CARACALLA (or CARACALLUS), MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS (186-217), Roman emperor, eldest son of the emperor Septimius Severus, was born at Lugdunum (Lyons) on April 4 186. His original name was Bassianus; his nickname Caracalla was derived from the long Gallic tunic which he wore. After the death of Severus (211) at Eboracum (York) in Britain, Caracalla and his brother Geta, who had accompanied their father, returned to Rome as co-emperors. In order to secure the sole power Caracalla murdered his brother (212) and afterwards put to death some 20,000 of Geta's supporters, amongst them the jurist Papinianus. In the same year he bestowed Roman citizen ship on all free inhabitants of the empire, the object being partly to increase the yield from the inheritance-tax, to which only Roman citizens were liable. His own extravagances and the demands of the soldiery were a perpetual drain upon his re sources. In 213 he defeated the Alamanni who had broken through the Raetian lines; in 214, after a few months spent in Rome, he went to the Danube. After wintering in Asia, he crossed, in 215, to Alexandria, where in revenge for some dis respect shown him he ordered a general massacre. In 216 he ravaged Mesopotamia. He spent the winter at Edessa, and in 217, when he recommenced his campaign, he was murdered at Carrhae on April 8, at the instigation of Opellius (Opilius) Macrinus, praefect of the praetorian guard, who succeeded him. The most famous of the buildings with which Caracalla adorned Rome are the baths and the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus in the forum.
See Dio Cassius, lxxvii., lxxviii. ; Herodian, iii. I o, iv. 14; lives of Caracalla, Severus and Geta, in Scriptores Historiae Augustae; Eutro pius, viii. 19-22 ; Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus, 2o-23; Epit. 20-23; Zosimus i. 9—Io ; H. Schiller, Geschichte der romischen Kaiserzeit , ff. ; Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyklo pddie, ii. h. (von Rohden) . See also Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. vi.