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Caracalla was the popular nickname of Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus (4 April AD 188 – 8 April AD 217), the Roman emperor from AD 198–217. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was the eldest son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. Caracalla reigned jointly with his father from 198 until Severus' death in 211. For a short time Caracalla then ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta, with whom he had a sour relationship, and whom Caracalla would have murdered later in 211. Caracalla's reign was marked by domestic instability and external invasions from the Germanic people.
Caracalla's reign was notable for the Constitutio Antoniniana (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution), granting Roman citizenship to nearly all freemen throughout the Roman Empire. The edict gave all the enfranchised men the two first names of Caracalla "Marcus Aurelius". Domestically, Caracalla was known for the construction of the Baths of Caracalla, the second largest bath in Rome, for the introduction of a new roman currency, the antoninianus which was a sort of double denarius, and for the massacres he enacted against the people of Rome and elsewhere in the empire. Towards the end of his rule, Caracalla would begin a campaign against the Parthian Empire, a campaign he would not see through to completion due to his death in 217.
Later, in the 12th century, a legend would emerge of Caracalla's role as the king of Britain.
Caracalla (also known as Caracalla II, 1942 – after 1955) was a French racehorse and sire. Unraced as a two-year-old and never competing at a distance shorter than 2,400 metres he was undefeated in eight races in a racing career which lasted from the spring of 1945 until October 1946. Caracalla excelled over extended distances, winning the Grand Prix de Paris and the Prix Royal Oak in France and the Ascot Gold Cup in Britain. On his final appearance he proved himself capable of beating top class opposition at middle distances when he won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He was then retired to stud, where his record was disappointing.
Usage examples of "caracalla".
Dion considers the conspiracy the invention of Caracalla, by whose command, almost by whose hand, Plautianus was slain in the presence of Severus.
If Geta resided in the gardens that bore his name on the Janiculum, and if Caracalla inhabited the gardens of Maecenas on the Esquiline, the rival brothers were separated from each other by the distance of several miles.
It was agreed that Caracalla, as the elder brother should remain in possession of Europe and the western Africa.
As soon as the deed was perpetrated, Caracalla, with hasty steps, and horror in his countenance, ran towards the Praetorian camp, as his only refuge, and threw himself on the ground before the statues of the tutelar deities.
Their discontent died away in idle murmurs, and Caracalla soon convinced them of the justice of his cause, by distributing in one lavish donative the accumulated treasures of his father's reign.
Neither business, nor pleasure, nor flattery, could defend Caracalla from the stings of a guilty conscience.
But the repentance of Caracalla only prompted him to remove from the world whatever could remind him of his guilt, or recall the memory of his murdered brother.
Valois thinks that the numbers have been transposed, and that Caracalla added 5000 drachms to the donations made to the Praetorians, 1250 to those of the legionaries.
That magistrate, who had received the most pressing instructions to inform himself of the successors of Caracalla, immediately communicated the examination of the African to the Imperial court, which at that time resided in Syria.
The devotion of Caracalla prompted him to make a pilgrimage from Edessa to the celebrated temple of the Moon at Carrhae.
The prodigality of Caracalla had left behind it a long train of ruin and disorder.
The cruel fate of Caracalla, though her good sense must have long taught' er to expect it, awakened the feelings of a mother and of an empress.
As soon as the stubborn Praetorians could be convinced that they fought for a prince who had basely deserted them, they surrendered to the conqueror: the contending parties of the Roman army, mingling tears of joy and tenderness, united under the banners of the imagined son of Caracalla, and the East acknowledged with pleasure the first emperor of Asiatic extraction.
The licentious soldiers, who had raised to the throne the dissolute son of Caracalla, blushed at their ignominious choice, and turned with disgust from that monster, to contemplate with pleasure the opening virtues of his cousin Alexander, the son of Mamaea.
We shall reply, with the learned Valsecchi, that the usurpation of Macrinus was annihilated, and that the son of Caracalla dated his reign from his father's death?