Caracalla and the Art of Tyranny

Yes, that really was the name of a Roman emperor... 
And yes, my sense of humor is that childish! 

Hey everyone! So I know it has been a very long time since my last post...my sincerest apologies. Or perhaps not. Because today I want to talk about one of my favorite Roman emperors, Caracalla. More importantly I will tell you why he has always been one of my favorite emperors.  Please note that he is not my absolute favorite, but he is definitely in the top five along with Augustus (easily number 1), Domitian, Trajan and, of course, Pupienus. Now, he is not in my top five because he was well-liked and successful like Augustus and Trajan and although his name is fun to say, (Car-a-cAll-a), it certainly isn't as entertaining as the name of someone else in my top five. He probably has most in common with Domitian, at least from what our sources tell us of him, but while Domitian has only recently cracked my rankings (mostly due to the caricature of him presented in the Cambridge Latin books), Caracalla has long been near the top of my list and two recent encounters with him in the British Museum and at the Archeological Museum in Naples got me thinking about him again.
Why then, you ask? What is so special about this Caracalla guy? Well, first, let's have a little bit of history, shall we? We should start by saying that Caracalla is not really his name. In fact, he was born [Lucius?] Septimius Bassianus, probably on April 4th of 186 AD, during the reign of another notorious emperor Commodus (the bad guy from Gladiator...).  In fact, it is in the chaos that followed the assassination of Commodus (not in the center of the Colosseum by Russell Crowe, but, still, a great movie!), that Caracalla's father, Septimius Severus fought his way to the throne. We are told that Caracalla was born in Gaul in one of my favorite cities, Lugdunum (modern Lyon, France) and that his nickname derives from the local hooded tunic or cloak that he was so fond of wearing and single-handedly popularized, called a "caracalla." Interestingly, however, there are not any known surviving images of the emperor actually wearing one of these. Also worth noting, this is actually the second instance of a Roman emperor getting a clothing-related nickname, as Caligula's real name was Gaius Caesar, but to avoid confusion, we usually call him by his cute-sounding moniker which means "Little Boots," a name which he acquired from his youthful habit of dressing like a soldier, boots and all.

Cartoon of the impedimenta or equipment of a Roman
soldier.  Notice his sandals, which should be called "caligae"
are actually here (somewhat improperly) called "caligulae."
Wow, I am a nerd. Anyway, that's where his Gaius Caesar's
name comes from. Image shamelessly borrowed from a great
little site about Roman soldiers to be found here.

We can imagine that Carcalla's childhood was much like that of any future Roman emperor. You know, a healthy diet of battles, gladiator fights, chariot races, treason trials... just the things to make sure that your son has the right kind of well-balanced psyche to prepare him for being the sole ruler of the ancient world's superpower. However, interestingly, that is not entirely the picture we get of Caracalla's upbringing, at least not from the Historia Augusta, a somewhat fanciful collection of biographies written long after Caracalla's death. So although it is certainly not a very trustworthy source, it is perhaps fun to hear what it has to say about his childhood:

"He himself in his boyhood was winsome and clever, respectful to his parents and courteous to his parents' friends, beloved by the people, popular with the senate, and well able to further his own interests in winning affection. Never did he seem backward in letters or slow in deeds of kindness, never miserly in largess or tardy in forgiving — at least while under his parents. For example, if ever he saw condemned criminals pitted against wild beasts, he wept or turned away his eyes, and this was more than pleasing to the people." (Historia Augusta, Life of Caracalla, 1).

It is interesting to note that, whether he was turning away or not, it does seem that the games in the arena were, of course, a perfectly normal part of his childhood. The picture from Cassius Dio, who lived through the reign of Caracalla and knew him and his father personally, seems to line up more with the man whom Gibbon famously dubbed "the common enemy of mankind":

"The sons of Severus, Antoninus [Caracalla] and Geta, feeling that they had got rid of a pedagogue, as it were, in Plautianus, now went to all lengths in their conduct. They outraged women and abused boys, they embezzled money, and made gladiators and charioteers their boon companions, emulating each other in the similarity of their deeds, but full of strife in their rivalries; for if the one attached himself to a certain faction, the other would be sure to choose the opposite side." (Cassius Dio, LXXVII.7.1-2) This last part sounds familiar as I still root for the Chicago Bears because of fraternal rivalry involving Super Bowl XX...

The so-called Severan Tondo, from Egypt ca. 200 AD,
now in Berlin, Germany.  Notice how poor Geta's face
has been obliterated from the body in the bottom left!

Anyway, later when Caracalla's father Septimius Severus died in 211 AD, he left the empire to his two sons jointly, famously instructing them to "get along with one another, spoil the soldiers, ignore everyone else." (Cassius Dio, LXXVII.15.2) Caracalla, the older brother, apparently agreed with Meatloaf that two outta three ain't bad, so while he did repeatedly increase the pay of the army at the expense of just about everyone else, he also quickly had Geta killed. But simply killing him was not enough. After the murder, Caracalla then subsequently subjected his brother to the damnatio memoriae, or the damnation of his memory, meaning all of his portraits and inscriptions had to be completely erased, leading to great family photos such as this at right.

Anyway, ol' Caracalla is not one of my favorites because of his dissolute lifestyle, his stylish hoodie, or even because he killed his brother.  Rather, Caracalla is one of my favorites because he seems to have truly understood what it meant to be a tyrant, and this especially comes through in his portraiture.  As we can see above, he looks nice enough as a child, but when he gets to be sole emperor, well, his face always looks like this:

From my trip to the Met in NY, February, 2013.

Or this...

From my trip to the British Museum in late June, 2013.

Or this...

From the Archeological Museum in Naples, late July 2013.
I know, I know... he has more hair and a sweeter beard...

Napoleon looking imperial.

Which, at least according to this passage from Dio, may have very well been just exactly what he looked like:  "...the fact being that the emperor was wont to assume a somewhat savage expression." But this is precisely why I am so fascinated by him. Ok, so let's say you are a tyrant and you love doing all the cruel things that Caracalla supposedly loved and you even love wearing a scowl on your face everyday. But this is where most tyrants go astray. When they go to get their official portraits done, the either make themselves look merely imperious, such as Henry VIII or Napoleon, or even friendly, such as Silvio Berlusconi.

Former Italian prime minister
and professional Napoleon impersonator
Silvio Berlusconi.

And ok, I see where they are coming from, and yes, they were probably more clever than Caracalla because, ultimately he didn't last all that long, only six years before he was ultimately killed by one of the very soldiers he so spoiled but, I mean, come on, you really have to be committed to the whole tyrant thing if EVERY TIME you go to get your statue done, you say to the sculptor, "No no! Make me look meaner! Heavier brow furrow! More nose wrinkles! More piercing stare!" That's dedication.