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Biography of Caracalla
Name: Caracalla
Birth Date: 188
Death Date: 217
Place of Birth: N/A
Nationality: Italian
Gender: Male
Occupations: emperor
Caracalla
Caracalla (188-217) was a Roman emperor whose reign was characterized by cruelty in his private life and irresponsibility in his public life.Son of Emperor Septimius Severus and his Syrian empress, Julia Domna, Caracalla was originally named Bassianus. His father renamed him Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in 196 (Severus pretended to have been adopted into the prestigious Antonine family of emperors), but the boy was commonly called Caracalla from a Gallic cloak he affected.Caracalla was named caesar (successor-designate) by his father in 196 during Severus's struggle with his rival, Albinus. Two years later Caracalla was promoted to the rank of augustus, or coemperor. His younger brother, Geta, received the same rank in 209. Both boys were with their father in Britain when he died in 211, leaving them corulers of the empire. Caracalla straightway returned to Rome, where the long-standing animosity between the brothers led Caracalla in 212 to assassinate Geta as he cowered in his …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…following season when, in the spring of 217, he was assassinated near Carrhae at the instigation of his praetorian prefect and successor, Macrinus, who had information that Caracalla was planning his execution.Caracalla is best known for the baths he built in Rome, which carry his name, and for an edict in 212/213 which granted full Roman citizenship to nearly all the free inhabitants of the empire, thus fulfilling centuries of legal progress. Some see in this a reflection of Caracalla's ideal of a world state, but ancient authorities found the motivation in increased revenue: only Roman citizens paid an inheritance and manumission tax, and this tax was doubled at this time. Further Reading A discussion of Caracalla by S. N. Miller is in S. A. Cook and others, eds., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 12 (1939). See also H. M. D. Parker, A History of the Roman World from A.D. 138 to 337 (1935; rev. ed. 1958).
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