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203-594: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus , 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname Caracalla ( / ˌ k æ r ə ˈ k æ l ə / ), was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD. He was a member of the Severan dynasty , the elder son of Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna . Severus proclaimed Caracalla co-ruler in 198, doing the same with his other son Geta in 209. The two brothers briefly shared power after their father's death in 211, but Caracalla soon had Geta murdered by

406-416: A templum devoted to Minerva , on the right side of the aedes of Jupiter, because the concept of "number" was invented by Minerva and the ritual predated the common use of written letters. The importance of this ritual is lost in obscurity, but in the early Republic it is associated with the appointment of a dictator clavi figendi causa , " dictator for the purpose of driving the nail," one of whom

609-462: A Gallic hooded tunic that he habitually wore and made fashionable. He may have begun wearing it during his campaigns on the Rhine and Danube. Cassius Dio , who was still writing his Historia romana during Caracalla's reign, generally referred to him as "Tarautas", after a famously diminutive and violent gladiator of the time, though he also calls him "Caracallus" on various occasions. Caracalla

812-495: A Roman magistrate holding imperium , perhaps by a Lex curiata de imperio , although scholars are not agreed on the finer points of law . A censor had auspicia maxima . It is also thought that the flamines maiores were distinguished from the minores by their right to take the auspicia maiora ; see Flamen . Signs that occurred without deliberately being sought through formal augural procedure were auspicia oblativa . These unsolicited signs were regarded as sent by

1015-683: A carmen (plural carmina ) is a chant, hymn , spell , or charm. In essence "a verbal utterance sung for ritualistic purposes", the carmen is characterized by formulaic expression, redundancy, and rhythm. Fragments from two archaic priestly hymns are preserved, the Carmen Arvale of the Arval Brethren and the Carmina Saliaria of the Salii . The Carmen Saeculare of Horace , though self-consciously literary in technique,

1218-608: A theocracy . According to George Ostrogorsky , "the absolute power of the Roman emperor was further increased with the advent of Christian ideas". This became more evident after the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, which gave Byzantine imperialism a new sense of purpose. The emperor was the subject of a series of rites and ceremonies, including a formal coronation performed by the Patriarch of Constantinople . The Byzantine state

1421-519: A 50-year period that almost saw the end of the Roman Empire. The last vestiges of Republicanism were lost in the ensuing anarchy. In 238, the Senate attempted to regain power by proclaiming Pupienus and Balbinus as their own emperors (the first time since Nerva ). They managed to usurp power from Maximinus Thrax , but they were killed within two months. With the rise of the "soldier emperors",

1624-407: A black berry and black fruit," holly , woodland pear , butcher's broom , briar , and brambles ." The verb attrectare ("to touch, handle, lay hands on") referred in specialized religious usage to touching sacred objects while performing cultic actions. Attrectare had a positive meaning only in reference to the actions of the sacerdotes populi Romani ("priests of the Roman people"). It had

1827-546: A court title bestowed to prominent figures of the government, and lost even more relevance after the creation of the title sebastokrator by Alexios I Komnenos . Despite this, its regular use by earlier emperors led to the name becoming synonym with "emperor" in certain regions. Several countries use Caesar as the origin of their word for "emperor", like Kaiser in Germany and Tsar in Bulgaria and Russia . After

2030-466: A cult image. An altar that received food offerings might also be called a mensa , "table." Perhaps the best-known Roman altar is the elaborate and Greek-influenced Ara Pacis , which has been called "the most representative work of Augustan art." Other major public altars included the Ara Maxima . Some trees were felix and others infelix . A tree (arbor) was categorized as felix if it

2233-505: A deity or deities to express either approval or disapproval for a particular undertaking. The prodigy ( prodigium ) was one form of unfavourable oblativa . Contrast auspicia impetrativa . Private and domestic religion was linked to divine signs as state religion was. It was customary in patrician families to take the auspices for any matter of consequence such as marriages, travel, and important business. The scant information about auspicia privata in ancient authors suggests that

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2436-546: A dictator drove a ritual nail, and the senate appointed one for that purpose. The ritual of "driving the nail" was among those revived and reformed by Augustus, who in 1 AD transferred it to the new Temple of Mars Ultor . Henceforth a censor fixed the nail at the end of his term. A collegium ("joined by law"), plural collegia , was any association with a legal personality . The priestly colleges oversaw religious traditions, and until 300 BC only patricians were eligible for membership. When plebeians began to be admitted,

2639-544: A family name ( nomen ), styling himself as Imp. Caesar instead of Imp. Julius Caesar . However, the nomen was still inherited by women (such as Julia the Younger ) and appear in some inscriptions. After the death of Caligula , Augustus' great-grandson, his uncle Claudius was proclaimed emperor. He was not an official member of the Julia gens , but he was the grandson of Octavia , Augustus' sister, and thus still part of

2842-468: A just war were both formal and substantive. As a formal matter, the war had to be declared according to the procedures of the ius fetiale . On substantive grounds, a war required a "just cause," which might include rerum repetitio , retaliation against another people for pillaging, or a breach of or unilateral recession from a treaty; or necessity, as in the case of repelling an invasion. See also Jus ad bellum . The English word "ceremony" derives from

3045-510: A long pole, which were in use until at least the 2nd century AD. As a consequence, the phalangarii of Legio II Parthica may not have been pikemen, but rather standard battle line troops or possibly triarii . Caracalla's mania for Alexander went so far that he visited Alexandria while preparing for his Persian invasion and persecuted philosophers of the Aristotelian school based on a legend that Aristotle had poisoned Alexander. This

3248-524: A nail was driven in to mark the time. In Rome, the senior magistrate on the Ides of September drove a nail called the clavus annalis ("year-nail") into the wall of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus . The ceremony occurred on the dies natalis ("birthday" or anniversary of dedication) of the temple, when a banquet for Jupiter ( Epulum Jovis ) was also held. The nail-driving ceremony, however, took place in

3451-473: A new caesar . Each pair ruled over a half of the Empire, which led to the creation of a Western and Eastern Roman Empire , a division that eventually became permanent. This division had already a precedent in the joint rule of Valerian / Gallienus and Carus / Carinus . Diocletian justified his rule not by military power, but by claiming divine right . He imitated Oriental divine kingship and encouraged

3654-541: A regime in which the notion of legitimacy is as absent as that of the Augustan principate". Imperial propaganda was often used to legitimize or de-legitimize certain emperors. The Chronicon Paschale , for example, describes Licinius as having been killed like "those who had briefly been usurpers before him". In reality, Licinius was the legitimate emperor of the West (having been appointed by Galerius ), while Constantine

3857-429: A soldier first and an emperor second. In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth started the legend of Caracalla's role as king of Britain. Later, in the 18th century, the works of French painters revived images of Caracalla due to apparent parallels between Caracalla's tyranny and that ascribed to king Louis XVI ( r.  1774–1792 ). Modern works continue to portray Caracalla as an evil ruler, painting him as one of

4060-532: A temple on the Quirinal Hill in 212, which he dedicated to Serapis. A fragmented inscription found in the church of Sant' Agata dei Goti in Rome records the construction, or possibly restoration, of a temple dedicated to the god Serapis. The inscription bears the name "Marcus Aurelius Antoninus", a reference to either Caracalla or Elagabalus , but more likely to Caracalla due to his known strong association with

4263-405: A territory as defined legally or politically. The ager Romanus could not be extended outside Italy (terra Italia) . The focal point of sacrifice was the altar ( ara , plural arae ). Most altars throughout the city of Rome and in the countryside would have been simple, open-air structures; they may have been located within a sacred precinct ( templum ), but often without an aedes housing

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4466-477: A theological dimension. The word aedilis (aedile) , a public official , is related by etymology ; among the duties of the aediles was the overseeing of public works , including the building and maintenance of temples. The temple (aedes) of Flora, for instance, was built in 241 BC by two aediles acting on Sibylline oracles . The plebeian aediles had their headquarters at the aedes of Ceres . In religious usage, ager (territory, country, land, region)

4669-524: A toga was also said to be worn ritu Gabino ("in the Gabine rite"). Clavum figere ("to nail in, to fasten or fix the nail") was an expression that referred to the fixing or "sealing" of fate. A nail was one of the attributes of the goddess Necessitas and of the Etruscan goddess Athrpa (Greek Atropos ). According to Livy , every year in the temple of Nortia , the Etruscan counterpart of Fortuna ,

4872-412: A trade guild or neighborhood association; see Collegium (ancient Rome) . The comitia calata ("calate assemblies") were non-voting assemblies (comitia) called for religious purposes. The verb calare , originally meaning "to call," was a technical term of pontifical usage, found also in calendae ( Calends ) and calator . According to Aulus Gellius , these comitia were held in the presence of

5075-683: A year after Geta's death, Caracalla left Rome, never to return. He went north to the German frontier to deal with the Alamanni , a confederation of Germanic tribes who had broken through the limes in Raetia . During the campaign of 213–214, Caracalla successfully defeated some of the Germanic tribes while settling other difficulties through diplomacy, though precisely with whom these treaties were made remains unknown. While there, Caracalla strengthened

5278-510: Is a spell that evokes the dead from their tombs; a carmen veneficum , a "poisonous" charm. Through magical practice, the word carmen comes to mean also the object on which a spell is inscribed, hence a charm in the physical sense. Castus is an adjective meaning morally pure or guiltless (English "chaste"), hence pious or ritually pure in a religious sense. Castitas is the abstract noun. Various etymologies have been proposed, among them two IE stems: * k'(e)stos meaning "he who conforms to

5481-409: Is full of mystic force." As the sign that manifests the divine will, the augurium for a magistrate was valid for a year; a priest's, for his lifetime; for a temple, it was perpetual. The distinction between augurium and auspicium is often unclear. Auspicia is the observation of birds as signs of divine will, a practice held to have been established by Romulus , first king of Rome , while

5684-561: Is known as the Dominate , derived from the title dominus ("lord") adopted by Diocletian . During his rule, the emperor became an absolute ruler and the regime became even more monarchical. The emperors adopted the diadem crown as their supreme symbol of power, abandoning the subtleties of the early Empire. Beginning in the late 2nd century, the Empire began to suffer a series of political and economic crises, partially because it had overexpanded so much. The Pax Romana ("Roman peace")

5887-598: Is never used. The imperial titles are treated as inseparable of the person, which is reflected in the name Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus . This Lex sometimes related to the Lex regia ("royal law") mentioned in the Corpus Juris Civilis of Eastern emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565), who cites the early 3rd-century writer Ulpian . This was probably a later construct, as its very name, which derives from rex ("king"), would have been utterly rejected in

6090-633: Is often said to have ended with the tyrannical reign of Commodus. His murder was followed by the accession of Septimius Severus , the victor of the Year of the Five Emperors . It was during his reign that the role of the army grew even more, and the emperors' power increasingly depended on it. The murder of his last relative, Severus Alexander , led to the Crisis of the Third Century (235–285),

6293-520: Is often said to have followed a " Caesaropapist " model, where the emperor played the role of ruler and head of the Church, but there was often a clear distinction between political and secular power. The line of Eastern emperors continued uninterrupted until the sack of Constantinople and the establishment of the Latin Empire in 1204. This led to the creation of three lines of emperors in exile:

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6496-480: Is presented in the ancient sources of Cassius Dio , Herodian , and the Historia Augusta as a cruel tyrant and savage ruler. This portrayal of Caracalla is only further supported by the murder of his brother Geta and the subsequent massacre of Geta's supporters that Caracalla ordered. Alongside this, these contemporary sources present Caracalla as a "soldier-emperor" for his preference of the soldiery over

6699-519: Is still often regarded as a usurper, similarly to Magnus Maximus , who was briefly recognized by Theodosius I . Western emperors such as Magnentius , Eugenius and Magnus Maximus are sometimes called usurpers, but Romulus Augustulus is traditionally regarded as the last Western emperor, despite never receiving the recognition of the Eastern emperor Zeno . The period after the Principate

6902-461: Is true that Rome was in a difficult financial situation, it is thought that this could not have been the sole purpose of the edict. The provincials also benefited from this edict because they were now able to think of themselves as equal partners to the Romans in the empire. Another purpose for issuing the edict, as described within the papyrus upon which part of the edict was inscribed, was to appease

7105-459: Is widely accepted, and clearly most likely, that Caracalla ordered the assassination himself, as the two had never been on favourable terms with one another, much less after succeeding their father. 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 removed from all paintings, coins were melted down, statues were destroyed, his name

7308-399: The pomerium ; and use discretionary power whenever necessary. The text further states that he is "not bound by laws", and that any previous act was retroactively considered legitimate. There is no mention of imperium nor tribunicia potestas , although these powers were probably given in the earlier clauses. There is also no mention of any "imperial office", and the title of "emperor"

7511-535: The sacerdos (priest), but substances and objects can also be ritually castus . The cinctus Gabinus ("Gabine cinch") was a way of wearing the toga thought to have originated in the Latin town of Gabii . It was also later claimed to have been part of Etruscan priestly dress . The cinch allowed free use of both arms, essential when the toga was still worn during combat and later important in some religious contexts , particularly those involving use of

7714-403: The templum . The type of auspices required for convening public assemblies were impetrativa , and magistrates had the "right and duty" to seek these omens actively. These auspices could only be sought from an auguraculum , a ritually constructed augural tent or "tabernacle" ( tabernaculum ). Contrast auspicia oblativa . The right of observing the "greater auspices" was conferred on

7917-684: The Baths of Caracalla in Rome began in 211 at the start of Caracalla's rule. The thermae are named for Caracalla, though it is most probable that his father was responsible for their planning. In 216, a partial inauguration of the baths took place, but the outer perimeter of the baths was not completed until the reign of Severus Alexander . These large baths were typical of the Roman practice of building complexes for social and state activities in large densely populated cities. The baths covered around 50 acres (or 202,000 square metres) of land and could accommodate around 1,600 bathers at any one time. They were

8120-469: The Christian Church . This glossary provides explanations of concepts as they were expressed in Latin pertaining to religious practices and beliefs , with links to articles on major topics such as priesthoods, forms of divination, and rituals. For theonyms , or the names and epithets of gods, see List of Roman deities . For public religious holidays, see Roman festivals . For temples see

8323-635: The Constantinian dynasty , emperors followed Imperator Caesar with Flavius , which also began as a family name but was later incorporated into the emperor's titles, thus becoming Imperator Caesar Flavius . The last use of the formula, rendered as Autokrator Kaisar Flabios... Augoustos (Αὐτοκράτωρ καῖσαρ Φλάβιος αὐγουστος) in Greek, is in the Basilika of Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912). Originally

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8526-615: The Graeco-Egyptian god of healing Serapis . The Iseum and Serapeum in Alexandria were apparently renovated during Caracalla's co-rule with his father Septimius Severus. The evidence for this exists in two inscriptions found near the temple that appear to bear their names. Additional archaeological evidence exists for this in the form of two papyri that have been dated to the Severan period and also two statues associated with

8729-581: The Latin Right . Dio maintains that one purpose for Caracalla issuing the edict was the desire to increase state revenue; at the time, Rome was in a difficult financial situation and needed to pay for the new pay raises and benefits that were being conferred on the military. The edict widened the obligation for public service and gave increased revenue through the inheritance and emancipation taxes that only had to be paid by Roman citizens. However, few of those that gained citizenship were wealthy, and while it

8932-504: The List of Ancient Roman temples . Individual landmarks of religious topography in ancient Rome are not included in this list; see Roman temple . The verb abominari ("to avert an omen", from ab- , "away, off," and ominari , "to pronounce on an omen") was a term of augury for an action that rejects or averts an unfavourable omen indicated by a signum , "sign". The noun is abominatio , from which English " abomination " derives. At

9135-528: The Papal States . Pepin's son, Charlemagne , was crowned Imperator Romanorum (the first time Imperator was used as an actual regnal title) by Pope Leo III in Christmas AD 800, thus ending the recognition of the Eastern emperor. Western rulers also began referring to the Empire as the "Greek Empire", regarding themselves as the true successors of Rome. The inhabitants of the Eastern half of

9338-483: The Pontifex Maximus advised privati as well as the official priests about prodigies and their forestalling. By the time of Cicero, the taking of private auspices was falling into disuse. In pontifical usage, the verb averruncare , "to avert," denotes a ritual action aimed at averting a misfortune intimated by an omen. Bad omens ( portentaque prodigiaque mala) are to be burnt, using trees that are in

9541-753: The Praetorian Guard and became sole ruler of the Roman Empire . Julia Domna had a significant share in governance, since Caracalla found administration to be mundane. His reign featured domestic instability and external invasions by the Germanic peoples . Caracalla issued the Antonine Constitution ( Latin : Constitutio Antoniniana ), also known as the Edict of Caracalla, which granted Roman citizenship to all free men throughout

9744-510: The Quirinal Hill , and on the Palatine Hill . Festus said that originally the auguraculum was in fact the arx . It faced east, situating the north on the augur's left or lucky side. A magistrate who was serving as a military commander also took daily auspices, and thus a part of camp-building while on campaign was the creation of a tabernaculum augurale . This augural tent was the center of religious and legal proceedings within

9947-505: The Republic , this right was extended to other magistrates. After 300 BC, plebeians could become augurs. The solicitation of formal auspices required the marking out of ritual space ( auguraculum ) from within which the augurs observed the templum , including the construction of an augural tent or hut ( tabernaculum ). There were three such sites in Rome: on the citadel ( arx ), on

10150-477: The Roman Republic and was given to victorious commanders by their soldiers. They held imperium , that is, military authority. The Senate could then award the extraordinary honor of a triumph ; the commander then retained the title until the end of his magistracy . In Roman tradition, the first triumph was that of Romulus , the founder of Rome, but the first attested use of imperator was in 189 BC, on

10353-498: The Roman army having made the phalanx an obsolete tactical formation. The historian Christopher Matthew mentions that the term Phalangarii has two possible meanings, both with military connotations. The first refers merely to the Roman battle line and does not specifically mean that the men were armed with pikes , and the second bears similarity to the 'Marian Mules' of the late Roman Republic who carried their equipment suspended from

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10556-575: The Tetrarchy the powers of the caesar increased considerably, but following the accession of Constantine I it once more remained as a title for heirs with no significant power attached to it. The title slowly lost importance in the following decades, as emperors started to promote their sons directly to augustus . In the East, the title finally lost its imperial character in 705, when Justinian II awarded it to Tervel of Bulgaria . After this it became

10759-755: The Vestals to ignite the sacred fire in March every year. Also among the felices were the olive tree, a twig of which was affixed to the hat of the Flamen Dialis , and the laurel and the poplar, which crowned the Salian priests . Arbores infelices were those under the protection of chthonic gods or those gods who had the power of turning away misfortune ( avertentium ). As listed by Tarquitius Priscus in his lost ostentarium on trees, these were buckthorn , red cornel , fern , black fig , "those that bear

10962-400: The Vestals . Later, caerimoniae might refer also to other rituals, including foreign cults . These prescribed rites "unite the inner subject with the external religious object", binding human and divine realms. The historian Valerius Maximus makes clear that the caerimoniae require those performing them to attain a particular mental-spiritual state ( animus , "intention"), and emphasizes

11165-413: The augurium salutis in which every year the gods were asked whether it was fas (permissible, right) to ask for the safety of the Roman people (August 5); the augurium canarium , a dog sacrifice (see also supplicia canum ) to promote the maturation of grain crops, held in the presence of the pontiffs as well as the augurs "when ears of wheat have already formed but are still in the sheaths"; and

11368-564: The college of pontiffs in order to inaugurate the rex (the king in the Regal Period or the rex sacrorum in the Republic ) or the flamines . The pontifex maximus auspiciated and presided; assemblies over which annually elected magistrates presided are never calata , nor are meetings for secular purposes or other elections even with a pontiff presiding. The comitia calata were organized by curiae or centuriae . The people were summoned to comitia calata to witness

11571-565: The de facto sole ruler of Rome in 48 BC, when he defeated his last opposition at the Battle of Pharsalus . His killers proclaimed themselves as the liberatores ("liberators") and the restorers of the Republic, but their rule was cut short by Caesar's supporters, who almost immediately established a new dictatorship. In his will, Caesar appointed his grandnephew Octavian as his heir and adopted son. He inherited his property and lineage,

11774-422: The emperors of Nicaea , the emperors of Trebizond , and the short-lived emperors of Thessalonica . The Nicean rulers have been traditionally regarded as the "legitimate" emperors of this period, as they recovered Constantinople and restored the Empire in 1261. The Empire of Trebizond continued to exist for another 200 years, but from 1282 onwards its rulers used the modified title of "Emperor and Autocrat of all

11977-665: The fall of the Western Roman Empire , as it was used by rulers such as Theodoric the Great . Divus The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on later juridical and religious vocabulary in Europe, particularly of

12180-408: The proconsuls of the few senatorial provinces and allies such as Agrippa . The governors appointed to the imperial provinces only answered to the emperor himself, who could maintain or replace them at will. The tribunician power ( tribunicia potestas ), first assumed by Augustus in 23 BC, gave him authority over the tribune of the plebs without having to actually hold the office – a tribune

12383-439: The tutelage of underworld or "averting" gods (see arbores infelices above). Varro says that the god who presides over the action of averting is Averruncus . A " just war " was a war considered justifiable by the principles of fetial law (ius fetiale) . Because war could bring about religious pollution, it was in itself nefas , "wrong," and could incur the wrath of gods unless iustum , "just". The requirements for

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12586-475: The vernisera auguria mentioned by Festus , which should have been a springtime propitiary rite held at the time of the harvest ( auguria messalia ). The auspex , plural auspices , is a diviner who reads omens from the observed flight of birds ( avi- , from avis , "bird", with -spex , "observer", from spicere ). See auspicia following and auspice . The auspicia ( au- = avis , "bird"; -spic- , "watch") were originally signs derived from observing

12789-519: The " Year of the Five Emperors ", but modern scholarship now identifies Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger as usurpers because they were not recognized by the Roman Senate . Recognition by the Senate is often used to determine the legitimacy of an emperor, but this criterion is not always followed. Maxentius is sometimes called an usurper because he did not have the recognition of Tetrarchs , but he held Rome for several years, and thus had

12992-594: The "shadow emperor". In 476, the Heruli Odoacer overthrew the child-emperor Romulus Augustulus , made himself king of Italy and shipped the imperial regalia to the Emperor Zeno in Constantinople. Historians mark this date as the date of the fall of the Western Roman Empire , although by this time there was no longer any "Empire" left, as its territory had reduced to Italy. Julius Nepos , who

13195-573: The 5th century, there was scarcely a single decade without succession conflicts and civil war. During this period, very few emperors died of natural causes. Such problems persisted in the later Eastern Empire, where emperors had to often appoint co-emperors to secure the throne. Despite often working as a hereditary monarchy, there was no law or single principle of succession. Individuals who claimed imperial power "illegally" are referred to as " usurpers " in modern scholarship. Ancient historians refer to these rival emperors as " tyrants ". In reality, there

13398-532: The 9th century. Its last known use was on 866–867 coins of Michael III and his co-emperor Basil I , who are addressed as imperator and rex respectively. In the West, imperator was transformed into a monarchical title by Charlemagne , becoming the official Latin title of the Holy Roman Empire . Originally the cognomen (third name) of the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar , which was then inherited by Augustus and his relatives. Augustus used it as

13601-490: The Augurs were written collections probably of the decreta and responsa of the college of augurs . Some scholarship, however, maintains that the commentarii were precisely not the decreta and responsa . The commentaries are to be distinguished from the augurs' libri reconditi , texts not for public use. The books are mentioned by Cicero , Festus , and Servius Danielis . Livy includes several examples of

13804-706: The East, the Iberians , and the Perateia ", accepting the Niceans as the sole Roman emperors. However, the Byzantine Empire had been reduced mostly to Constantinople, and the rise of other powers such as Serbia and Bulgaria forced the Byzantines to recognize their rulers as basileus . Despite this, emperors continued to view themselves as the rulers of an "universal empire". During the last decades of

14007-432: The Empire always saw the emperor as an open monarch. Starting with Heraclius in 629, Roman emperors styled themselves " basileus ", the traditional title for Greek monarchs used since the times of Alexander the Great . The title was used since the early days of the Empire and became the common imperial title by the 3rd century, but did not appear in official documents until the 7th century. Michael I Rangabe (r. 811–813)

14210-440: The Empire used it regularly. It began to used in official context starting with Septimius Severus , and was first officially adopted in coinage by Aurelian . In the East, imperator was translated as autokrator ("self-ruler"), a title that continued to be used until the end of the Empire. This is the modern Greek word for "emperor" ( υτοκράτορας ). There are still some instances of imperator in official documents as late as

14413-494: The Empire, power was once again shared between multiple emperors and colleagues, each ruling from their own capital, notably during the long reign of John V . Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453; its last emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos , dying in battle. The last vestiges of the empire, Morea and Trebizond , fell in 1461. The title imperator – from imperare , "to command" – dates back to

14616-463: The Empire, while later functioning as de facto separate entities, were always considered and seen, legally and politically, as separate administrative divisions of a single, insoluble state by the Romans of the time. In the West , the office of emperor soon degenerated into being little more than a puppet of Germanic generals such as Aetius and Ricimer ; the last emperors of the West being known as

14819-603: The English translation of the Latin imperator , then Julius Caesar had been an emperor, like several Roman generals before him. Instead, by the end of the Caesar's civil wars , it became clear that there was certainly no consensus to return to the old-style monarchy , but that the period when several officials would fight one another had come to an end. Julius Caesar, and then Augustus after him, accumulated offices and titles of

15022-462: The Latin caerimonia or caeremonia , a word of obscure etymology first found in literature and inscriptions from the time of Cicero (mid-1st century BC), but thought to be of much greater antiquity. Its meaning varied over time. Cicero used caerimonia at least 40 times, in three or four different senses: "inviolability" or "sanctity", a usage also of Tacitus ; "punctilious veneration", in company with cura (carefulness, concern); more commonly in

15225-515: The Republic, Diocletian established at the top of this new structure the Tetrarchy ("rule of four") in an attempt to provide for smoother succession and greater continuity of government. Under the Tetrarchy, Diocletian set in place a system of two emperors ( augusti ) and two subordinates that also served as heirs ( caesares ). When an emperor retired (as Diocletian and Maximian did in 305) or died, his caesar would succeed him and in turn appoint

15428-480: The Republic. From Diocletian , whose reformed tetrarchy divided the position into one emperor in the West and one in the East , emperors ruled in an openly monarchic style. Although succession was generally hereditary, it was only hereditary if there was a suitable candidate acceptable to the army and the bureaucracy, so the principle of automatic inheritance was not adopted, which often led to several claimants to

15631-420: The Roman Empire. The edict gave all the enfranchised men Caracalla's adopted praenomen and nomen : "Marcus Aurelius". Other landmarks of his reign were the construction of the Baths of Caracalla , the second-largest bathing complex in the history of Rome, the introduction of a new Roman currency named the antoninianus , a sort of double denarius , and the massacres he ordered, both in Rome and elsewhere in

15834-421: The Roman state as an autocrat , but he failed to create a stable system to maintain himself in power. His rise to power was the result of a long and gradual decline in which the Republic fell under the influence of powerful generals such as Marius and Sulla . At the end of the Republic no new, and certainly no single, title indicated the individual who held supreme power. Insofar as emperor could be seen as

16037-443: The Roman world among them. Lepidus was sidelined in 36 BC, and relations between Octavian and Antony soon deteriorated. In September 31 BC, Octavian's victory at Actium put an end to any effective opposition and confirmed his supremacy over Rome. In January 27 BC, Octavian and the Senate concluded the so-called " First settlement ". Until then Octavian had been ruling the state with his powers as triumvir , even though

16240-479: The Senate awarded him the appellation of augustus ("elevated"). The honorific itself held no legal meaning, but it denoted that Octavian (henceforth Augustus ) now approached divinity, and its adoption by his successors made it the de facto main title of the emperor. He also received the civic crown alongside several other insignias in his honor. Augustus now held supreme and indisputable power, and even though he still received subsequent grants of powers, such as

16443-516: The Triumvirate itself disappeared years earlier. He announced that he would return the power to the Senate and People of Rome , but this was only an act. The Senate confirmed Octavian as princeps , the " first among equals ", and gave him control over almost all Roman provinces for a tenure of ten years. This limitation was only superficial, as he could renew his powers indefinitely. In addition,

16646-505: The West acknowledged the Eastern emperors until the accession of Empress Irene in 797. After this, the papacy created a rival lineage of Roman emperors in western Europe, the Holy Roman Emperors , which ruled the Holy Roman Empire for most of the period between 800 and 1806. These emperors were never recognized in Constantinople and their coronations resulted in the medieval problem of two emperors . The last Eastern emperor

16849-569: The West remaining after the death of Julius Nepos in 480. Instead the Eastern emperor Zeno proclaimed himself as the sole emperor of a theoretically undivided Roman Empire (although in practice he had no authority in the West). The subsequent Eastern emperors ruling from Constantinople styled themselves as " Basileus of the Romans" ( Ancient Greek : βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων , Basileus Romaíon ) but are often referred to in modern scholarship as Byzantine emperors . The papacy and Germanic kingdoms of

17052-423: The West. The Eastern Greek-speaking half of the Empire had always regarded the emperors as open monarchs ( basileis ), and called them as such. The weakest point of the Augustan institution was its lack of a clear succession system. Formally announcing a successor would have revealed Augustus as a monarch, so he and subsequent emperors opted to adopt their best candidates as their sons and heirs. Primogeniture

17255-528: The actions of certain sacred chickens ; ex quadrupedibus , signs from the behavior of four-legged animals; and ex diris , threatening portents. In official state augury at Rome, only the auspicia ex caelo and ex avibus were employed. The taking of the auspices required ritual silence (silentium) . Watching for auspices was called spectio or servare de caelo . The appearance of expected signs resulted in nuntiatio , or if they were unfavourable obnuntiatio . If unfavourable auspices were observed,

17458-704: The adoptive son of the long-deceased Marcus Aurelius , hence why he named Caracalla after him. Later Eastern imperial dynasties, such as the Doukai and Palaiologoi , claimed descent from Constantine the Great . What turns a "usurper" into a "legitimate" emperor is typically that they managed to gain the recognition of a more senior, legitimate, emperor, or that they managed to defeat a more senior, legitimate emperor and seize power. Modern historiography has not yet defined clear legitimacy criteria for emperors, resulting in some emperors being included or excluded from different lists. The year 193 has traditionally been called

17661-487: The annual pay of an average legionary from 2000 sesterces (500 denarii ) to 2700–3000 sesterces (675–750 denarii ). He lavished many benefits on the army, which he both feared and admired, in accordance with the advice given by his father on his deathbed always to heed the welfare of the soldiers and ignore everyone else. Caracalla needed to gain and keep the trust of the military, and he did so with generous pay raises and popular gestures. He spent much of his time with

17864-474: The authority based on prestige. The honorific was awarded as both a name and a title to Octavian in 27 BC and was inherited by all subsequent emperors, who placed it after their personal names. The only emperor to not immediately assume it was Vitellius , although he did use it after his recognition by the Senate. Later emperors ruled alongside one or several junior augusti who held de jure (but not de facto ) equal constitutional power. Despite its use as

18067-621: The beginning of 217, Caracalla was still based at Edessa before renewing hostilities against Parthia. On 8   April 217 Caracalla, who had just turned 29, was travelling to visit a temple near Carrhae , now Harran in southern Turkey, where in 53   BC the Romans had suffered a defeat at the hands of the Parthians. After stopping briefly to urinate, Caracalla was approached by a soldier, Justin Martialis, and stabbed to death. Martialis had been incensed by Caracalla's refusal to grant him

18270-609: The building should be open to the sky; an aedes for a god embodying virtus ( valour ), such as Minerva , Mars , or Hercules , should be Doric and without frills; the Corinthian order is suited for goddesses such as Venus , Flora , Proserpina and the Lymphae ; and the Ionic is a middle ground between the two for Juno , Diana , and Father Liber . Thus in theory, though not always in practice, architectural aesthetics had

18473-463: The business at hand was stopped by the official observer, who declared alio die ("on another day"). The practice of observing bird omens was common to many ancient peoples predating and contemporaneous with Rome, including the Greeks, Celts, and Germans. Auspicia impetrativa were signs that were solicited under highly regulated ritual conditions (see spectio and servare de caelo ) within

18676-479: The camp. Augurium (plural auguria ) is an abstract noun that pertains to the augur . It seems to mean variously: the "sacral investiture" of the augur; the ritual acts and actions of the augurs; augural law (ius augurale) ; and recorded signs whose meaning had already been established. The word is rooted in the IE stem *aug- , "to increase," and possibly an archaic Latin neuter noun *augus , meaning "that which

18879-608: The chief priesthood as pontifex maximus . His name became Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Augustus . Caracalla and Geta ended the Roman invasion of Caledonia after concluding a peace with the Caledonians that returned the border of Roman Britain to the line demarcated by Hadrian's Wall . During the journey back from Britain to Rome with their father's ashes, Caracalla and his brother continuously argued with one another, making relations between them increasingly hostile. Caracalla and Geta considered dividing

19082-476: The city and Senate of Rome began to lose importance. Maximinus and Carus , for example, did not even set foot on the city. Carus' successors Carinus and Numerian , the last of the Crisis emperors, did not bother to assume the tribunicia potestas either. After reuniting the Roman Empire in 285, Diocletian began a series of reforms to restore stability. Reaching back to the oldest traditions of job-sharing in

19285-525: The city to greet his arrival in December 215, before setting his troops against Alexandria for several days of looting and plunder. In spring 216 he returned to Antioch and before 27 May had set out to lead his Roman army against the Parthians. During the winter of 215/216 he was in Edessa . Caracalla then moved east into Armenia . By 216 he had pushed through Armenia and south into Parthia. Construction on

19488-409: The coinage soon after his ascension. At the end of Severus' reign and early into Caracalla's, the Roman denarius had an approximate silver purity of around 55%, but by the end of Caracalla's reign the purity had been reduced to about 51%. In 215 Caracalla introduced the antoninianus , a coin intended to serve as a double denarius . This new currency, however, had a silver purity of about 52% for

19691-400: The continuance of the Republic. The title had already been used by Pompey and Julius Caesar , among others. It was a purely honorific title with no attached duties or powers, hence why it was never used in official titulature. The title was the most preferred by Augustus as its use implies only "primacy" (is in the " first among equals "), as opposed to dominus , which implies dominance. It

19894-549: The creation of a worship cult . Augustus became pontifex maximus (the chief priest of the College of Pontiffs ) in 12 BC, after the death of the former triumvir Lepidus . Emperors from the reign of Gratian (r. 375–383) onward used the style pontifex inclytus ("honorable pontiff"). The title of pontifex maximus was eventually adopted by the bishops of Rome during the Renaissance . The last known emperors to use

20097-522: The deified emperor ( divus ) Marcus Aurelius ( r.  161–180 ); accordingly, in 195 or 196 Caracalla was given the imperial rank of Caesar , adopting the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caesar, and was named imperator destinatus (or designatus ) in 197, possibly on his birthday, 4 April, and certainly before 7 May. He thus technically became a part of the well-remembered Antonine dynasty . Caracalla's father appointed Caracalla, aged 9, joint Augustus and full emperor from 28 January 198. This

20300-617: The emperor derived from an extraordinary concentration of individual powers and offices that were extant in the Republic and developed under Augustus and later rulers, rather than from a new political office. Under the Republic, these powers would have been split between several people, who would each exercise them with the assistance of a colleague and for a specific period of time. Augustus held them all at once by himself, and with no time limits; even those that nominally had time limits were automatically renewed whenever they lapsed. The Republican offices endured and emperors were regularly elected to

20503-458: The empire in half along the Bosphorus to make their co-rule less hostile. Caracalla was to rule in the west and Geta was to rule in the east. They were persuaded not to do this by their mother. On 26 December 211, at a reconciliation meeting arranged by their mother, Geta was assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard loyal to the 23-year-old Caracalla. Geta died in his mother's arms. It

20706-421: The empire. Between the death of the father and the assassination of Geta towards the end of 211, Caracalla's portrait remains static with a short full beard while Geta develops a long beard with hair strains like his father. The latter was a strong indicator of Geta's effort to be seen as the true successor to their father, an effort that came to naught when he was murdered. Caracalla's presentation on coins during

20909-479: The empire. In 216, Caracalla began a campaign against the Parthian Empire . He did not see this campaign through to completion due to his assassination by a disaffected soldier in 217. Macrinus succeeded him as emperor three days later. The ancient sources portray Caracalla as a cruel tyrant; his contemporaries Cassius Dio ( c. 155 – c. 235) and Herodian ( c. 170 – c. 240) present him as

21112-587: The empire. Julia's growing influence in state affairs was the beginning of a trend of emperors' mothers having influence, which continued throughout the Severan dynasty. On 4   February 211, Septimius Severus died at Eboracum (present-day York , England) while on campaign in Caledonia , to the north of Roman Britain . This left his two sons and co- augusti , Caracalla and his brother, Geta, as joint inheritors of their father's throne and empire. Caracalla adopted his father's cognomen , Severus, and assumed

21315-413: The end of the Empire. In the West, the title was also used by Charlemagne and the subsequent Holy Roman Emperors as part of the formula Imperator Augustus . Both Eastern and Western rulers also used the style semper augustus ("forever augustus"). The word princeps , meaning "first", was a republican term used to denote the leading member of the Senate, and it was used by the early emperors to emphasize

21518-501: The evidence of the plot. It was then that he banished his wife, whose later killing might have been carried out under Caracalla's orders. On 28 January 207, at age 18, Caracalla celebrated his decennalia , the tenth anniversary of the beginning of his reign. The year 208 was the year of his third and Geta's second consulship. Geta was himself granted the rank of Augustus and tribunician powers in September or October 209. During

21721-441: The failure of the Tetrarchy. This practice had first been applied by Septimius Severus , who proclaimed his 10-year-old son Caracalla as augustus . He was followed by Macrinus , who did the same with his 9-year-old son Diadumenian , and several other emperors during the Crisis. This became even more common from the 4th century onwards. Gratian was proclaimed emperor at the age of 8, and his co-ruler and successor Valentinian II

21924-500: The family. Following the suicide of Nero, the last descendant of Caesar, the new emperor Galba adopted the name of Servius Galba Caesar Augustus , thus making it part of the imperial title. Five days before his murder he adopted Piso Licinianus as his son and heir, renaming him as Servius Sulpicius Galba Caesar . After this Caesar came to denote the heir apparent, who would add the name to his own as heir and retain it upon accession as augustus . The only emperor not to assume it

22127-412: The first emperor, whereas Julius Caesar is considered the last dictator of the Roman Republic , a view that is shared by the Roman writers Plutarch , Tacitus , and Cassius Dio . Conversely, the majority of Roman writers, including Pliny the Younger , Suetonius and Appian , as well as most of the ordinary people of the Empire, thought of Julius Caesar as the first emperor. Caesar did indeed rule

22330-750: The flight of birds within the templum of the sky. Auspices are taken by an augur . Originally they were the prerogative of the patricians , but the college of augurs was opened to plebeians in 300 BC. Only magistrates were in possession of the auspicia publica , with the right and duty to take the auspices pertaining to the Roman state . Favorable auspices marked a time or location as auspicious, and were required for important ceremonies or events, including elections, military campaigns and pitched battles. According to Festus , there were five kinds of auspicia to which augurs paid heed: ex caelo , celestial signs such as thunder and lightning; ex avibus , signs offered by birds; ex tripudiis , signs produced by

22533-680: The frontier fortifications of Raetia and Germania Superior , collectively known as the Agri Decumates , so that it was able to withstand any further barbarian invasions for another twenty years. In spring 214, Caracalla departed for the eastern provinces, travelling through the Danubian provinces and the Anatolian provinces of Asia and Bithynia . He spent the winter of 214/215 in Nicomedia . By 4 April 215 he had left Nicomedia, and in

22736-527: The god. Two other inscriptions dedicated to Serapis, as well as a granite crocodile similar to one discovered at the Iseum et Serapeum, were also found in the area around the Quirinal Hill. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG. GERM. Pontifex Maximus , TRibunus Plebis XVIIII , COnSul IIII , Pater Patriae The expenditures that Caracalla made with the large bonuses he gave to soldiers prompted him to debase

22939-452: The gods who had delivered Caracalla from conspiracy. The conspiracy in question was in response to Caracalla's murder of Geta and the subsequent slaughter of his followers; fratricide would only have been condoned if his brother had been a tyrant. The damnatio memoriae against Geta and the large payments Caracalla had made to his own supporters were designed to protect himself from possible repercussions. After this had succeeded, Caracalla felt

23142-417: The granting of tribunicia potestas in 23 BC, these were only ratifications of the powers he already possessed. Most modern historians use 27 BC as the start date of the Roman Empire. This is mostly a symbolic date, as the Republic had essentially disappeared many years earlier. Ancient writers often ignore the legal implications of Augustus' reforms and simply write that he "ruled" Rome following

23345-576: The head is a distinctive feature of Roman rite in contrast with Etruscan practice or ritus graecus , "Greek rite." In Roman art, the covered head is a symbol of pietas and the individual's status as a pontifex , augur or other priest. It has been argued that the Roman expression of piety capite velato influenced Paul 's prohibition against Christian men praying with covered heads: "Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head." In classical Latin, carmen usually means "song, poem, ode." In magico-religious usage,

23548-414: The highest imperial title, it was generally not used to indicate the office of Emperor itself, as ordinary people and writers had become accustomed to Imperator . In the East the title was initially translated as Sebastos , but the form Augoustos eventually became more common. Emperors after Heraclius styled themselves as Basileus , but Augoustos still remained in use in a lesser form up until

23751-445: The highest importance in the Republic, making the power attached to those offices permanent, and preventing anyone with similar aspirations from accumulating or maintaining power for themselves. Julius Caesar had been pontifex maximus since 64 BC; held the offices of consul and dictator five times since 59 BC, and was appointed dictator in perpetuity in 44 BC, shortly before his assassination . He had also become

23954-503: The horse race celebrating his birthday to be abolished and for gold and silver statues dedicated to him to be melted down. These events were, however, limited in scope; most erasures of his name from inscriptions were either accidental or occurred as a result of re-use. Macrinus had Caracalla deified and commemorated on coins as Divus Antoninus . There does not appear to have been any intentional mutilation of Caracalla in any images that were created during his reign as sole emperor. Caracalla

24157-746: The importance of caerimoniae in the dedication and first sentence of his work. In Valerius's version of the Gallic siege of Rome , the Vestals and the Flamen Quirinalis rescue Rome's sacred objects ( sacra ) by taking them to Caere ; thus preserved, the rites take their name from the place. Although this etymology makes a meaningful narrative connection for Valerius, it is unlikely to be correct in terms of modern scientific linguistics . An Etruscan origin has sometimes been proposed. Wagenvoort thought that caerimonia derived from caerus , "dark" in

24360-430: The institution of augury was attributed to his successor Numa . For Servius , an augurium is the same thing as auspicia impetrativa , a body of signs sought through prescribed ritual means. Some scholars think auspicia would belong more broadly to the magistracies and the patres while the augurium would be limited to the rex sacrorum and the major priesthoods. Ancient sources record three auguria :

24563-520: The kingdom of Parthia under the control of Rome. In response, Caracalla used the opportunity to start a campaign against the Parthians. That summer Caracalla began to attack the countryside east of the Tigris in the Parthian war of Caracalla . In the following winter, Caracalla retired to Edessa , modern Şanlıurfa in south-east Turkey , and began making preparations to renew the campaign by spring. At

24766-467: The loyalty of most of his allies, and – again through a formal process of senatorial consent – an increasing number of the titles and offices that had accrued to Caesar. In August 43 BC, following the death of both consuls of the year , Octavian marched to Rome and forced the Senate to elect him consul. He then formed the Second Triumvirate alongside Mark Antony and Lepidus , dividing

24969-421: The main title of the emperor. According to Suetonius , it was "not merely a new title but a more honorable one, inasmuch as sacred places too, and those in which anything is consecrated by augural rites are called "august" ( augusta ), from the increase ( auctus ) in dignity". It was also connected to the religious practice of augury , which was itself linked to Rome's founding by Romulus , and to auctoritas ,

25172-456: The many surviving busts and coins. Images of the young Caracalla cannot be clearly distinguished from his younger brother Geta. On the coins, Caracalla was shown laureate after becoming augustus in 197; Geta is bareheaded until he became augustus himself in 209. Between 209 and their father's death in February   211, both brothers are shown as mature young men who were ready to take over

25375-472: The marginalization of the former heartland of Italy to the empire had a profound cultural impact on the empire and its emperor, which adopted a more Hellenistic character. The Eastern emperors continued to be recognized in the Western kingdoms until the accession of Irene (r. 797–802), the first empress regnant . The Italian heartland was recovered during the reign of Justinian I (r. 527–565), but this

25578-548: The more important civil functions of the emperor; receiving petitions and answering correspondence. The extent of her role in this position, however, is probably overstated. She may have represented her son and played a role in meetings and answering queries; however, the final authority on legal matters was Caracalla. The emperor filled all of the roles in the legal system as judge, legislator, and administrator. The Constitutio Antoniniana (lit. "Constitution of Antoninus", also called "Edict of Caracalla" or "Antonine Constitution")

25781-411: The most prominent of them: the consulship and censorship . This early period of the Empire is known as the " Principate ", derived from the title princeps used by the early emperors. The most important bases of the emperor's power were his supreme power of command ( imperium maius ) and tribunician power ( tribunicia potestas ) as personal qualities, separate from his public office. Originally,

25984-410: The most tyrannical of all Roman emperors. Caracalla's name at birth was Lucius Septimius Bassianus. He was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus at the age of seven as part of his father's attempt at union with the families of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius . According to the 4th-century historian Aurelius Victor in his Epitome de Caesaribus , he became known by the agnomen "Caracalla" after

26187-510: The murder of Caesar, or that he "ruled alone" after the death of Mark Antony. Most Romans thus simply saw the "emperor" as the individual that ruled the state, with no specific title or office attached to him. Augustus actively prepared his adopted son Tiberius to be his successor and pleaded his case to the Senate for inheritance on merit. After Augustus' death in AD ;14, the Senate confirmed Tiberius as princeps and proclaimed him as

26390-458: The need to repay the gods of Rome by returning the favour to the people of Rome through a similarly grand gesture. This was done through the granting of citizenship. Another purpose for issuing the edict might have been related to the fact that the periphery of the empire was now becoming central to its existence, and the granting of citizenship may have been simply a logical outcome of Rome's continued expansion of citizenship rights. In 213, about

26593-449: The negative meaning of "contaminate" (= contaminare) or pollute when referring to the handling of sacred objects by those not authorized, ordained, or ritually purified. An augur (Latin plural augures ) was an official and priest who solicited and interpreted the will of the gods regarding a proposed action. The augur ritually defined a templum , or sacred space, declared the purpose of his consultation, offered sacrifice, and observed

26796-447: The new augustus . Tiberius had already received imperium maius and tribunicia potestas in AD 4, becoming legally equal to Augustus but still subordinate to him in practice. The "imperial office" was thus not truly defined until the accession of Caligula , when all of Tiberius' powers were automatically transferred to him as a single, abstract position that was symbolized by his sacred title of augustus . The legal authority of

26999-406: The omen had no validity apart from the observation of it. The aedes was the dwelling place of a god. It was thus a structure that housed the deity's image, distinguished from the templum or sacred district. Aedes is one of several Latin words that can be translated as "shrine" or "temple"; see also delubrum and fanum . For instance, the Temple of Vesta , as it is called in English,

27202-423: The period between 215 and 217 and an actual size ratio of 1   antoninianus to 1.5   denarii. This in effect made the antoninianus equal to about 1.5   denarii. The reduced silver purity of the coins caused people to hoard the old coins that had higher silver content, aggravating the inflation problem caused by the earlier devaluation of the denarii . During his reign as emperor, Caracalla raised

27405-584: The period of his co-reign with his father, from 198 to 210, are in broad terms in line with the third-century imperial representation; most coin types communicate military and religious messages, with other coins giving messages of saeculum aureum and virtues. During Caracalla's sole reign, from 212 to 217, a significant shift in representation took place. The majority of coins produced during this period made associations with divinity or had religious messages; others had non-specific and unique messages that were only circulated during Caracalla's sole rule. Caracalla

27608-418: The plural caerimoniae , to mean "ritual prescriptions" or "ritual acts." The plural form is endorsed by Roman grammarians. Hendrik Wagenvoort maintained that caerimoniae were originally the secret ritual instructions laid down by Numa , which are described as statae et sollemnes , "established and solemn." These were interpreted and supervised by the College of Pontiffs , flamens , rex sacrorum and

27811-565: The position of centurion , and the praetorian prefect Macrinus , Caracalla's successor, saw the opportunity to use Martialis to end Caracalla's reign. In the immediate aftermath of Caracalla's death, his murderer, Martialis, was killed as well. When Caracalla was murdered, Julia Domna was in Antioch sorting out correspondence, removing unimportant messages from the bunch so that when Caracalla returned, he would not be overburdened with duties. Three days later, Macrinus declared himself emperor with

28014-410: The powers of command where divided in consular imperium for Rome and proconsular imperium for the provinces . This division became obsolete in 19 BC, when Augustus was given consular imperium – despite leaving the consulship in 23 BC – and thus control over all troops. This overwhelming power was referred to as imperium maius to indicate its superiority to other holders of imperium , such as

28217-453: The prescriptions of rite"; or * kas- , from which derives the verb careo, "I defice, am deprived of, have none..." i.e. vitia . In Roman religion, the purity of ritual and those who perform it is paramount: one who is correctly cleansed and castus in religious preparation and performance is likely to please the gods. Ritual error is a pollutant; it vitiates the performance and risks the gods' anger. Castus and castitas are attributes of

28420-448: The protectors of the Church. The territorial divisions of the Tetrarchy were maintained, and for most of the following century the Empire was ruled by two senior emperors, one in the West (with Milan and later Ravenna as capital) and another in the East (with Constantinople as capital). This division became permanent on the death of Theodosius I in 395, when he was succeeded by his sons Honorius and Arcadius . The two halves of

28623-441: The reading of wills, or the oath by which sacra were renounced ( detestatio sacrorum ). They took no active role and were only present to observe as witnesses. Mommsen thought the calendar abbreviation QRCF , given once as Q. Rex C. F. and taken as Quando Rex Comitiavit Fas , designated a day when it was religiously permissible for the rex to "call" for a comitium , hence the comitia calata . The Commentaries of

28826-440: The recognition of the Senate. Other "usurpers" controlled, if briefly, the city of Rome, such as Nepotianus and Priscus Attalus . In the East, the possession of Constantinople was the essential element of legitimacy, yet some figures such as Procopius are treated as usurpers. Rival emperors who later gained recognition are not always considered legitimate either; Vetranio had the formal recognition by Constantius II yet he

29029-465: The reign of his father, Caracalla's mother Julia Domna had played a prominent public role, receiving titles of honour such as "Mother of the camp", but she also played a role behind the scenes helping her husband administer the empire. Described as ambitious, Julia Domna surrounded herself with thinkers and writers from all over the empire. While Caracalla was mustering and training troops for his planned Persian invasion, Julia remained in Rome, administering

29232-406: The reverence of the emperor, making anything related to him sacer (sacred). He declared himself Jovius , the son of Jupiter , and his partner Maximian was declared Herculius , son of Hercules . This divine claim was maintained after the rise of Christianity, as emperors regarded themselves as the chosen rulers of God. The emperor no longer needed the Senate to ratify his powers, so he became

29435-422: The second largest public baths built in ancient Rome and were complete with swimming pools , exercise yards , a stadium , steam rooms, libraries, meeting rooms, fountains, and other amenities, all of which were enclosed within formal gardens. The interior spaces were decorated with colourful marble floors, columns, mosaics, and colossal statuary. At the outset of his reign, Caracalla declared imperial support for

29638-517: The senators, a depiction that made him even less popular with the senatorial biographers. Dio explicitly presented Caracalla as an emperor who marched with the soldiers and behaved like a soldier. Dio also often referred to Caracalla's large military expenditures and the subsequent financial problems this caused. These traits dominate Caracalla's image in the surviving classical literature. The Baths of Caracalla are presented in classical literature as unprecedented in scale, and impossible to build if not for

29841-402: The senior priests of the state such as the flamines maiores . A calator was a public slave . Festus derives the word from the Greek verb kalein , "to call." At the traditional public rituals of ancient Rome, officiants prayed, sacrificed, offered libations , and practiced augury capite velato , "with the head covered" by a fold of the toga drawn up from the back. This covering of

30044-452: The sense of "hidden", hence meaning "darknesses, secrets." In his Etymologiae , Isidore of Seville says that the Greek equivalent is orgia , but derives the word from carendo , "lacking", and says that some think caerimoniae should be used of Jewish observances , specifically the dietary law that requires abstaining from or "lacking" certain foods. The calatores were assistants who carried out day-to-day business on behalf of

30247-438: The signs that were sent in return, particularly the actions and flight of birds. If the augur received unfavourable signs, he could suspend, postpone or cancel the undertaking ( obnuntiatio ). "Taking the auspices" was an important part of all major official business, including inaugurations, senatorial debates, legislation, elections and war, and was held to be an ancient prerogative of Regal and patrician magistrates . Under

30450-482: The size of the colleges was expanded. By the Late Republic , three collegia wielded greater authority than the others, with a fourth coming to prominence during the reign of Augustus . The four great religious corporations ( quattuor amplissima collegia ) were: Augustus was a member of all four collegia , but limited membership for any other senator to one. In Roman society, a collegium might also be

30653-561: The soldiers, so much so that he began to imitate their dress and adopt their manners. After Caracalla concluded his campaign against the Alamanni, it became evident that he was inordinately preoccupied with emulating Alexander the Great . He began openly mimicking Alexander in his personal style. In planning his invasion of the Parthian Empire, Caracalla decided to arrange 16,000 of his men in Macedonian-style phalanxes , despite

30856-436: The sole source of law. These new laws were no longer shared publicly and were often given directly to the praetorian prefects – originally the emperor's bodyguard, but now the head of the new praetorian prefectures – or with private officials. The emperor's personal court and administration traveled alongside him, which further made the Senate's role redundant. Consuls continued to be appointed each year, but by this point, it

31059-496: The specifically Christian idea that the emperor was God's chosen ruler on earth, a special protector and leader of the Christian Church, a position later termed Caesaropapism . In practice, an emperor's authority on Church matters was frequently subject to challenge. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century after multiple invasions by Germanic barbarian tribes, with no recognised claimant to Emperor of

31262-420: The succession or to divide the administration of the empire between them. The office of emperor was thought to be distinct from that of a rex ('king'). Augustus, the first emperor, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch. For the first three hundred years of Roman emperors, efforts were made to portray the emperors as leaders of the Republic, fearing any association with the kings who ruled Rome prior to

31465-696: The summer he was in Antioch on the Orontes . By December 215 he was in Alexandria in the Nile Delta , where he stayed until March or April 216. When the inhabitants of Alexandria heard of Caracalla's claims that he had killed his brother Geta in self-defence, they produced a satire mocking this as well as Caracalla's other pretensions. Caracalla responded to this insult by slaughtering the unsuspecting deputation of leading citizens that had assembled before

31668-417: The support of the Roman army. Caracalla's official portrayal as sole emperor marks a break from 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, an iconic archetype, was adopted by most of the following emperors, such as Maximinus Thrax , who were dependent on

31871-425: The support of the troops to rule the empire. Herodian describes Caracalla as having preferred northern European clothing, Caracalla being the name of the short Gaulish cloak that he made fashionable, and he often wore a blond wig. Dio mentions that when Caracalla was a boy, he had a tendency to show an angry or even savage facial expression. The way Caracalla wanted to be portrayed to his people can be seen through

32074-462: The taking of formally solicited auspices ( auspicia impetrativa ), the observer was required to acknowledge any potentially bad sign occurring within the templum he was observing, regardless of the interpretation. He might, however, take certain actions in order to ignore the signa , including avoiding the sight of them, and interpreting them as favourable. The latter tactic required promptness, wit and skill based on discipline and learning. Thus

32277-455: The taking of private auspices was not different in essence from that of public auspices: absolute silence was required, and the person taking the auspices could ignore unfavourable or disruptive events by feigning not to have perceived them. In matters pertaining to the family or individual, both lightning and exta (entrails) might yield signs for privati , private citizens not authorized to take official auspices. Among his other duties,

32480-460: The temple that have been dated to around 200   AD. Upon Caracalla's ascension to being sole ruler in 212, the imperial mint began striking coins bearing Serapis' image. This was a reflection of the god's central role during Caracalla's reign. After Geta's death, the weapon that had killed him was dedicated to Serapis by Caracalla. This was most likely done to cast Serapis into the role of Caracalla's protector from treachery. Caracalla also erected

32683-470: The throne . Despite this, elements of the republican institutional framework (Senate, consuls, and magistrates) were preserved even after the end of the Western Empire. Constantine the Great , the first Christian emperor, moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople , formerly known as Byzantium , in 330 AD. Roman emperors had always held high religious offices; under Constantine there arose

32886-551: The time of the death of Augustus in AD 14. Outside Rome, citizenship was restricted to Roman coloniae  – Romans, or their descendants, living in the provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout the Empire ;– and small numbers of local nobles such as kings of client countries. Provincials, on the other hand, were usually non-citizens, although some magistrates and their families and relatives held

33089-418: The title continued to be used for a time, with emperors registering the number of times they were hailed imperator . The title became the main appellation of the ruler by the time of Vespasian . After the Tetrarchy , emperors began to be addressed as dominus noster ("our Lord"), although imperator continued to be used. The appellation of dominus was known and rejected by Augustus, but ordinary men of

33292-485: The title of caesar . The Senate still exercised some power during this period, as evidenced by his decision to declare Nero a "public enemy", and did influence in the succession of emperors. Following the murder of Domitian in AD 96, the Senate declared Nerva , one of their own, as the new emperor. His "dynasty", the Antonine , continued the adoptive system until the reign of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180). Marcus

33495-473: The title of consul was Constans II , who was also the last Eastern emperor to visit Rome. It's possible that later emperors also used it as an honorary title, as the office of consul was not abolished until 892, during the reign of Leo VI . During the Dominate it became increasingly common for emperors to raise their children directly to augustus (emperor) instead of caesar (heir), probably because of

33698-418: The title was Junius Blaesus in AD 22, after which it became a title reserved solely for the sovereign. Augustus used Imperator instead of his first name ( praenomen ), becoming Imperator Caesar instead of Caesar Imperator . From this the title slowly became a synonym of the office, hence the word "emperor". Tiberius , Caligula and Claudius avoided using the title, but it is recorded that Caligula

33901-489: The title were Valentinian III and Marcian , in the 5th century. The only surviving document to directly refer to the emperor's power is the Lex de imperio Vespasiani , written shortly after Vespasian 's formal accession in December 69. The text, of which only the second part survives, states that Vespasian is allowed to: make treaties; hold sessions and propose motions to the Senate; hold extraordinary sessions with legislative power; endorse candidates in elections; expand

34104-449: The toga to cover the head ( capite velato ). The style's ancient martial associations caused it to be worn during Roman declarations of war . It was also used by the priest or official charged with guiding the plow creating the sulcus primigenius during the rituals attending the foundation of new colonies . In Latin, cinctus Gabinus could refer to the cinch itself or to the entire toga thus worn. In religious contexts, such

34307-409: The tribunes, such as sacrosanctity , since 36 BC. With this powers, he could veto any act or proposal of any magistrate, propose laws and convoke the Senate. His sacrosanctity also made him untouchable, and any offence against him could be treated as a crime of treason. The tribunician power was arguably the most stable and important of the emperor's powers. Despite being a perpetual title, it

34510-514: The triumph of Aemilius Paulus . It was a title held with great pride: Pompey was hailed imperator more than once, as was Sulla and Julius Caesar . However, as noted by Cassius Dio , the meaning of the title changed under the new monarchy, and came to denote "the possession of the supreme power". Both Dio and Suetonius refer to Caesar as the first one to assume imperator as a proper name (a praenomen imperatoris ), but this seems to be an anachronism . The last ordinary general to be awarded

34713-441: The use of reinforced concrete. The Edict of Caracalla, issued in 212, however, goes almost unnoticed in classical records. Roman emperor The legitimacy of an emperor's rule depended on his control of the Roman army and recognition by the Senate ; an emperor would normally be proclaimed by his troops, or by the Senate, or both. The first emperors reigned alone; later emperors would sometimes rule with co-emperors to secure

34916-507: The vague terms of "second" or "little emperor". Despite having a successful reign himself, Diocletian's tetrarchic system collapsed as soon as he retired in 305. Constantine I , the son of tetrarch Constantius I , reunited the empire in 324 and imposed the principle of hereditary succession which Diocletian intended to avoid. Constantine was also the first emperor to convert to Christianity , and emperors after him, especially after its officialization under Theodosius I , saw themselves as

35119-674: Was Constantine XI Palaiologos , who died during the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. After conquering the city, Ottoman sultans adopted the title " Caesar of the Romans" ( kayser-i Rûm ). A Byzantine group of claimant emperors existed in the Empire of Trebizond until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1461, although they had used a modified title since 1282. Modern historians conventionally regard Augustus as

35322-415: Was Vitellius , who adopted the name Germanicus instead. Most emperors used it as their nomen – with Imperator as their praenomen – until the reign of Antoninus Pius , when it permanently became part of the formula Imperator Caesar [full name] Augustus . In the 3rd century, caesars also received the honorific of nobilissimus ("most noble"), which later evolved into a separate title. During

35525-480: Was a sign of Caracalla's increasingly erratic behaviour. In 216, Caracalla pursued a series of aggressive campaigns in the east against the Parthians , intended to bring more territory under direct Roman control. He offered the king of Parthia, Artabanus IV of Parthia , a marriage proposal between himself and the king's daughter. Artabanus refused the offer, realizing that the proposal was merely an attempt to unite

35728-602: Was also a hymn, performed by a chorus at the Saecular Games of 17 BC and expressing the Apollonian ideology of Augustus . A carmen malum or maleficum is a potentially harmful magic spell. A fragment of the Twelve Tables reading si malum carmen incantassit ("if anyone should chant an evil spell") shows that it was a longstanding concern of Roman law to suppress malevolent magic. A carmen sepulchrale

35931-508: Was also used to distinguish a junior co-emperor ( basileus ) from his senior colleague ( basileus autokrator ). By the times of the Palaiologos , there were two distinct ceremonies for the accession of an emperor: first an acclamation as basileus , and later a coronation as autokrator (which also included being raised on a shield). These rites could happen years apart. The Eastern Empire became not only an absolute monarchy but also

36134-512: Was always renewed each year, which often coincided with the beginning of a new regnal year (although " regnal years " were not officially adopted until Justinian I ). The office of censor was not fully absorbed into the imperial office until the reign of Domitian , who declared himself "perpetual censor" ( censor perpetuus ) in AD 85. Before this, the title had been only used by Claudius (47), Vespasian and Titus (both in 73). The emperor also had power over religious affairs, which led to

36337-407: Was an edict issued in 212 by Caracalla declaring that all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given full Roman citizenship, with the exception of the dediticii , people who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slaves. Before 212, the majority of Roman citizens had been inhabitants of Roman Italia, with about 4–7% of all peoples in the Roman Empire being Roman citizens at

36540-446: Was an office often occupied by the emperor himself, who now had complete control over the bureaucratic apparatus. Diocletian did preserve some Republican traditions, such as the tribunicia potestas . The last known emperor to have used it was Anastasius I , at the start of the 6th century. Anastasius was also the last attested emperor to use the traditional titles of proconsul and pater patriae . The last attested emperor to use

36743-405: Was appointed for the years 363, 331, 313, and 263 BC. Livy attributes this practice to religio , religious scruple or obligation. It may be that in addition to an annual ritual, there was a "fixing" during times of pestilence or civil discord that served as a piaculum . Livy says that in 363, a plague had been ravaging Rome for two years. It was recalled that a plague had once been broken when

36946-536: Was born in Lugdunum , Gaul (now Lyon , France), on 4   April 188 to Septimius Severus ( r.  193–211 ) and Julia Domna , thus giving him Punic paternal ancestry and Arab maternal ancestry. He had a slightly younger brother, Geta , with whom Caracalla briefly ruled as co-emperor. Caracalla was five years old when his father was acclaimed Augustus on 9 April 193. In early 195, Caracalla's father Septimius Severus had himself adopted posthumously by

37149-401: Was by definition a plebeian , whereas Augustus, although born into a plebeian family, had become a patrician when he was adopted into the gens Julia . By adopting the role of a tribune, Augustus was presenting himself as the representative of the common man and the protector of democracy. As always, this was not a sudden grant of power; Augustus had been receiving several powers related to

37352-422: Was forced to marry the daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus , Fulvia Plautilla , whom he hated, though for what reason is unknown. The wedding took place between the 9 and the 15 April, just after he turned 14. In 205, Caracalla was consul for the second time, in company with Geta – his brother's first consulship. By 205, aged 16, Caracalla had got Plautianus executed for treason, though he had probably fabricated

37555-419: Was hailed imperator by the Senate on his accession, indicating that it was already considered an integral part of the dignity. It was not until the late reign of Nero , in AD 66, that imperator became once more part of the emperor's nomenclature. Virtually all emperors after him used the praenomen imperatoris , with only a few variations under his successors Galba and Vitellius . The original meaning of

37758-444: Was in Latin an aedes . See also the diminutive aedicula , a small shrine. In his work On Architecture , Vitruvius always uses the word templum in the technical sense of a space defined through augury , with aedes the usual word for the building itself. The design of a deity's aedes , he writes, should be appropriate to the characteristics of the deity. For a celestial deity such as Jupiter , Coelus , Sol or Luna ,

37961-426: Was no distinction between emperors and usurpers, as many emperors started as rebels and were retroactively recognized as legitimate. The Lex de imperio Vespasiani explicitly states that all of Vespasian's actions are considered legal even if they happened before his recognition by the Senate. Ultimately, "legitimacy was a post factum phenomenon." Theodor Mommsen famously argued that "here has probably never been

38164-618: Was not relevant in the early Empire, although emperors still attempted to maintain a familiar connection between them; Tiberius , for example, married Julia the Elder , making him Augustus ' son-in-law. Vespasian , who took power after the collapse of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the tumultuous Year of the Four Emperors , was the first emperor to openly declare his sons, Titus and Domitian , as his sole heirs, giving them

38367-440: Was not subject to a proper damnatio memoriae after his assassination; while the Senate disliked him, his popularity with the military prevented Macrinus and the Senate from openly declaring him to be a hostis . Macrinus, in an effort to placate the Senate, instead ordered the secret removal of statues of Caracalla from public view. After his death, the public made comparisons between him and other condemned emperors and called for

38570-407: Was overthrown and expelled to Dalmatia in favor of Romulus, continued to claim the title until his murder in 480. The Eastern court recognized this claim and Odoacer minted coins in his name, although he never managed to exercise real power. The death of Nepos left Zeno as the sole emperor of a (technically) reunited Roman Empire. The Roman Empire survived in the East for another 1000 years, but

38773-493: Was proclaimed nobilissimus caesar on the same day, and their father Septimius Severus was awarded the victory name Parthicus Maximus . In 199, he was inducted into the Arval Brethren . By the end of 199, at age 11, he was entitled pater patriae . In 202, he was Roman consul , having been named consul designatus the previous year. His colleague was his father, serving his own third consulship. In 202, Caracalla

38976-412: Was proclaimed emperor at the age of 4. Many child emperors such as Philip II or Diadumenian never succeeded their fathers. These co-emperors all had the same honors as their senior counterpart, but they did not share the actual government, hence why junior co-emperors are usually not counted as real emperors by modern or ancient historians. There was no title to denote the "junior" emperor; writers used

39179-413: Was replaced with dominus ("lord"); the use of princeps and dominus broadly symbolizes the differences in the empire's government, giving rise to the era designations Principate and Dominate . The title is still found in some later sources, however. The poet Claudian , for example, describes Honorius as having been raised from " caesar " to " princeps " (instead of augustus ). The title survived

39382-617: Was reverted by the end of the century. Rome technically remained under imperial control , but was completely surrounded by the Lombards . Africa was lost to the Arabs in the early 7th century, and Rome eventually fell to the Lombards in 751, during the reign of Constantine V . The Frankish king Pepin the Short defeated them and received the favour of Pope Stephen II , who became the head of

39585-453: Was struck from papyrus records, and it became a capital offence to speak or write Geta's name. In the aftermath of the damnatio memoriae , an estimated 20,000 people were massacred. Those killed were Geta's inner circle of guards and advisers, friends, and other military staff under his employ. When Geta died in 211, Julia Domna's responsibilities increased, because Caracalla found administrative tasks to be mundane. She may have taken on one of

39788-407: Was terrestrial space defined for the purposes of augury in relation to auspicia . There were five kinds of ager : Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus and incertus . The ager Romanus originally included the urban space outside the pomerium and the surrounding countryside. According to Varro , the ager Gabinus pertained to the special circumstances of the oppidum of Gabii , which

39991-692: Was the day Septimius Severus's triumph was celebrated, in honour of his victory over the Parthian Empire in the Roman–Persian Wars ; he had successfully sacked the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon , after winning the Battle of Ctesiphon , probably in October 197. He was also awarded tribunician power and the title of imperator . In inscriptions, Caracalla is given from 198 the title of the chief priesthood, pontifex maximus . His brother Geta

40194-486: Was the first emperor to actually use the title of "Roman emperor" (βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων, Basileus Romaíon ). This was a response to the new line of emperors created by Charlemagne – although he was recognized as basileus of the Franks . By the 9th century the full imperial title became " basileus and autokrator of the Romans", usually translated as "Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans". The title autokrator

40397-409: Was the first emperor to rule alongside other emperors, first with his adoptive brother Lucius Verus , who succeeded jointly with him, and later with his son Commodus , who was proclaimed co- augustus in 177. Despite being the son of a previous emperor and having nominally shared government with him, Commodus' rule ended with his murder at the hands of his own soldiers. From his death in 192 until

40600-453: Was the first to sign a sacred treaty (pax) with Rome. The ager peregrinus was other territory that had been brought under treaty (pacatus) . Ager hosticus meant foreign territory; incertus , "uncertain" or "undetermined," that is, not falling into one of the four defined categories. The powers and actions of magistrates were based on and constrained by the nature of the ager on which they stood, and ager in more general usage meant

40803-602: Was the real "usurper" (having been proclaimed by his troops). There were no true objective legal criteria for being acclaimed emperor beyond acceptance by the Roman army , which was really the true basis of imperial power. Common methods used by emperors to assert claims of legitimacy, such as support of the army, blood connections (sometimes fictitious) to past emperors, distributing one's own coins or statues, and claims to pre-eminent virtue through propaganda, were pursued just as well by many usurpers as they were by legitimate emperors. Septimius Severus notably declared himself as

41006-408: Was the title used by early writers before the term imperator became popular. In his Res Gestae , Augustus explicitly refers to himself as the princeps senatus . The title was also sometimes given to heirs, in the form of princeps iuventutis ("first of the youth"), a term that continued to be used during the Tetrarchy . In the era of Diocletian and beyond, princeps fell into disuse and

41209-418: Was under the protection of the heavenly gods (di superi) . The adjective felix here means not only literally "fruitful" but more broadly "auspicious". Macrobius lists arbores felices (plural) as the oak (four species thereof), the birch, the hazelnut, the sorbus, the white fig, the pear, the apple, the grape, the plum, the cornus and the lotus. The oak was sacred to Jupiter , and twigs of oak were used by

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