Such was Caracalla, when he resolved to imitate Alex der the Great, for whom he professed the greatest vene ration, but whom he resembled in nothing that was lauda ble or good. Ile left Italy in 213, and engaged in a series of warlike expeditions, which were distinguished neither by honour nor success. In Gaul, IN hich he vi sited first, he was abhorred for his cruelty. The Catti and Alemanni whom he attacked, compelled him tu pur chase an inglorious peace, and the liberty of returning into his own dominions. And the rest of the nations in Germany, encouraged by this circumstance, took up arms and obliged him to grant them yearly pensions, for the payment of which he embraced the dishonourable, but necessary, expedient of coining false money. To compensate for these disgraces, he put all the youth of Noricum to the sword, alter having ordered them to lake up arms and join him ; and for t,tis perfidious massacre, which he affected to call a signal victory, he assumed the title of Alemannicus. Having gained some paltry ad vantages over the barbarians on the lower Danube, and entered into an alliance with the Dacians, he went to Ilium to pay his devotions at the supposed tomb of Achilles ; and there he poisoned his favourite fried man Festus, that he might get up a funeral resembling that of Patroclus, and thus imitate the Grecian hero in affection and respect for his departed friend ! He next procured the unwilling submission of Arta 15anes king of Parthia, and, by an act of the basest perfidy, got the kings of Edessa and Armenia into his power. And though these advantages were far more than coun terbalanced by the defeat of his general Thic,cruus, and the disgrace which he himself brought on the arms and character of Rome, he scrupled not to write letters to thc senate, boasting of his exploits, and glorying in his suc cess. Having gone to Alexandria, he rt.duced that flourishing city to a state of desolation. Tic Alt drizms bad formerly, it seems, thrown out somc sarcasms against him on account of his folly. This kindled in his savage breast the flames of hatred and resentment, which could not be quenched except in the blood of the people, who had thoughtlessly offended him. And that his re vengeful purposes might be more easily and eGctually executed, he proceeded to the accomplishment of them in the most deliberate manner, and under the guise of piety to the gods, and friendship for the devoted inhabi tants. He proposed to render personal homage in the temple of Serapis, and peculiar honours at the tomb of Alexander ; and, in doing this, he sacrificed whole heca tombs, burnt a great quantity of incense, and engaged in ceremonies of the most pompous and imposing kind.
But when the people, flattered by the presence and the condescension of the Roman emperor, and little suspect ing that any treachery was lurking in the heart of the imperial devotee, had assembled to gratify their curiosi ty, and indulge their superstition, by witnessing or en gaging in the festivities of the day, the soldiers of Cara calla, at his signal, suddenly fell on the unthinking multi tude, and involved them in one dreadful indiscriminate slaughter. This cruel and perfidious massacre was suc ceeded by a universal pillage, and by severities of the most wanton and atrocious kind—those who fell, and those who escaped the carnage, being, according to the letters of its infamous author, equally deserving of pun ishment. From this tragic scene, Caracalla directed his steps towards Parthia, and determined, on a pretext equally false and feeble, to break the peace which sub sisted between the two empires. Ile marked his pro gress by ravaging the country through which he plundering the cities, despoiling the inhabitants, and even violating the repositories of the dead. His presumption was equal to his barbarity ; fur though he had never seen the Partltians, and received no proofs of submission, he pretended, in his communications to the Roman senate and people, that he bad conquered them, that he had sub dued all the East, and compelled every nation on the other side of the Euphrates to acknowledge their au thority. The senate and people, in consequence of this alleged success, decreed him a triumph, and granted hint the appellation of Parthicus.
Caracalla intended to renew the war next season. But while rursuing his journey from Edessa, where he had spent the 11 inter, to Cant':, where he proposed to offer a sacrifice in the temple of the Moon, he was assassinated by a centurion, at the instigation of M. Opilius Macri nus, a praetorian prefect. This event happened in 21T, when Caracalla was in the 29th year of his age. and had reigned only a little more than six years. The record of his short life is so lull of crimes and follies, as to have the appearance of a libel on human nature. How me lancholy to add, that this monster in the :floral world had divine honours decreed to him by the Roman senate, and a temple, with all its solemn apyendages, establish ed for Ms worship in the capital of the Roman empire ! See CreN ier's History of Mr E nfterors ; Gibbon's Hut tory, i.'c.; Dion Cassius ; Her,dian, kc. (r)