The Real Severans I - City of No Brotherly Love: The Murder of Geta

“Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, scorn all others”

Dio 76.15.2

This is the advice that the emperor Septimius Severus reputedly gave his sons and heirs, Caracalla and Geta, during what would be his final illness in early 211. Severan propaganda, such as on the Severan Tondo, would have it that the imperial dynasty was indeed harmonious. The campaign in Britain during which Septimius died was also used to present an imperial family that worked well together - Caracalla serving as second-in-command and Geta leading the administration and bureaucracy (Herodian III.14.9).

However, this propaganda was hiding the exact opposite - Caracalla and Geta hated each other. Having them both close by in Britain was perhaps less about try to get them to work together, and more about Severus looking to prevent them from acting on this hatred through his imperial/paternal influence of his sons - “Respect for his father and fear of him kept [Caracalla] from taking drastic action” (Herodian III.13.2; cf. Dio 78.1.3)

Given this pre-existing antipathy between the brothers*, it was not the first time that Severus had tried to advise them to “be harmonious” - indeed, he had “tried constantly to reconcile his sons and persuade them to live in peace and harmony” (Herodian III.13.3). Severus told his sons that the empire was so financially and militarily strong that they would have need or fear of nothing, so long as they worked together (Herodian III.13.3, 5).

Severus himself, in a rather obvious case of hindsight reporting/invention, had read a horoscope cast for Geta, summing it up with how “it seems to me strange... that our Geta is destined to be a deified emperor, for in his horoscope I see nothing imperial” (HA Geta 2.6)...

This would be because Caracalla would only be able or willing to follow two parts of his father’s dictum - soldierly enrichment and almost universal scorn - harmony would be beyond the brothers. Even before they had departed Britain, Caracalla had made an attempt to bribe the soldiery to accept him as sole emperor already behind them (Herodian III.15.5). Virtually everyone in the imperial retinue of any standing tried to reconcile the brothers, with Caracalla insincerely agreeing (Herodian III.15.6-7) - intimating that Geta was more sincere?

But the journey back to Rome through Britain, Gaul and Italy revealed that even a sincere attempt to reconcile would likely have been unsuccessful. The brothers “quarrelled continually... They did not use the same lodgings or even dine together, since they were extremely suspicious of all they ate and drank” (Herodian IV.1.1). On the presence of their mother, Julia Domna, allowed them to be in each other’s presence for any duration.

The joint reign was not off the best of starts… and in Rome itself, it was met with poor omens. One of the consuls (Titus Sextius Magius Lateranus or Cuspius Rufinus, the consuls of 197) set out to superintend a Senate-decreed sacrifice to Concord and the other gods for the concord between the new emperors - was their discord already well-known? Somehow the consul and the assistants he was to meet got lost in the streets and “spent nearly the entire night in searching for one another, so that the sacrifice could not be performed then” (Dio 78.1.4-5). Furthermore, two wolves were found running around the Capitol for two nights - both were chased off, with one killed in the Forum, while the other was later killed outside the pomerium (Dio 78.1.6). This seems a bit too on the nose... There is significant benefit of hindsight to this ‘omen’.

The fraternal enmity was such that when they arrived in Rome, numerous aspects of the imperial administration were riven in two - they gave dissenting decisions over trials, governors and magistrates, split the imperial palace in such a way they would never have to meeting and finally conceived a plan to divide the empire. Herodian IV.3.5-7 presenting a thought-out plan - Caracalla would hold Europe, plus western North Africa, with a new capital at Byzantium; Geta would get the Asian provinces, Egypt and possibly Cyrenaica, with a capital initially at Chalcedon, but then to be moved to either Antioch and Alexandria, and a Senate carved out of men from Asia sitting in the Roman Senate. The only obstacle to this division was Julia Domna, and because she did not want to have to choose a side in the dispute, the plan was shelved (Herodian IV.3.8-9).

With the division scuppered, the sources would have it that Caracalla moved all in on doing away with his brother. He had wanted to do the deed during Saturnalia, but could not achieve it, perhaps because he had made his intention so obvious as to limit opportunities to strike, with “many soldiers and athletes… guarding Geta” (Dio 78.2.2).

With his target so well defended, Caracalla needed a way to have that guard lowered and he achieved that by asking their mother, Julia Domna, to call them together for a further attempt to reconcile them. Geta acquiesced to her request, entering Julia’s apartment without any guards. Immediately, he was set upon by a group of centurions loyal to Caracalla and hacked to death. Seeing these men, Geta reputedly ran to his mother’s side crying out “Mother that didst bear me, mother that didst bear me, help! I am being murdered” (Dio 78.2.3). Such was the fury of the attack, that Julia herself suffered a wound on her hand, but she did not notice it in the horror of her son being butchered in her arms. Caracalla would not allow her to mourn, rather she would have to celebrate the murder of her youngest son...

Herodian IV.4.2-3 is far more blunt in his retelling of Geta’s demise…

“Finally, unable to endure the situation any longer and maddened by the desire for sole power, Caracalla decided to act and advance his cause by sword or slaughter or die in a manner befitting his birth. 3. Since his plotting was unsuccessful, he thought he must try some desperate and dangerous scheme…”

…except there then is a gap in the surviving manuscript, so we are not completely certain as to what this ‘scheme’ was. It may just have been the same as that recorded by Dio, but there is some intimation from Herodian that Carcalla carried out the deed personally, rather than having soldiers do it.

Thus, Geta died in his mother’s arms at just 22, with Caracalla ordering the thorough damnatio memoriae of his murdered brother, along with the deaths of 20,000 of his supposed followers (cf. Dio 78.4.1).

Despite the damning of his memory, Geta did get a biography in the Historia Augusta, but large parts of it are lacking in any detail about him personally, being full of omens, name changes, unnecessarily long lists, and repeating material already listed in the biographies of Severus and Caracalla. This almost certainly reflects the lack of historical information recorded about Geta during and shortly after his life. The author of his HA biography even reflects this issue - “there is not much to relate in the life of a man who was removed from human affairs before he could take the imperial power conjointly with his brother” (HA Geta 1.2).

In the Historia Augusta biography, we hear that Geta was handsome, brusque but not disrespectful (both traits he likely got from his father), incontinent in love, gluttonous, lover of food and spiced wine (HA Geta 4.1), to the extent of even asking for meals made of foods with the same first letter (HA Geta 5.7). Food and drink would seem to be some of the pleasures that Herodian III.13.6 suggests that Geta had an “insatiable appetite for”. Other such pleasures were dressing brightly and receiving gifts.

Despite that paternal brusqueness and failure in love, Geta does come across as a much more gentle persona that his brother and father. That may have been helped by his having a slight stammer and a melodic voice. He showed affectionate towards his friends and particularly Julia Domna and demonstrated a combination of empathy and insight when Severus planned a massacre of opponents, stating that so many would have to be killed to root out all opposition that “there will be more in the state to mourn than to make merry at our victory” (HA Geta 4.3). Geta also seems to have been rather studious, conversing with intellectuals and writers and posing them puzzles to show off he had read ancient texts and taken in the sayings favoured by his father.

Beyond the Historia Augusta, when searching for hints as to Geta’s character, we find ourselves at the mercy of generalisations and a lack of clarity, particular when it comes to Geta being overshadowed by the presence of his father and then subsumed by his monstrous brother. Indeed, if we were to think that Geta has not been subsumed by and/or lumped together with the character of Caracalla then at various points in the records of Dio and Herodian, we see Geta being a far less savoury character than we might otherwise think.

Herodian presents both sons ignoring Severus, and spending their time in ‘reprehensible pursuits’, both with “an insatiable appetite for pleasures” (Herodian III.13.6). Here, Geta is as prone to new vices as Caracalla. The dissension between the brothers is also seemingly a two-way street, with there being “open hostility” and mutual plotting and deception (Herodian IV.3.1, 4; Dio 78.2.1, 4). He also appears willing of letting his rivalry with Caracalla overshadow the running of the empire: “rivalry counted more than justice to these two” (Herodian IV.4.1).

Do the accusations of Dio and Herodian of reciprocal hate and plotting really represent the facts? Was Geta planning any sort of strike against Caracalla? Could it be the sources filling gaps in their knowledge of Geta’s character with the paranoid claims of Caracalla? Or could it even show how successful Caracalla was in controlling the narrative about his brother after the murder, presenting the deceased as the instigator?

While we might be lacking in in-depth information on him as a person, it can be read in the records of Dio, Herodian and the Historia Augusta that Geta was not a total bystander in the events that overtook the imperial family in the aftermath of Septimius Severus’ death. At the  very least he was involved in self-preservation efforts, which could have meant there was some truth to Caracalla’s claims that his brother was plotting against him.

While possibly a reflection of overwhelming dislike of Caracalla, even in his short reign, it was shown that Geta was well liked by various sections of Roman society. The Severan army in Britain refused to acclaim Caracalla as sole emperor due to their like of Geta, as well as the respect they held for Severus. Geta was regarded as handsome, looking particularly like his father (Dio 78.1.3), which surely helped his popularity with the army. But we should not rule out that Geta had intentionally curried favour with the legions for self-preservation purposes or even for his own more nefarious ends. Geta’s popularity with the army may be reflected not only in the unwillingness of the army in Britain refusing to ignore Geta’s accession, but in the sheer level of bribe Caracalla had to give the Praetorian Guard in order to placate them in the aftermath of the murder - 2,500 denarii per soldier and a 50% increase in their rations (Herodian IV.4.7). That said, initially when Caracalla claimed that Geta was behind a plot to kill him (Herodian IV.4.6; HA Caracalla 2.4, 5, 11), he was believed, which could suggest that some saw Geta capable of fratricide. The bribe and promises of more must have helped secure praetorian and military support when it became common knowledge that Geta had been murdered at the instigation of Caracalla (Herodian IV.4.8).

Also demonstrating that Geta was not idle during the 11 months of his joint reign with Caracalla is how he was able to build support amongst the support from the Senate and civic leaders of Rome. Both brothers solicited the support of the Senate, but “the majority favoured Geta, who showed some evidence of a reasonable disposition, since he conducted himself mildly and moderately toward those who visited him, and devoted his time to the more serious pursuits” (Herodian IV.3.2, 3), such as learning and exercise. While to say that this brought him “the friendship and good will of most of the Romans” (Herodian IV.3.3) is hyperbole, Geta certainly appears to have been more well liked (or at the very least less disliked) than Caracalla by various levels of Roman society.

And it could be that Geta’s popularity are what drove Caracalla to deify the brother he had just had murdered, although HA Geta 2.8-9 claims that Geta was deified because Caracalla feared “being branded a tyrant because of his act of fratricide”. In actuality, it seems that the very notion that Geta was deified by Caracalla is incorrect, given the lack of evidence for it, that fact that he had Geta’s memory damned and what appears to be a general lack of care for his own dire reputation amongst any group apart from the army. In that, Caracalla was definitely living up to those two out of three parts of his father’s dictum…

*If there was so much tumult between his sons, why did Severus decide on a joint succession?

There was precedent for joint succession in Roman imperial history. While Caligula had it overturned, Tiberius’ will had called for the joint succession of Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus, while Claudius’ last will, suppressed by Nero and his senatorial supporters, may have called for a joint rule between Nero and Britannicus. Hadrian’s succession plan had been for him to be succeeded by Antoninus Pius, who would then be followed by both Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, a plan that the Senate looked to ignore, only for Marcus to demand that Lucius succeed with him. Marcus Aurelius might have planned for a dual succession, with not only Commodus but another of his sons, Marcus Annius Verus, being elevated to Caesar on 12 October 166 (HA Com. 10). Had Annius not died young, we might have had two emperors upon the death of Marcus Aurelius. It could be that Severus was intentionally following the outline of these proposed Hadrianic-Antonine succession plans. He had done much in his rise to power to connect himself to the Antonine dynasty (more on that in a later blog), including his final resting place being the Mausoleum of Hadrian. In terms of precedent though, the only other time in the 250 years of Roman imperial dynastic history that an emperor had two living sons when he died, Vespasian had was only directly succeeded by his eldest, Titus, rather than a joint succession between Titus and Domitian. Might we suggest then that the main reason that Severus planned a joint succession was as an attempt to quell the fighting between his sons? If so, it obviously did not work…

Bibliography

Birley, A. R. Septimius Severus: The African Emperor. London (1999)

Varner, E. R. Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture. Leiden (2004)