Editing Caracalla (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early life ===
Caracalla was born on the 4th of April 188 in Lugdunum, Gallia Lyons. He was the son of Lucio Septimius Severus and Giulia Domna and was the major brother of Publius Septimius Geta. In 198, he began to be associated with the leadership from an early age, although he had effective power only when his father died.

=== Relationship with Fulvia Plautilla ===
In 200 a.C, the praetorian prefect Gaius Fulvius Plautianus made an agreement with Septimius Severus to give his young daughter Fulvia Plautilla as a wife to Caracalla. The two married with great pomp. The historian Cassio Dione, one of the major sources on Caracalla, had also participated in the wedding banquet. However, in 202 A.D., only 2 years later, Caracalla accused of high treason and had Plautianus executed. Plautilla became an uncomfortable character, so her husband decided to accuse her of adultery and divorce her. After her divorce Caracalla exiled Plautilla and her brother Ortensiano on the island of Lipari, where in 212 A.D. they were executed.

=== [[Murder]] of the brother Geta ===
After the death of Septimius Severus during the military expedition against the tribes in Northern Britain in 211 A.D. , by the will of his advisers, Caracalla succeeded his father together with his brother Geta. The brothers quickly made peace with the barbarians and returned to Rome, where the situation soon became unbearable. Neither brother was willing to divide the imperial power and they had isolated themselves reciprocally. 
[[File:Caracalla's punishment.jpg|left|thumb|276x276px|The ghost of Septimius Severus returning from the Afterlife for punish Caracalla for killing his brother Geta.]]
Following some disagreements, Caracalla killed Geta with the sword, uselessly defended by his mother Giulia Domna, who in her heat was wounded in her hand. Caracalla fled the palace and obtained the support of the praetorians by convincing them that he had been threatened with death by his brother and above all by promising them large donations for their support.

Caracalla appeared in the Senate with armor under his toga and escorted by his guards, to give the inauguration speech for approval by the Senate. The Senate, now devoid of effective political power, confirmed him emperor. Having taken power, he raged against the party of his brother's supporters in Rome, killing them, without sparing women and children.

=== Barbaric invasion of the 3rd century ===
In 212 A.D., along the Germanic-Rhaetian limes, the confederation of the Alemanni appeared for the first time, a group of peoples, grouped along the borders of the provinces of Upper Germany and Rezia. Later, the Alemanni broke through the limes and forced the emperor to rush along this strategic sector to stem their possible invasion the following year. He had the communication routes of the Noricum repaired, where he created a new route from the Danube towards Linz, and in Rezia and Pannonia, as evidenced by the found milestones.

Also in Caracalla other successes on the barbarian populations along the middle-lower course of the Danube such as Quadi, Free Dacians, Goths and Carpi in 214 AD should be attributed. and first part of 215 A.D.

=== Attempted incorporation of the Kingdom of the Parties ===
Wanting to incorporate the Parthian Kingdom into the empire, which was then divided by internal discords, he meticulously prepared the troops, auxiliaries and two large war machines, transported by ships. When he crossed the Hellespont, he risked shipwreck due to a failure of the ship carrying him. He went to Ilium, ancient Troy, where he made a sacrifice at a friend's funeral pyre, cutting off a lock of hair (imitating Achilles). Subsequently he asked to marry the daughter of the Parthian king, but he refused, so in 215 AD. he had the pretext to attack them. The expedition, however, had no luck, due to the sudden assassination of the emperor.

=== Death ===
In 217 A.D. was assassinated by his subordinate named Martial, who pierced him taking advantage of the fact that the emperor for a corporal need had dismounted from his horse and had secluded himself from the guards, while he was on his way to Carre to visit a sanctuary of the local god Sin or Lunus, during the second Parthian expedition. Caracalla's body was cremated and the ossuary of his remains was placed in Rome with his parents inside the mausoleum of the Antonines.