CARACALLA (Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius), Roman emperor. — Son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, born in Lyons in 188; commonly known by the nickname of C. (a Gallic cloak he favored). He was named Caesar in 196 and Augustus in 198; he ascended the throne in 211 together with his brother Septimius Geta, whom he disposed of a year later by having him killed and even erasing his memory.
Once sole emperor, he stifled any reaction to his crime either by suppressing the dead man’s partisans, such as the famous jurist Papinian, or by distributing large sums of money. Violent, impetuous, and of limited intelligence, he sought to create a class that would support his tyrannical rule even against the Senate; he therefore tried to win over the army not through brilliant military exploits but by increasing their pay and frequent gifts, which only served to heighten the arrogance and corruption of his troops. Yet the emperor’s most far-reaching measure was the grant of Roman citizenship to all inhabitants of the empire, issued in 212. This decision, whose only possible motive may have been to increase state revenue, brought about the unification of law and a broader introduction of foreign elements into Rome. He took little interest in domestic politics, leaving it to the discretion of the councilor and Julia Domna, but he was lavish in staging grand festivals and erecting costly architectural works, such as the baths at the foot of the small Aventine.
In 213 he launched an expedition against the Alamanni; a few years later he resumed the war against the Parthians, his long-standing ambition, and was already near Edessa when, on April 8, 217, he was killed by one of his soldiers at the age of thirty. During Caracalla’s reign there was no systematic persecution of Christians, only isolated episodes of local violence, as in Osrhoene and the provinces of Africa.