The real Macrinus: how Gladiator II’s power broker became a short-lived Roman emperor

Was Macrinus real?

Yes, but he has absolutely nothing to do with gladiators. The real Macrinus was a political player who rose up from the relatively low ranks of the equestrian class, and *possible spoiler alert for the film* later became a short-lived Roman emperor.

In Gladiator II’s fictionalised version of the Severan Dynasty, Macrinus is an arms dealer, owner of a gladiator stable, and a cunning political mover with his eyes on more power.

The real Macrinus was not a behind-the-scenes businessman using gladiators, as said in the movie, as his “instrument”. In reality, he held a position high up in the emperor’s circle. He managed all civil affairs in Rome, before taking an opportunity to grasp the imperial throne after the death of Caracalla.

Macrinus’s early life – did he know Marcus Aurelius?

There is no evidence that Macrinus had any dealings with emperor Marcus Aurelius – much less that Aurelius kept him as a slave, as Gladiator II suggests.

Marcus Opellius Macrinus was born in c164 AD in Mauretania Caesariensis, a Roman province in modern-day Algeria. He was of Berber ancestry, and the historian and senator Cassius Dio described him as “Moor by birth”.

Little is known about his early life. Growing up in an equestrian family (which was the name for the social order below the senatorial class), he must have received a good education as he trained as a lawyer and moved to Rome, where he prospered.

Dio put this down not to his knowledge of the law and precedent, but “his observance of them was faithful”.

What is Macrinus’s relationship with Caracalla and Geta

“I have the trust of the emperors,” Macrinus says of Carcaalla and Geta in Gladiator II. But how did he get there? The answer lies in the Praetorian Guard, the elite imperial bodyguard.

Macrinus came to the attention of Plautianus who, as head of the Praetorian Guard during the reign of Septimius Severus, was a powerful official. This could have gone wrong quickly: Plautianus fell from power and was executed in AD 205, but Macrinus managed to maintain favour thanks to friends in the Senate.

He continued to work as a lawyer, while taking on bureaucratic responsibilities under Severus. These included the management of the Via Flaminia, one of the major roads leading from Rome, and imperial finances.

When Severus died in AD 211, his sons Caracalla and Geta ascended as joint co-rulers, albeit briefly. Caracalla had his brother killed before the year was out and established his own reign. He then appointed Macrinus as the praetorian prefect, elevating the lawyer from equestrian roots to one of the highest offices in the empire.

“Macrinus supposedly doesn't have much of an education in terms of law and policy in Roman tradition,” says Professor Alison Futrell, a historian of Rome and the gladiatorial games, who spoke to HistoryExtra for our Gladiator II: historian reaction video.

“Some of our sources do think of him as someone who is trying his best, someone who is not being presented as utterly evil or unprincipled or immoral through and through as others near the centre of power are.”

Macrinus and the assassination of Caracalla

On top of his judicial, legal and administrative duties, Macrinus was commander of the Praetorian Guard and Legio II Parthia, one of the legions of the Roman army. In these roles, he joined the young emperor Caracalla’s campaign against the Parthian empire to the east.

The invasion failed, and Macrinus became aware that the paranoid Caracalla, who had a history of bloodletting, might turn on him. Supposedly, the emperor had heard a prophesy that his praetorian prefect would overthrow him, and so contemplated having Macrinus killed. What he did not prepare for was a pre-emptive strike.

On 8 April AD 217, a disgruntled soldier stabbed Caracalla to death on a roadside in modern-day Turkey, choosing a moment when the emperor was relieving himself. The assassin had allegedly been recruited by Macrinus.

How did Macrinus become emperor?

Three days after Caracalla’s assassination, the army proclaimed Macrinus as the new emperor. When news got back to Rome, the Senate had no reason to challenge this move: many senators despised Caracalla, so rejoiced at his death and willingly accepted Macrinus on the throne.

Yet the soldiers loved Caracalla. To keep them on-side, Macrinus deified the man that he had had killed. He then adopted the name ‘Severus’ to associate him with the ruling dynasty.

Macrinus made history by becoming the first emperor not to have come from the Roman aristocracy or senatorial class. In another first, he would also never step foot in Rome as emperor.

Macrinus’s reign as emperor

Following his ascension to the role of emperor, Macrinus remained at the army camp at Antioch where his first priority was the war against the Parthian empire. Enemy forces had regrouped and invaded Mesopotamia, leading to an extremely bloody but indecisive battle in the summer of AD 217, at Nisibis.

Rather than continue the protracted campaign that had been started by his predecessor, Macrinus decided to sue for peace. For this, he agreed to unfavourable terms for Rome and paid huge sums of money to the Parthians. The war may have been over, but Macrinus’s reign took an early hit.

In dealing with other threats from Armenia and Dacia, Macrinus similarly stepped away from further military engagement. He returned everything and everyone previously seized from the Armenians and confirmed their status as a client kingdom of Rome, and ordered the release of Dacian hostages.

It would not be long before Macrinus made enemies both in the Senate (where resentment festered against his relatively lowly background) and the army. He cut the pay of new recruits and revalued the currency – reversing changes instituted by Caracalla – which damaged his popularity among the soldiers.

Another foe was Julia Domna, Caracalla’s mother and a political figure in her own right. Hearing that she had begun to conspire against him, Macrinus had her arrested. But with her health already failing, Julia Domna starved herself to death.

Was there a conspiracy against Macrinus?

Julia Domna’s sister, Julia Maesa, continued to plot against Macrinus, spreading the rumour that her 14-year-old grandson, Bassianus – better known as Elagabalus (and sometimes known to history as Heliogabalus) – was, in fact, Caracalla’s illegitimate son. This ensured the boy, who served as chief priest of the Syrian sun god Elegabal, received plenty of support within the army.

Many soldiers shifted their allegiance: after Julia Maesa had Elagabalus smuggled into the military camp at Raphanea, in Roman Syria, the Legio III Gallica proclaimed him as emperor in May AD 218.

Macrinus responded by naming his nine-year-old son, Diadumenian, as co-ruler in the hopes of giving the impression of a stable dynastic line. His praetorian prefect, Ulpius Julianus, was sent at the head of a detachment of cavalry to put down Elagabalus’s rebellion, only for his men to kill him and join the would-be child emperor.

How did Macrinus die?

In June AD 218, Macrinus’s forces met the legions now loyal to Elagabalus at the battle of Antioch and suffered a decisive defeat. His reign all but over after 14 months, Macrinus fled for Rome to shore up support. But on the way, despite shaving his hair and beard, he was recognised and captured.

Macrinus was executed shortly afterwards. The same fate befell his young son, before both of their heads were sent to Elagabalus.

The Senate immediately acknowledged Elagabalus as emperor, having declared Macrinus and his son as enemies of the state. Not yet done, they then pronounced damnatio memoriae, the destruction of memory, by expunging them from the record and mutilating their image.

As such, only limited resources remain attesting the life of Macrinus, most notably the words of Cassius Dio, who, as a senator, did not look kindly on this upstart from North Africa.

“This man, now, might have been praised above all men, if he had not set his heart upon becoming emperor himself, but had selected some man belonging to the senate and had declared him emperor.

“But instead of taking such a course, he brought discredit and destruction alike upon himself, so that he became the object of reproach and fell victim to a disaster that was richly deserved.”

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.