to Rome with their mother. They did not use the same lodgings or even dine together, since they were extremely suspicious of all they ate and drank; each feared that the other would secretly get prior access to the kitchens and bribe the servants to use poison.
This fear led the youths to complete the journey with even greater haste; for they believed that they would be safer in Rome where, by dividing the palace between them, each could manage his own affairs as he pleased in the most spacious dwelling in the entire city.– Herodian, History of the Roman Empire, IV.1
Soon the Senate divided into two groups: supporters of educated Geta and supporters of simple and fun-loving Caracalla. Palatine was also divided into two parts, each resembling a fortified fortress. It was even planned to divide the Empire into two parts (the border was to be the Bosphorus), but their mother Julia Domna kept them from doing that.
But the hatred and dissension between them continued to grow. If it became necessary to appoint a governor or a magistrate, each wished to select a friend for the post. If they sat as judges, they handed down dissenting opinions, often to the ruin of those on trial; for rivalry counted more than justice to these two. Even at the shows the brothers took opposite sides. They tried every sort of intrigue; each, for example, attempted to persuade the other’s cooks and cupbearers to administer some deadly poison. It was not easy for either one to succeed in these attempts, however: both were exceedingly careful and took many precautions.
– Herodian, History of the Roman Empire, IV.4
Eventually, in 212 CE, it was decided to reconcile both brothers. Julia Domna’s chambers were chosen as the meeting place. There, the older of them, Caracalla, ordered the Praetorian Guard to assassinate Geta, who was killed in his mother’s hands. From 212 CE it was possible to say that Rome already had one ruler.
Caracalla was considered to be a despotic and cruel ruler. He made numerous purges in the Senate. He persecuted those senators who condemned the murder of his brother. In 212 CE he ordered to the killing of the famous Roman lawyer Aemilius Papinianus as he did not want to write a legal argument justifying this assassination. According to the message in Historia Augusta (8, 6), Papinianus was supposed to say: “murder can not be as easily justified as easy it is to make, and murder is one thing, and another – accusation of innocent death.”
