Caracalla

Caracalla (198-217 CE) was the Roman Emperor remembered for being one of the Roman Empire’s most tyrannical Emperors.

1. BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

NAME:
- Lucius Septimius Bassianus
CARACALLA’S DATES OF REIGN AS EMPEROR:
- 198 CE to 8 April 217 CE.
CARACALLA’S DATE OF BIRTH AND DEATH:
- Born on 4 April 188 CE. Died on 8 April 217 CE, aged 29.
PLACE OF BIRTH AND DEATH:
- Born in Lugdunum, Gallia Lugdunensis. Died near Edessa.
CARACALLA’S PREDECESSOR:
- Septimius Severus
CARACALLA’S SUCCESSOR:
- Macrinus, the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard.
HEIR TO THE THRONE BECAUSE:
- He was a member of the Severan Dynasty.
DIED PEACEFULLY OR ASSASSINATED:
- He was assassinated by Julius Martialis, one of his Imperial Bodyguards on board ship near Carrhae during his Parthian Campaign, probably in collusion with Macrinus.
WHERE BURIED:
- His ashes were laid in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. He was deified by Macrinus in 218 CE.
CARACALLA WAS FAMOUS BECAUSE:
- He was the one of the Roman Empire’s most Tyrannical Emperors.
- He assassinated his brother Geta.
- He introduced a coin called the Antoninianus.
- He passed the Edict of Caracalla giving the Provinces Roman Citizenship.
- He built the Baths of Caracalla.
MONUMENTS
- Baths of Caracalla.

Caracalla as a soldier:
- Caracalla was a soldier first, and effectively left the Empire to be run by his mother, Julia Domnia, who stayed in Rome.
- With his brother Geta, he had accompanied his father Septimius Severus and fought in his Caledonian Campaign in Scotland.
- He conducted a war against the Alemanni and an invasion of Parthia. He thought of himself as the new Alexander the Great.

Caracalla murders his brother Geta:
- His father, the Emperor Septimius Severus, named both his sons co-Emperor. In Dec 211 CE Caracalla had his brother Geta murdered, who had-been co-Emperor with him since their father’s death on the 4th Feb 211 CE.

Mass Executions:
- He declared a Damnatio Memoriae on his brother Geta and simultaneously had up to 20,000 people executed in Rome.
- He conducted massacres in Alexandria, Egypt, and in the East during his Campaign against Parthia.

War against the Alemanni (213-214 CE):
- The Alamanni crossed into Raetia after overrunning the Raetian Limes. Caracalla defeated the Alemanni and their allies.
- The consequence of his victory was that he saved the Agri Decumates for another two decades.

War against Parthia (215 CE):
- Caracalla was obsessed with Alexander the Great. He restyled his Roman army on the Greek Phalanx and invaded Parthia, on the pretext the Parthian king had refused to let him marry his daughter.
- His army conducted massacres east of the Tigris, then withdrew for the winter in 216 CE.
- In 217 CE, before he could start a new invasion, Caracalla was assassinated. Rome was later obliged to pay war reparations to Parthia as a result of this bungled war.

Assassination:
- In 217 CE, whilst preparing for a new invasion into Parthia, Caracalla was assassinated by Julius Martialis.
- Julius was one of the Imperial Bodyguards on board ship near Carrhae during his Parthian Campaign. Macrinus was probably in collusion with Julius Martialis, as Macrinus then declared himself emperor.

Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome