Item: i57534   Authentic Ancient Coin of: Caracalla - Roman Emperor : 198-217 A.D. - Bronze 25mm (12.02 grams) of <="" font="" face="Times New Roman"> Marcianopolis in Moesia Inferior under Magistrate Quintillianus Laureate head right.

VΠ KVNTIΛIANOV MAPKIANOΠOΛITΩN,  Asclepius standing facing, head left, leaning on serpent-entwined (medical  symbol) staff.

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Asclepius  is the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek religion . Asclepius represents the  healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters are Hygieia ("Health"), Iaso ("Medicine"), Aceso ("Healing"), Aglæa/Ægle ("Healthy Glow"), and Panacea ("Universal Remedy"). The rod of Asclepius , a snake-entwined staff,  remains a symbol of medicine today, although sometimes the caduceus , or staff with two snakes, is  mistakenly used instead. He was associated with the Roman/Etruscan god Vediovis . He was one of Apollo 's servants.

The rod of Asclepius, also known as the asklepian, is an ancient  symbol associated with astrology , the Greek god Asclepius and with medicine and healing . It consists of a serpent entwined around a staff . The name of the symbol derives from its  early and widespread association with Asclepius , the son of Apollo , who was a practitioner of medicine in  ancient Greek mythology . His attributes, the snake and  the staff, sometimes depicted separately in antiquity, are combined in this  symbol. The Rod of Asclepius also represents the constellation Ophiuchus (or Ophiuchus Serpentarius), the  thirteenth sign of the sidereal zodiac . Hippocrates himself was a worshipper of  Asclepius.

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Marcianopolis, or Marcianople was an ancient Roman city in Thracia . It was located at the site of modern day Devnya , Bulgaria .

The city was so renamed by Emperor Trajan after  his sister Ulpia Marciana , and was previously known as Parthenopolis. Romans repulsed a Gothic attack to  this town in 267 (or 268), during the  reign of Gallienus . Diocletian   made it the capital of the Moesia Secunda province.

Valens made  it his winter quarters in 368 and succeeding years, Emperor Justinian  I restored and fortified it. In 587, it was sacked by the king of the Avars but at once retaken by the Romans. The Roman army quartered there in  596 before crossing the Danube to assault the Avars.

Between 893 and 972 it was one of the most important medieval cities in  south-eastern Europe.

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Caracalla 198-217 A.D.

Caesar:  195-198 A.D. (under <="" font="" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> Septimius Severus )
Augustus: 198-217 A.D. (198-209 A.D. with <="" font="" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> Septimius Severus ) (209-211 A.D. with <="" font="" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> Septimius Severus and Geta ) (211 A.D. with Geta ) (211-217 A.D. Sole Reign)

Son of <="" font="" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> Septimius Severus and <="" font="" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> Julia Domna | Brother of Geta | Husband of <="" font="" color="#000000"> Plautilla | Nephew of <="" font="" color="#000000"> Julia Maesa | Cousin of <="" font="" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> Julia Soaemias and <="" font="" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> Julia Mamaea |

Caracalla (Latin: Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus;4  April 188 – 8 April 217) was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 The eldest son of Septimius Severus , for a short time he ruled  jointly with his younger brother Geta until he had him murdered in 211.  Caracalla is remembered as one of the most notorious and unpleasant of emperors  because of the massacres and persecutions he authorized and instigated  throughout the Empire.

Caracalla's reign was also notable for the Constitutio Antoniniana (also called the  Edict of Caracalla), granting Roman citizenship to all freemen throughout the Roman Empire , which according to historian Cassius Dio , was done for the purposes of  raising tax revenue. He is also one of the emperors who commissioned a large  public bath-house (thermae)  in Rome. The remains of the Baths of Caracalla are still one of the major  tourist attractions of the Italian capital.

Early life

Caracalla, of mixed Punic –Roman  and Syrian descent, was born Lucius Septimius  Bassianus in Lugdunum , Gaul (now Lyon , France ), the son of the later Emperor Septimius  Severus and Julia Domna . At the age of seven, his name was  changed to Marcus Aurelius Septimius Bassianus Antoninus to create a connection  to the family of the philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius . He was later given the Caracallanickname ,  which referred to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore and which he made  fashionable.

Reign (211)

Murder of brother  (211)

His father died in 211 at Eboracum (now York) while on campaign in northern Britain. Caracalla was present  and was then proclaimed emperor by the troops along with his brother Publius Septimius Antoninus Geta . Caracalla  suspended the campaign in Caledonia and soon ended all  military activity, as both brothers wanted to be sole ruler thus making  relations between them increasingly hostile. When they tried to rule the Empire  jointly they actually considered dividing it in halves, but were persuaded not  to do so by their mother.

Then in December 211 at a reconciliation meeting arranged by their mother  Julia, Caracalla had Geta assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard loyal  to himself, Geta dying in his mother's arms. Caracalla then persecuted and  executed most of Geta's supporters and ordered a damnatio memoriae pronounced by the Senate  against his brother's memory.

Geta's image was simply removed from all coinage, paintings and statues,  leaving a blank space next to Caracalla's. Among those executed were his former  cousin-wife Fulvia Plautilla , his unnamed daughter with  Plautilla along with her brother and other members of the family of his former  father-in-law Gaius Fulvius Plautianus . Plautianus had  already been executed for alleged treachery against emperor Severus in 205.

About the time of his accession he ordered the Roman currency devalued, the silver purity of  the denarius was decreased from 56.5% to 51.5%, the  actual silver weight dropping from 1.81 grams to 1.66 grams – though the overall  weight slightly increased. In 215 he introduced the antoninianus , a "double denarius" weighing  5.1 grams and containing 2.6 grams of silver – a purity of 52%.

In the Roman provinces

In 213, Caracalla went north to the German frontier to deal with the Alamanni tribesmen who were raiding in the Agri Decumates . The Romans did defeat the  Alamanni in battle near the river Main , but failed to win a decisive victory over  them. After a peace agreement was brokered and a large bribe payment given to  the invaders, the Senate conferred upon him the empty title of Germanicus  Maximus. He also acquired the surname Alemannicus at this time. The  following year the tyrant traveled to the East, to Syria and Egypt never to  return to Rome.

Gibbon in his work describes Caracalla as "the  common enemy of mankind". He left the capital in 213, about a year after the  murder of Geta, and spent the rest of his reign in the provinces, particularly  those of the East. He kept the Senate and other wealthy families in check by  forcing them to construct, at their own expense, palaces, theaters, and places  of entertainment throughout the periphery. New and heavy taxes were levied  against the bulk of the population, with additional fees and confiscations  targeted at the wealthiest families.

When the inhabitants of Alexandria heard Caracalla's claims that he had  killed Geta in self-defense, they produced a satire mocking this as well as  Caracalla's other pretensions. In 215, Caracalla savagely responded to this  insult by slaughtering the deputation of leading citizens who had unsuspectingly  assembled before the city to greet his arrival, and then unleashed his troops  for several days of looting and plunder in Alexandria. According to historian  Cassius Dio, over 20,000 people were killed.^{[citation  needed]}

Domestic Roman policy

Affiliation with  the army

During his reign as emperor, Caracalla raised the annual pay of an average  legionary to 675 denarii and lavished many benefits on the  army which he both feared and admired, as instructed by his father Septimius  Severus who had told him on his deathbed to always mind the soldiers and ignore  everyone else. Caracalla did manage to win the trust of the military with  generous pay rises and popular gestures, like marching on foot among the  ordinary soldiers, eating the same food, and even grinding his own flour with  them.

With the soldiers, "He forgot even the proper dignity of his rank,  encouraging their insolent familiarity," according to Gibbon. "The vigour of the  army, instead of being confirmed by the severe discipline of the camps, melted  away in the luxury of the cities."

His official portraiture marks a break with the detached images of the  philosopher–emperors who preceded him: his close-cropped haircut is that of a  soldier, his pugnacious scowl a realistic and threatening presence. This rugged  soldier–emperor iconic archetype was adopted by most of the following emperors  who depended on the support of the troops to rule, like his eventual successor Maximinus Thrax .

Seeking to secure his own legacy, Caracalla also commissioned one of Rome's  last major architectural achievements, the Baths of Caracalla , the 2nd largest public  baths ever built in ancient Rome. The main room of the baths was larger than St. Peter's Basilica , and could easily  accommodate over 2,000 Roman citizens at one time. The bath house opened in 216,  complete with libraries, private rooms and outdoor tracks. Internally it was  lavishly decorated with gold-trimmed marble floors, columns, mosaics and  colossal statuary.

Edict of  Caracalla (212)

The Constitutio Antoniniana (Latin: "Constitution  [or Edict] of Antoninus") (also called Edict of Caracalla) was an edict  issued in 212 by Caracalla which declared that all free men in the Roman Empire  were to be given full Roman citizenship and all free women in the Empire were  given the same rights as Roman women.

Before 212, for the most part only inhabitants of Italia held full Roman  citizenship. Colonies of Romans established in other provinces, Romans (or their  descendants) living in provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout  the Empire, and small numbers of local nobles (such as kings of client  countries) held full citizenship also. Provincials, on the other hand, were  usually non-citizens, although many held the Latin Right .

The Roman Historian Cassius Dio contended that the sole motivation  for the edict was a desire to increase state revenue.At the time aliens did not  have to pay most taxes that were required of citizens, so although nominally  Caracalla was elevating their legal status, he was more importantly expanding  the Roman tax base. The effect of this was to remove the distinction that  citizenship had held since the foundation of Rome and as such the act had a  profound effect upon the fabric of Roman society.

War with Parthia

According to the historian Herodian, in 216, Caracalla tricked the Parthians  into believing that he accepted a marriage and peace proposal, but then had the  bride and guests slaughtered after the wedding celebrations. The thereafter  ongoing conflict and skirmishes became known as the Parthian war of Caracalla .

Assassination (217)

While travelling from Edessa to continue the war with Parthia , he was assassinated while urinating at  a roadside near Carrhae on 8 April 217 (4 days after his 29th  birthday), by Julius Martialis, an officer of his personal bodyguard. Herodian says that Martialis' brother had been  executed a few days earlier by Caracalla on an unproven charge; Cassius Dio, on  the other hand, says that Martialis was resentful at not being promoted to the  rank of centurion. The escort of the emperor gave him privacy to relieve  himself, and Martialis then ran forward and killed Caracalla with a single sword  stroke. While attempting to flee, the bold assassin was then quickly dispatched  by a Scythian archer of the Imperial Guard.

Caracalla was succeeded by his Praetorian Guard Prefect , Macrinus , who (according to Herodian) was most  probably responsible for having the emperor assassinated.

His nickname

According to Aurelius Victor in his Epitome de Caesaribus,  the agnomen "Caracalla" refers to a Gallic cloak that Caracalla adopted as a personal  fashion, which spread to his army and his court. Cassius Dio and the Historia Augusta agree that his nickname  was derived from his cloak, but do not mention its country of origin.

Legendary king of  Britain

Geoffrey of Monmouth 's legendary History of the Kings of Britain makes  Caracalla a king of Britain, referring to him by his actual name "Bassianus",  rather than the nickname Caracalla. In the story, after Severus's death the  Romans wanted to make Geta king of Britain, but the Britons preferred Bassianus  because he had a British mother. The two brothers fought a battle in which Geta  was killed and Bassianus succeeded to the throne. He ruled until he was betrayed  by his Pictish allies and overthrown by Carausius , who, according to Geoffrey, was a  Briton, rather than the historically much later Menapian Gaul that he actually was.

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