Caracalla
| Caracalla | |
|---|---|
| Roman Emperor | |
 Bust of Caracalla ( Louvre ). | |
| Reign | |
| 26 December 211 - 8 April 217 (~ 6 years) | |
| Period | Severe |
| Predecessor (s) | Septimius Severus |
| Co-emperor (s) | Geta (to 211 ) |
| Successor (s) | Macrinus |
| Biography | |
| Birth | 4 April 188 - Lugdunum |
| Original Name | Lucius Septimius Bassianus |
| Deaths | 8 April 217 (29) near Harran ( Syria ) |
| Father | Septimius Severus |
| Mother | Julia Domna |
| Spouse (s) | Fulvia Plautilla ( 202 - 205 ) |
| List of Roman Emperors | |
Caracalla ( 4 April 188 - 8 April 217 ), born Bassianus Septimius Severus and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus called Augustus, was a Roman emperor who reigned from 211 to 217. He is the author of the edict of Caracalla , who extended Roman citizenship to all inhabitants of the empire.
Summary |
Originally Berber , by his father Septimius Severus and Syrian by his mother Julia Domna , he was born in 188 at Lugdunum (now Lyons ), his father was then governor of saplings. Named Lucius Septimius Bassianus, it was later renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, to be closer to the dynasty of the Antonines. His nickname of Caracalla is a kind of Gallic hooded clothing and long sleeves that he used to wear at the age of twelve.
The conquest of power
Septimius Severus was associated with his son Caracalla throne in 196 and Geta in 198. On the death of Septimius Severus in 211 , his soldiers take to respect his will, forcing Caracalla to share power with his brother Geta. Once peace returned, the army demobilized, and the imperial family to return to Rome, he killed himself Geta of a sudden sword in the throat, taken refuge in the arms of their mother, Julia Domna, who was trying likely to reconcile. Before the Praetorians and the Senate, he justifies his conduct by claiming a plot allegedly hatched his brother.
Caracalla then ordered the Senate to declare the damnatio memoriae of Geta: it makes clear the name of his brother monuments of Rome and even forbade, under pain of the worst punishment, that it is pronounced in his presence. Nothing must raise its existence. He then delivers a systematic series of murders (20 000 according to Dio Cassius) that target the friends, relations and supporters of Geta or potential competitors (including a grand-son of Marcus Aurelius ).
The reign of a tyrant
Domestic policy
His domestic policy, inspired by his mother and his father's lawyers, hardly differs from that of Septimius Severus with more egalitarian aspects. It is difficult to say what his personal role and there is a tendency, as in the time of Nero or Commodus, to assign the best to its advisers and the worst in himself. Generally, Julia Domna head external affairs, administrative and leaves his son's conduct of the war.
The massacres of Alexandria
When the inhabitants of Alexandria got wind of the allegations claimed to have killed Caracalla Publius Septimius Geta in self-defense, they fired a satire of his lies and his other claims. Caracalla, offended by the insult, cons-attacked in 215 by organizing the massacre of the delegation of citizens who came to cheer on his arrival at Alexandria, then unleashed his troops on the city, which sacked, engaged in massacre so awful that "rivers of blood, across the plaza, went blush the mouth, yet very large, Nile (Herodian, IV, 9: 3-8).
The border defense
Caracalla spent most of his time with his troops and war.
From 213, Caracalla has several campaigns against the Alemanni on both the Rhine and the Danube. Victorious on the Main , he took the surname of Germanicus Maximus and provides twenty years of peace to the Western Front, until the reign of Alexander Severus.
In 216, he went to war against the Parthian kingdom and sends an army into Armenia. During his campaign, Caracalla asked her to marry the daughter of a peacock , the king of the Parthians. He gets together with all his army, went to Mesopotamia to celebrate the wedding imperial. When the crowd, civilian and military alike, had gathered for the feast near Ctesiphon , their capital, Caracalla gave a signal and the scenario is repeated massacre of Alexandria: Roman soldiers rush to the Parthians and the mass slaughter. The Parthian king escapes and thinks only of revenge against the Roman duplicity.
The Antonine constitution: the end of discrimination in multi-secular
Caracalla granted Roman citizenship in 212 (Constitutio Antoniniana) to all free inhabitants of the empire. New citizens can retain their own laws and customs as long as they wish: this measure does in any case the Roman private law.
- Egypt has delivered many papers after 212 where the new Romans have maintained their traditions, Egyptian and Greek.
- An inscription dated from the reign of Gordian III (238-244) expressly provides value to local customs laws.
- Justinian 535-536 denounced the survival of consanguineous marriages in Mesopotamia incestuous held by the Roman laws although in 295 Diocletian and Maximian to have prohibited in the strongest terms.
The reasons for this edict had been discussed with more fury than the ancient writers have said very little about. Four centuries later, the principle of universal citizenship is so regarded as self-evident that the Justinian Code has not seen fit to reproduce the text. We have a single copy in Giessen Papyrus 40, which begins: "I grant Roman citizenship to all foreigners residing in the territory of the empire ...". Several reasons are likely to be taken into account:
- Dion Cassius , opposing the emperor, says Peregrine became Roman citizens must pay the inheritance tax which weighed only on Roman citizens and Caracalla which recently increased the rate of 5 to 10%.
- The jurist Ulpian considers an empire where the status of persons is more uniform eases the burden on offices and courts. Yet, the need for lawyers and notaries is felt to the point that, to meet new needs, organized the law school of Beirut.
- Some historians based on the Giessen Papyrus 40 emit the idea that Caracalla is to achieve the unity of the faithful before the gods of Rome. Caracalla feels a genuine admiration for Alexander the Great: Emperor intends possibly to rule over a unified world.
The edict has meant an abandonment of the mention of the tribe in the registry and allocation to all new citizens of the tria nomina.
There is no factual basis and even anachronistic to see in this edict will create a universal citizenship. The edict, however, still cited by the defenders, the twenty-first century, of extending political rights to all inhabitants of a given country.
Death
Caracalla became during his reign a tyrant military particularly unpopular (except among soldiers). Then he went to Edessa to Parthia for there to wage war, he was murdered near Harran on 8 April 217 , a stroke of the sword, by Martialis. The praetorian prefect Macrinus , often suspected (rightly) of having ordered the assassination, succeeded him.
Names successive
- 186 , born Lucius Septimius Bassianus
- 196 , Cesar made by his father, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caesar
- 198 , made by his father Augustus: Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
- 198 , following his father's victory over the Parthians: Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius Augustus Maximus Parthicus
- 200 , took the nickname of Felix: Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus Maximus Parthicus
- 209 , following his victory to his father on the Caledonians: Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus Britannicus Maximus Maximus Parthicus
- 211 , accesses the Empire: Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus Germanicus Maximus, Britannicus Maximus Parthicus Maximus
- 217 , Titulature to his death: Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus Germanicus Maximus, Britannicus Maximus Parthicus Maximus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribuniciae potestatis XX Imperator III, IV Consul, Pater Patriae.
References
- "If the Roman Empire fell into decay, the fault is to Caracalla this degenerate son of a Berber and a Syrian committed the latest folly: he was born in Lyon and is a French; wonder that the Constitutio Antonina inspired by the most abject principles of '89! " Irenaeus Henri Marrou ironically in 1938 on the fascists who believe the edict of Caracalla granted citizenship to all freemen of the Empire as the cause of his downfall, in our time of crisis and Christian thought from 1930 to 1975, Beauchesne, 1978, p.124
- Marcel Le Glay. Rome: T2, The Rise and Fall of the Empire, p.336, Academic Bookstore Perrin, 2005, ISBN 978-2-262-01898-6
- Gilbert Meynier. Algeria origins: From prehistory to the advent of Islam, p.74. Discovery, 2007, ISBN 978-2-7071-5088-2
- "Severus married an Arab of Emesa, Julia Domna, whose son and grand-nephews ruled Rome, Harry Sacher , The Arabs (1979), Puf, 2002, p.58
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