The Hooded Man

The Hooded Man

Originally shared by Alvin Stearns

That Face

And those crazy eyes.

Meet Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus, Emperor of Rome in the early 3rd century anno Domini. He was nicknamed Caracalla, which refers to a style of ancient hoodie that he favored.  History remembers him as Caracalla.  But, nobody called him that to his face.  He wouldn't have liked that.  Nobody without a death wish risked upsetting Antoninus Augustus, aka Caracalla.

You can learn a lot about leaders by how they choose to have themselves portrayed.  Look at Caracalla, at any of his many surviving busts.  The cropped hair and beard.  The "You tawkin' to me?" turn of the head with furrowed brow and scowling lips.  His styling, bearing and expression are a radical departure from the flowing lines and dreamy expressions of his predecessors, the Antonines, the line exemplified by the philosopher/emperor Richard Harris Marcus Aurelius.  Caracalla set a new fashion.  After him emperors would continue the scowling martial visage in their official imagery.  By the 3rd century emperors could no longer command respect by looking emo, they needed to instill fear looking bad-ass.

Caracalla's father was the Emperor Septimius Severus.  Papa Severus had two missions in the year 210:  do an emperor's duty to Rome by beating on some barbarians, and try to instill some military discipline in his spoiled, violent and often drunk teenage sons, Caracalla and Geta.  The brothers were close in age, but not in affection.  In fact, they hated each other.  

The family, including the boys' mother, Julia Domna, traveled to the Roman province of Britannia, present day England and Wales.  Severus had probably had more than enough of his sons' constant fighting on the journey to Britannia.  So, he left Geta in the town of Eboracum (modern York, England) and took Caracalla north with the army to go beat on some Caledonians, the predecessors of the Scots.  On the way, Caracalla drew his sword as if to strike down his father, the Emperor of Rome.  Father stared down son and Caracalla put away his sword.  Dad didn't say a word.  But, that night, Severus sat his son down and placed a sword between them, telling his boy that if it was his intention to murder his father, do it now.  Caracalla swallowed his impatience and didn't touch the offered sword.

Happily for Caracalla, his father died in 211 of an illness while still in Britannia.  Knowing he was close to death, Severus called his sons to him and gave them the following fatherly advice:  "Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, and scorn all other men"  Then he died and was declared a god by the Senate of Rome.

Caracalla and Geta ruled as co-emperors for a while, but their hatred of each other only increased.  If not for their mother's protests the brothers might have divided the empire, each brother ruling his half, which would have advanced by several decades the eventual division of the empire into eastern and western administrative halves.

Julia, their mother, tried to get her sons to reconcile.  The pair agreed to meet at her palace in Rome to patch things up.  At the meeting Caracalla gave a signal and soldiers loyal to him rushed forward, fatally stabbed Geta.  Julia Domna tried to shield her son and suffered an injured hand.  Her younger son bled out in her arms, her older son standing over them both, triumphant.  The sole emperor.

Then the real killing began.  It is estimated that on his orders Caracalla caused the deaths of some 20,000 people in the first era of his reign as sole emperor.  Almost all of Geta's friends and allies and several thousand more attached to those friends and allies were put to death.  

Caracalla wasn't satisfied with killing his brother.  He wanted to erase Geta.  Even going as far as having the Senate officially damn his brother's memory, making it a capital offense to even speak his name.  His mother kept her titles, privileges and wealth, having been prudent enough to keep her mouth shut and grieve in solitude.

Also, he had his ex-wife and former father-in-law murdered.

So, Caracalla failed to follow his father's first piece of advice, that his sons be harmonious.  However, he excelled in the other two pieces, favoring the army and to hell with everybody else.

By this time in its history Rome's political power was in its army.  The era of expansionist Rome was over.  By the 3rd century the legions were the military police force of an empire trying to keep itself together.  Caracalla's father understood the political facts of life and had raised the soldiers' pay and given them other perks.  Caracalla continued to favor the army, raising pay again, buying its loyalty.  Caracalla styled himself a soldier/emperor.  He traveled with his army, camped with them, ate with them.  It worked.  It's possible the soldiers did like him, this soldier emperor.  It's certain they liked the treasure he pushed their way.  (But, how would they feel if that treasure ever stopped flowing?  Caracalla had set a precedent that would haunt later emperors and Roman citizens.)

The soldier role and uniforms were perfect for him because he was still a homicidal sociopath.  During a stop in Alexandria, Egypt, he had another 20,000 or so people murdered.  What had the cosmopolitan center and greatest city of the Classical world done to upset him?  Some actors performed a satire that mocked Caracalla's story that he'd killed his brother in self-defense.  Caracalla did not discriminate in his retaliation and had his soldiers punish the city by killing thousands of its citizens.  It was dangerous to assume that Caracalla had any sense of humor about himself.

I mean, look at that face.

Caracalla fancied himself another Alexander the Great--which is funny considering what he had done to Alexander's namesake city.  He tried to emulate Alexander in style and career.  So, to mimic his idol, Caracalla needed to invade Persia, now called Parthia--same people, different branding.  His methods differed, though.  He affected a proposal of marriage between himself and the King of Parthia's daughter, to lessen tensions between the empires with ties between its ruling families.  Dubious, but agreeing to a summit meeting, the King of Parthia along with his daughter and some of his court met with Caracalla.  Caracalla again gave a signal and his soldiers fell upon the Parthians.  The king escaped, but his daughter and several of his people were slaughtered.

Crazy Eyes strikes again.

Did he do anything good?  Sure.  He kept the empire together during his tenure.  No small feat in that age of invasions, rebellions and civil wars.  He was the emperor that declared that all free males living in the empire were henceforth citizens of Rome.  That was a double-edged sword.  It vastly increased the Roman franchise, from Mesopotamia to Britannia.  But, more importantly to the emperor,  it also vastly increased the volume of imperial taxes--Roman citizens were taxed differently than non-citizens. Caracalla needed treasure to grease his army and keep it loyal to him.

Meantime, Caracalla's attempted murder of the King of Parthia put the empires into a state of war.  Caracalla needed to burnish his image as the Second Coming of Alexander, so he was game.

However, time and circumstance caught up with Caracalla outside the city of Carrhae, in present southeast Turkey.  While on the road, Caracalla called a halt so he could dismount and take a leak.  Dismounted and standing by the road, taking care of business, he was fatally stabbed by a soldier.  It's been said that the soldier was upset at having been passed over for a promotion.  It's also whispered that he was put up to the act by a fellow named Macrinus, a leader of the Praetorian Guard, the emperor's personal police force.  Caracalla's murderer was instantly killed by an archer's arrow.  Macrinus went on to succeed Caracalla as Emperor of Rome, with no potentially pesky whistleblower to mess up things.  Convenient.

Caracalla was declared a god by the Senate of Rome.  He had ruled Rome for six years as sole emperor when he died at age 29.  Live fast.  Kill everybody.  Die young.  Leave a pretty corpse and lots of crazy-eyed busts.

That town where Caracalla died?  Carrhae?  It was where Crassus died in 53 BC while fighting the Parthians.  Crassus was a member of the ruling triumvirate along with Julius Caesar and Pompey.  With Crassus gone, the battle was on between Caesar and Pompey, and I think we all remember who won that battle and paved the way from Republican to Imperial Rome.  

In Ancient times the city of Carrhae was called Harran, same as it's called today.  Alexander the Great had taken the city from the Persians.  The Persians had taken it from the Babylonians.  The Babylonians had taken it from the Assyrians.  In fact, Harran was the last-stand capital of the Assyrian Empire.  A coalition of Babylonians, Medes, and Persians invaded Assyria and destroyed its capital.  The last-stand Assyrians failed at Harran too, ending the ancient Assyrian empire.  Harran remained an important center of later Assyrian Christianity.  Until they were persecuted and scattered and all but wiped out.

Harran is an unlucky city for the mighty.

But, Caracalla's amazing face and crazy eyes stay with us.

Oh, and the 12 century story-weaver Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that Caracalla was a king of early Britain.  Geoffrey of Monmouth lied.  A lot.

//