The Real Severans II: Caught with His Trousers Down - The Murder of Caracalla

The murder of his brother and thousands of his supposed supporters, enriching the army to the detriment of imperial finances and his reputation for cruelty made the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius, better known to history as Caracalla, an unpopular man in many (but not all) circles. Part of his plan for retrieving his reputation was to dip into the Alexandrian Dream by attempting to replicate and even surpass the military exploits of Alexander the Great.

Certainly, a great eastern victory would bring military prestige and a much needed financial boost, but while Caracalla was not the first (and would certainly not be the last) emperor to chase the Alexandrian Dream, he perhaps became wrapped up in it more than most. Statues and paintings of Alexander appeared in Rome and other cities and when Caracalla went east to initiate his Alexandrian campaign, he visited numerous sites in Macedonia and Asia Minor associated with Alexander, culminating in a visit to his tomb in Alexandria. Caracalla may even have launched a persecution of Aristotlean philosophers due to the rumour that Aristotle had poisoned Alexander.

Indeed, Caracalla began presenting himself as “a second Alexander” (Herodian IV.8.1), wearing Macedonian dress and organising a Macedonian phalanx, supposedly from 16,000 men or raw recruits. Of course, this was likely just some window dressing as Caracalla, as unstable as we might think him, would not overturn 500 years of military evolution by going back to an obsolete formation just because it had been a lynchpin in Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire.

But that very Alexandrian conquest was to be the next step in Caracalla’s emulation of his hero. Caracalla was going to, nay had to follow the ‘Alexandrian Dream’ by invading and conquering the empire that controlled Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau - in Alexander’s day, 500 years previously, that had been the Achaemenid Persians; in AD216, it was (for now) the Arsacid Parthians.

Given the reputation of Caracalla, we might imagine that he was recklessly gung-ho about launching his Alexandrian campaign against the Parthians, but this was not the case. He had been steadily building up Rome’s position in the east by taking advantage of the destabilising effects of a Parthian civil war. His efforts focused on the buffer states of Armenia and Osrhoene, although those efforts ultimately look the form of imprisoning the rulers of both pro-Parthian kingdoms and then trying to annex both as Roman provinces. This largely worked in Osrhoene, but sparked a rebellion in Armenia.

At the head of a large Roman host, Caracalla manufactured a casus belli over a marriage proposal to attack pro-Parthian subkingdoms in Adiabene and Atropatene and Parthian Mesopotamia. These raids were enough for Caracalla to claim to the Senate that the Parthians had been defeated, with the senators awarding him the Parthicus  Maximus victory title. This was despite Roman forces having not inflicted defeat on Parthian forces, as they had steadfastly refused to fight him (Dio 79.1).

Given the destructive, raiding style of Caracalla’s attacks, it is unclear if he sought to actually conquer any Parthian territory. He may have been happy to detach Armenia and Osrhoene from Parthia and then devastate the frontier zones enough to prevent Parthian counterattacks. The raids across the Tigris into Adiabene and Atropatene could also be seen as the beginning of a second round of such subkingdom destabilising and then annexation in the future. If this was the case, we might consider that Caracalla was orchestrating a much more intricate and thoughout ‘Alexandrian’ campaign that many of his predecessors and successors.

Certainly, despite what his newest victory title might suggest, Caracalla himself was not finished with his Parthian campaign, spending the winter of 216/217 in Edessa. But whatever Caracalla planned, it did not come to fruition as his reign was to end on 8 April 217 in a violent and frankly embarrassing situation.

This was because Caracalla’s reputation had spawned a plot amongst those closest to him. Reputedly spurred on by the threat of execution over an African seer having predicted that he and his son Diadumenianus would be emperor, repeated ridicule from the emperor and possibly even reading a letter that all but guaranteed his own execution (Herodian IV.12.2-3, 8), the praetorian prefect Macrinus supposedly orchestrated the murder of Caracalla (Dio 79.4). Demonstrating the extent to which it became accepted that Macrinus was behind the death of Caracalla is how Historia Augusta Caracalla 8.10 merely states that “Macrinus murdered Antoninus”.

To carry out the assassination, Macrinus “secured the services of two tribunes assigned to the Praetorian Guard, Nemesianus and Apollinaris, and of Julius Martialis” (Dio 79.5). The latter was a re-enlisted veteran - evocatus - who had been denied promotion to centurion by Caracalla or had seen his brother executed by the emperor “on an unproven charge” (Herodian IV.13.1). Martialis may also have been a target for imperial insults and ridicule. All of this made him willing to plot against Caracalla.

This cabal struck during an imperial excursion from Edessa to Carrhae, where Caracalla wanted to visit the Temple of the moon god Sin. Along the way, the emperor stopped to relieve himself at the side of the road. With the imperial bodyguard at a distance and turned away to presever the emperor’s modesty, “Martialis approached as though desiring to say something to him and struck [Caracalla] with a small dagger” (Dio 79.5). This blow, landing under the shoulder, may have proved immediately fatal (Herodian IV.13.5). His revenge seemingly achieved, Martialis looked to escape only to be “struck down by a javelin” (Dio 79.5) thrown by one of the Scythians or Germans in the imperial bodyguard.

In the chaos that reigned in the aftermath of the discovery of Martialis’ deed, it is possible that the Germans and Scythians overlooked one vital piece of information - Martialis’ dagger strike had not proven immediately fatal. Now, it could well be that the Martialis-inflicted wound was not survivable, but Dio 79.5 has it that it was the praetorian tribunes, Nemesianus and Apollinaris, who were first to reach the stricken Caracalla and, “pretending to come to his rescue, slew him”. Conversely, Herodian IV.13.7 has Macrinus as the first to arrive at the body of Caracalla and “pretended to wail and lament for the emperor”, for he was already dead.

Whatever the exact circumstances or order of events, it would appear that Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known to history as Caracalla, died with his figurative trousers down...

It must be said that Caracalla, whilst having failed to emulate Alexander’s great eastern conquests, did achieve that same posthumous treatment as his Macedonian hero. While the Senate had greatly disliked him, Caracalla’s extension of Roman citizenship to all freeborn men within the empire via the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212 and increasing of military pay made him popular with the people and especially the army. Therefore, whilst his erstwhile successor Macrinus and the Senate carried out something of a quiet but unofficial damnatio memoriae against Caracalla, when push came to shove, Macrinus had Caracalla deified, appearing on coins as Divus Antoninus. Much like Alexander the Great and despite his poor reputation, Caracalla was to be worshipped as a god.

Bibliography

Hekster, O. and Kaizer, T. ‘An Accidental Tourist? Caracalla’s Fatal Trip to the Temple of the Moon at Carrhae/Harran’, Ancient Society 42 (2012) 89-107

Scott, A. G. ‘Cassius Dio, Caracalla, and the Senate’, Klio 97 (2015) 157-175

Scott, A.G. ‘Dio and Herodian on the Assassination of Caracalla’, The Classical World 106 (2012) 15-28

Sillar, S. Quinquennium in provinciis: Caracalla and Imperial Administration 212–217. Ph.D thesis, University of Queensland (2001).

Syvanne, I. Caracalla: A Military Biography. Barnsley (2022)