Caracalla, Emperor of Rome

Caracalla was a thoroughly disreputable Roman Emperor who, not surprisingly, came to a violent end.


A son who was not like his father

The study of the history of the Roman Empire throws up several instances of the sons of “good” emperors turning out to be very different in their own behaviour. One notorious example was Commodus, who succeeded Marcus Aurelius in 180. Only 31 years later history repeated itself when Caracalla gained the throne from his father Septimius Severus.

His real name was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (originally Lucius Septimius Bassianus), which is ironic considering the very different characters of the emperors who had borne those first two names. The name Caracalla was a nickname derived from the long tunic of Gaulish origin that he liked to wear. There is therefore an interesting throwback to another notorious emperor, in that the name Caligula was a nickname referring to the soldier’s boots that the earlier tyrant wore as a child.


Caracalla becomes Emperor

Caracalla was born at Lyons in 188, and was only aged ten when he accompanied his father on the latter’s expedition against the Parthians. He returned to Rome in 202, married, and in 208 joined his father on campaign in Britannia, along with his younger brother Geta. He was with his father when Septimius Severus died at York in February 211, and his father declared that the brothers would rule as joint emperors.

However, this plan soon went astray, because the brothers could agree on very little. Caracalla plotted to assassinate Geta and succeeded at the second attempt in December 211. Thereafter he reigned as sole emperor, having also purged the Roman establishment of anyone suspected of being on Geta’s side. These included his own wife and members of her family, and perhaps as many as a thousand others.


A tyrant on the loose

Caracalla spent much of his six-year reign touring the empire, and being every bit as severe on the provinces as on Rome itself. In 214 he visited Gaul, Germany, Dacia and Thrace, giving himself the name Alemannicus after a successful campaign against the Alemanni.

In 215 he went to Syria and Egypt, slaughtering perhaps as many as 20,000 people in Alexandria for not showing enough respect to him and his mother.


An undignified end

In April 217 he set out to wage war on the Parthians, but was assassinated while en route. The emperor had stopped to relieve himself at the side of the road, for which the members of his personal guard stood aside to give him privacy. However, one of their number had a personal grudge against Caracalla and took the opportunity to stab him to death.

Despite this scenario, it is almost certain that this was more than just a personal matter, and that a larger plot was being hatched. The assassin was quickly killed and was thus unable to be questioned. The prefect of the guard, Macrinus, immediately declared himself emperor in place of Caracalla.


Caracalla’s legacy

Caracalla was clearly a thoroughly bad emperor, in terms of his tyranny, and his death was mourned by few, if any. He may have bought a degree of popularity with his soldiers by increasing their pay, but this caused a serious drain on the economy, as did the baths project mentioned below. This expense was paid for in part by granting Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire, a device that made everyone eligible for the inheritance tax which was now set at ten per cent. Another economic move was to debase the silver currency by twenty-five per cent, as an anti-inflationary measure.

The major project of his reign, for which his name is best remembered, is the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, although he merely completed what his father had started. The ruins can still be seen today, and the vast size of the complex fully appreciated. The main building was about 750 feet long, with the baths able to accommodate 1,600 people at a time. It is estimated that up to 8,000 people a day may have visited the baths. The decoration was lavish, with huge mosaics and massive statues adorning the building. The complex included two large libraries and a public garden. It is estimated that around a million bricks went into its construction, employing 9,000 workers for five years.

In a way, Caracalla did achieve a measure of stability, but it was at the expense of creating much human misery wherever he went. His biggest mistake was to make himself detested by the Senate and, although the Senate was not particularly powerful at this time, very few emperors who defied it died in their beds. Caracalla was one of many who did not.

© John Welford