Caracalla

Caracalla was Roman emperor from AD 198 to 217, ruling first with his father Septimius Severus and brother Geta before becoming sole ruler. He is remembered for the Constitutio Antoniniana, which extended Roman citizenship widely across the empire, and for a violent, militarised reign.

In Ruth Downie’s The Bear and the Wolf, their precarious peace is further threatened when the imperial prince Caracalla arrives with a contingent of dangerous Numidian cavalry and brings the violence of imperial politics into the life of their small family. Steven Saylor’s Dominus places Caracalla within a narrative shaped by religion, belief and institutional authority, political ambition and government, and family, marriage and personal loyalty.

In non-fiction, Caracalla is discussed in Mary Beard’s Spqr and Mary Beard’s Emperor of Rome. In Mary Beard’s Spqr, SPQR tells the history of Rome across roughly a thousand years, from foundation stories and the early monarchy to the extension of Roman citizenship under Caracalla in 212 CE.