CARACALLA (Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius), ROMAN EMPEROR. — Son of Settimio Severo and Giulia Domna, born at Lyon in 188; commonly known by the nickname of C. (the Gallic garment he particularly favored). He was appointed Caesar in 196 and Augustus in 198; he ascended the throne in 211 together with his brother Settimio Geta, whom he got rid of a year later by having him killed and even erasing his memory.
Thus left sole emperor, he stifled every reaction to his crime either by suppressing the dead man’s partisans, such as the famous jurist Papiniano, or by distributing large sums of money. Violent, impetuous, and endowed with little intelligence, he sought to create a class that would support his tyrannical government even against the Senate; he therefore tried to win over the army not through brilliant military exploits, but by increasing pay and granting frequent gifts, with the result of augmenting the arrogance and corruption of his troops. But the measure of greatest resonance adopted by the emperor was the granting of Roman citizenship to all the inhabitants of the empire, promulgated in 212. This decision, whose perhaps sole motive was an increase in revenue, produced the unification of the law and a wider introduction of foreign elements into Rome. He took little interest in domestic politics, which he left to the discretion of the consilium and Giulia Domna, but was lavish in organizing grandiose festivities and erecting costly architectural works such as the baths at the foot of the small Aventine.
In 213 he undertook an expedition against the Alamanni; a few years later he resumed the war against the Parthians, his long-standing aspiration, and was already near Odessa when, on 8 April 217, he was killed by one of his soldiers at the age of 30. Under C. there was no genuine persecution of Christians, but only episodes of local violence, as in Osroene and the provinces of Africa.