Caracalla

Names:

• 4 April 186: Lucius Septimius Bassianus 
• Nicnames: Caracalla, Tarautas 
• 4 April 196: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caesar
• Autumn 197: Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus 
• 4 February 211: Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Augustus 
• Britannicus maximus (210), Parthicus maximus (211), Arabicus maximus (211), Adiabenicus maximus (211) Magnus (213), Germanicus maximus (213)
• 8 April 217: murdered by Macrinus

Relatives:

• father: Lucius Septimius Severus
• mother: Julia Domna
• married to: Plautilla, daughter of Plautian, the praetorian prefect

Early career:

• 186 Born in Lyon
• 196 Made caesar
• 197 Made Augustus
• 199 Pater Patriae
• 202 Marriage to Plautilla; consul (with Septimius Severus III)
• 205 Consul II (with his younger brother Geta)
• 208 Consul III (with Geta II)

Main deeds:

• 211 Death of Lucius Septimius Severus; Caracalla and Geta are recognized; return to Rome; execution of Plautilla; Caracalla kills Geta
• 212 Constitutio Antoniniana (Roman citizenship to all freeborn men)
• 213 Consul IV (with Decimus Calvius Calvinus Balbinus); successes against the Germanic tribes (the Alamans); visits Mainz
• 214 Leaves for the east; visits the Lower Danube, Asia, visits Nicomedia
• 215 Stay in Antioch; his mother Julia Domna in charge of the offices of a libellis and ab epistulis; proceeds to Alexandria
• 216 Return to Antioch; preparations for war against the Parthian Empire; attack on Arbela
• 217 Killed near Harran; succeeded by Macrinus, his praetorian prefect

Succeeded by: Macrinus

Contemporary events:

• 212 Death of Papinianus

Links:

• biography included in the Historia Augusta,
• Cassius Dio, Roman History (Book 77 and 78)
• Herodian, History of the Roman Empire (Book 3 and 4)
• Julia Maesa
• Philostratus