CARACALLA, properly named MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINI'S BASSIANUS, a Roman emperor, time son of the emperor Septimius Severus, was b. at Lyon, 188 A.D. lle was playfully named by his father Caracalln, from his long hooded tunic, made in the fashion of the Gauls, and so called in their language. After his father's death, 211 A.D., he ascended the throne as co-regent with his aother Publius Septimius Antoninus Geta, whom he afterwards eaused to be murdered. Having bribed (at enormous cost) the Prtetorians to overlook this foul deed, and to make hint sole entperor, C. next directed his cruelty against all the friends and adherents of Geta, of whom twenty thousand of both sexes—including the great jurist Papinianus—were put to death. Innumerable acts of oppression and robbery were employed to raise supplies for the unbounded extravagance of the despot, and to pay his soldiers. In his famous constitution, he bestowed Roman citizenship on all his free subjects not citizens—who formed the majority, especially in the provinces—but simply in order to levy a greater amount of taxes on releases and heritages, which were paid only by citizens. In his campaigns, he imitated, at one time,
Alexander, at another time, Sulla; while his main object was to oppress and exhaust the provinces which had been in a great measure spared by the tyranny of former emperors. In 217, he was assassinated, at the instigation of Macrinus, prefect of the Prxtorians, by one of his veterans named Martialis, on the 8th of April, 217, on the way from Edessa to Canie. Historians paint the life of C. in the darkest colors. Among the buildings of C. in Rome, the baths—Thermic Caracallie—near Porta Capena were most celebrated; and their ruins are still magnificent.