Caracalla and Geta: the real lives of the mad emperors of Gladiator II

Framing the action around their shared reign means that it is possible to pinpoint exactly when the sequel takes place: AD 211. Caracalla and Geta – who did not get on as well as Gladiator II’s trailers suggest – ruled together for just 10 months, before their fractious relationship ended in fratricide.

After having his brother murdered, Caracalla then ruled alone for another six years and earned a reputation as one of Rome’s more cruel, callous and changeable emperors.

The early lives of Caracalla and Geta

As the sons of Septimius Severus, a rising statesman from North Africa serving as a provincial governor in Upper Pannonia (in modern-day Austria and Hungary), and his wife, Julia Domna, they were never meant for the imperial throne.

Caracalla was born in AD 188 and named Septimius Bassianus. The name Caracalla was actually a pejorative nickname that came later, referring to a type of heavy, hooded cloak that he used to wear, which was used in the far reaches of the empire. The following year, Geta was born.

Their paths changed in AD 193, the so-called ‘Year of the Five Emperors’ following the assassination of the much-despised Commodus. Out of that bitter period of rival claimants and fighting across the Roman empire, Severus – who had widespread support within the army – came out on top.

Caracalla and Geta’s rise to power

An imperative of Severus’s rule was to establish his own Severan dynasty. To that end, he renamed his eldest son as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, thus linking his bloodline to the successful and beloved Antonine rulers of the second century, which included Marcus Aurelius.

Severus then appointed Caracalla as augustus, or co-emperor, in AD 198, around the time he turned 10. A relatively common practice in ancient Rome, this would smooth the issue of the succession.

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Aged 14, Caracalla was married to the daughter of Severus’s influential and powerful second-in-command, Plautianus. It proved a deeply unhappy and tragic match, as well as an early sign of Caracalla’s cruelty. Within a couple of years of the marriage, he had Plautianus killed on a charge of treason and exiled his wife. Later, he ordered her death, too.

Meanwhile, despite being only a year younger than his brother, Geta clearly remained a junior figure in their father’s rule. While both boys were showered with honours and titles, Geta had to wait more than a decade before his elevation to augustus.

From AD 209, there were three emperors while the father and sons ruled, but any hopes Severus had for his sons to rule together became increasingly bleak. They disliked each other immensely. Typically, Geta has been presented as the intellectual interested in civil administration, while Caracalla’s wish was for glory in battle.

Caracalla equally seemed impatient to be emperor. Accompanying Severus on his military campaign to northern Roman Britain, he supposedly tried to have his ailing father poisoned to hasten his accession. While that assassination attempt failed, Severus did succumb to illness in February AD 211, while in Eboracum (York).

The brief joint rule of Caracalla and Geta

Now co-emperors, Caracalla and Geta hastily ended the campaign in Britain and returned to Rome. As feared, however, it immediately became evident that the brothers’ shared rule would be a disaster.

The next few months were defined by animosity, suspicion and constant conspiring. Caracalla and Geta would not even be in the same room without their mother and own guards present; they divided the imperial palace in two, and built their own factions of support with the aim of ousting the other. There were even talks of splitting the entire empire.

The joint rule only lasted as long as it did due to the mediation of their mother, Julia Domna. For years, she had proven herself a canny operator as an advisor in Severus’s reign.

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Caracalla kills Geta

Both Caracalla and Geta feared assassination by the other, and justifiably so. In December AD 211, Caracalla arranged a meeting with Geta in the neutral territory of their mother’s apartments, ostensibly to seek a reconciliation. Instead, soldiers stabbed Geta and he died in his mother’s arms.

As sole emperor, one of Caracalla’s first acts was to commit damnatio memoriae: the damnation of memory, or the complete destruction of all record of his brother in an attempt to erase him from history.

Across the empire, it became an offence just to say his name, while his image was removed from all coins, statues and art. Most famously, the Severan Tondo, a family portrait of Severus, Julia Domna and the two sons as young boys, has survived with the utterly obliterated face of Geta.

Caracalla was not done, though. He purged the empire of anyone linked to his brother, from senators to servants. According to the Roman historian Cassius Dio, as many as 20,000 men and women were put to death.

Caracalla as emperor

Caracalla ruled for another six years after Geta’s death. There would be more bloodshed – during a visit to Alexandria in Egypt, he ordered a massacre, supposedly in retaliation to the jokes being made at his expense – and he was despised by the elite of Rome, notably the Senate.

The legacy of his reign, however, hinges on two achievements.

The former is the Antonine Constitution, also known as the Edict of Caracalla. Issued in AD 212, it granted Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. While it sounds like a great egalitarian reform, the purpose may have been simply to add to the tax-paying population or secure the frontiers with a gesture of bringing everyone into the Roman fold. Regardless, it had far-reaching implications in the empire as the meaning of citizenship shifted.

There would be more bloodshed – during a visit to Alexandria in Egypt, he ordered a massacre, supposedly in retaliation to the jokes being made at his expense – and he was despised by the elite of Rome, notably the Senate

The latter achievement was the Baths of Caracalla, a magnificent complex in Rome. The largest of its kind at the time, able to fit 1,600 people, it included vast baths and pools, vaulted ceilings, libraries, gyms, halls and gardens, and decorated with exquisite marbles, mosaics and statues. The baths remained in use until the sixth century. Yet while Caracalla got the credit, the baths’ commission and construction actually originated in Severus’s reign.

What Caracalla truly cared about was military glory. Following his father’s last piece of advice to “enrich the army”, he was beloved by the soldiers for raising their pay 50 per cent and he wanted to be seen ‘mucking in’ with the men.

On the other side, he longed to be the new Alexander the Great. Obsessed with the Macedonian empire builder, Caracalla tried to mimic him in every way, including his clothing, military strategy and – contradicting his image as a normal soldier – depictions as a great god king.

Caracalla personally went on campaign against the German tribes, achieving reputation and ego-boosting victories, and was preparing for a second campaign against the Parthian empire. He would not live to see it through.

How did Caracalla die?

In AD 217, Caracalla, not yet 30 years old, was stabbed and killed while on his way through modern-day Turkey. The killer was a soldier named Justin Martialis.

He had been recruited by Macrinus, a skilled lawyer and bureaucrat serving as praetorian prefect, a high office in the Roman empire. Having begun to conspire against the emperor, Macrinus knew that if he did not strike first then Caracalla would almost certainly come for him.

It was said that Caracalla had stepped to the side of the road to urinate when the knife was plunged into his back. There is a certain irony that, given that his primary concern was military matters, it was a disgruntled solider – Martialis had reportedly been upset not to have been made a centurion – who ended his life.

Gladiator II is in cinemas now. For more content like this, check out our best historical movies of all time, the historical TV series and films streaming now, and our picks of the new history TV and radio released in the UK this week.