CARACALLA. 



419 



iracalla. Caracalla now wantoned in barbarity, gratifying his 

 ' malignant passions without remorse, extorting money 

 from the people without any regard to their circum- 

 stances, and squandering what he thus procured by 

 rapine and oppression, on pursuits the most un- 

 ;hy, and pleasures the most ignoble. There was 

 in his whole behaviour such a contempt of principle 

 reputation, such a uniform disregard of every 

 quality and every action which could excite one feel- 

 ing of genuine respect among his subjects, or lighten 

 in the least degree those deep shades of guilt by 

 which his general deportment was darkened, that we 

 are at a loss to determine whether he was more the 

 victim of mental derangement, or the slave of innate 

 depravity and profligate habits. If any thing be 

 wanting to render his character completely odioug 

 and contemptible, it may be found in his affected 

 zeal for chastity and religion, in the midst of the 

 most shocking impiety, and of the grossest de- 

 baucheries. 



Such was Caracalla, when he resolved to imitate 

 Alexander the Great, for whom he professed the 

 greatest veneration, but whom he resembled in no- 

 thing that was laudable or good. He left Italy in 

 "21:i, and engaged in a series of warlike expeditions, 

 which were distinguished neither by honour nor suc- 

 cess. In Gaul, which he visited first, he was ab- 

 horred for his cruelty. The Catti and Alemanni 

 whom he attacked, compelled him to purchase an in- 

 glorious peace, and the liberty of returning into his 

 own dominions. And the rest of the nations in Ger- 

 many, encouraged by this circumstance, took up arms 

 and obliged him to grant them yearly pensions, for 

 the payment of which he embraced the dishonour- 

 able, but necessary, expedient of coining false money. 

 To compensate for these disgraces, he put all the 

 youth of Noricum to the sword, after having order- 

 ed them to take up arms and join him ; and for this 

 perfidious massacre, which he affected to call a signal 

 victory, he assumed the title of Aleraannicus. Ha- 

 ving gained some paltry advantages over the barba- 

 rians on the lower Dnr.ube, and entered into an al- 

 liance with the Dacians, he went to Ilium to pay 

 his devotions at the supposed tomb of Achilles ; 

 and there he poisoned his favourite freed man Festus, 

 that he might get up a funeral resembling that of 

 Patroclus, and thus imitate the Grecian hero in af- 

 fection and respect for his departed friend ! 



He next procured the unwilling submission of Ar- 

 tabanes 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 counterbalanced by the defeat of his ge- 

 neral Theocritus, and the disgrace which he himself 

 brought on the arms and character of Rome, he scru- 

 pled not to write letters to the senate, boasting of 

 his exploits, and glorying in his success. Having 

 gone to Alexandria, he reduced that flourishing city 

 to a state of desolation. The Alexandrians had for- 

 merly, it seems, thrown out some sarcasms against 

 him on account of his folly. This kindled in his sa- 



vage breast the flames of hatred and resentment, 

 which could not be quenched except in the blood of 

 the people, who had thoughtlessly offcnd'-d him. 

 And that his revengeful purposes might be more ea- 

 sily end efl'i-ctually executed, he proceeded to the ac- 

 complishment of them in the most deliberate manner, 

 and under the guise of piety to the gods, and friend- 

 ship for the devoted inhabitants. He proposed to 

 render personal homage in the temple of Scrapis, and 

 peculiar honours at the tomb of Alexandtr; and, in 

 doing this, he sacrificed whole hecatomb:, burnt a 

 great quantity of incense, and engaged in ceremonies 

 of the most pompous and imposing kind. But when 

 the people, nattered by the presence aad th* conde- 

 scension of the Roman emperor, and little suspecting 

 that any treachery was lurking in the heart o: 

 imperial devotee, had assembled to gratify their cu- 

 riosity, and indulge their superstition, by witnessing 

 or engaging in the festivities of the day, the soldier., 

 of Caracalla at his signal, suddenly fell on the un- 

 thinking multitude, and involved them in one dread- 

 ful indiscriminate slaughter. This cruel and perfidi- 

 ous massacre was succeeded by a universal pillage, 

 and by severities of the mostwanton and atrocious 

 kind those who fell, and those who escaped the 

 carnage, being, according to the letters of its infa- 

 mous author, equally deserving of punishment. From 

 this tragic scene, Caracalla directed his steps towards 

 Parthia, and determined, on a pretext equally false and 

 feeble, to break the peace which subsisted between 

 the two empires. He marked his progress by rava- 

 ging the country through which he passed, plunder- 

 ing the cities, despoiling the inhabitants, and even 

 violating the repositories of the dead. His presump- 

 tion was equal to his barbarity ; for though he had 

 never seen the Parthians, and received no proofs of 

 submission, he pretended, in his communications to 

 the Roman senate and people, that he had conquered 

 them, that he had subdued all the East, and compel- 

 led every nation on the other side of the Euphrates 

 to acknowledge their authority. The senate and 

 people, in consequence of this alleged success, de- 

 creed him a triumph, and granted him the appellation 

 of Parthicus. 



Caracalla intended to renew the war next season. 

 But while pursuing his journey from Edessa, where 

 he had spent the winter, to Carrhae, where he propo- 

 sed to offer a sacrifice in the temple of the Moon, he 

 was assassinated by a centurion, at the instigation of 

 M. Opilius Macrinus, a praetorian prefect. This 

 event happened in 217, 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 

 full of crimes and follies, as to have the appearance 

 of a libel on human nature. How melancholy to add, 

 that this monster in the moral world had divine ho- 

 nours decreed to him by the Roman senate, and had 

 a temple, with all its solemn appendages, established 

 for his worship in the capital of the Roman empire ! 

 See Crevier's History of the Emperors ; Gibbon's 

 History, fyc. ; Dion Cassius ; Herodian, &c. (T) 



