He issued one of the most consequential legal reforms in Roman history. He also had his brother stabbed to death in their mother's arms.
This Caracalla canvas wall art features a dramatic portrait of one of Rome's most contradictory emperors, part of the Bad Boys of Rome collection. A distinguished piece for the home, office, or classroom - and a compelling gift for history enthusiasts, classics lovers, and students of Roman power.
ABOUT CARACALLA (188 AD – 217 AD)
Born Lucius Septimius Bassianus in Lugdunum - modern-day Lyon, France - Caracalla was the elder son of the emperor Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, a Syrian noblewoman of formidable intelligence who would remain one of the few stabilizing forces in his turbulent reign. His father renamed him Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to invoke the prestige of the Antonine dynasty, and made him co-emperor at ten years old. From childhood, his defining relationship was one of ferocious rivalry with his younger brother Geta - a rivalry their father never managed to resolve and that would end in bloodshed the moment Severus was gone.
When Septimius Severus died in 211 AD at York, both brothers returned to Rome as joint emperors. The arrangement lasted months. In December 211 AD, Caracalla invited Geta to a reconciliation meeting at their mother's apartments, then had Praetorian soldiers waiting. Geta died in Julia Domna's arms. The purge that followed was extensive - ancient sources suggest as many as twenty thousand of Geta's associates and supporters were killed. Caracalla secured the army's loyalty with a substantial pay increase and moved on.
His reign as sole emperor was defined by near-constant military campaigning - against Germanic tribes on the Rhine and Danube, and against Parthia in the east - and by two lasting legacies that pull in opposite directions. The Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 AD, extending Roman citizenship to virtually all free inhabitants of the empire, was one of the most sweeping legal reforms in Roman history, reshaping the empire's identity in ways that echoed for centuries. The Baths of Caracalla, opened in 216 AD, were among the largest and most magnificent public buildings Rome ever produced. Against these must be set the massacre at Alexandria in 215 AD, where Caracalla ordered his troops to kill a significant portion of the city's population following a perceived slight - an act of violence so extreme it disturbed even his contemporaries.
He was assassinated on 8 April 217 AD by a disgruntled soldier while relieving himself by the roadside near Carrhae. He was twenty-nine. Few emperors leave behind a record so difficult to reconcile - genuine achievement alongside genuine atrocity, the two coexisting without resolution.
PRODUCT FEATURES
- Available in 3 sizes in vertical orientation (300 dpi)
- Museum-quality printing with Greenguard Gold certified inks
- Non-toxic latex inks, safe and eco-friendly
- Made from FSC certified sustainable materials
- Anti-slip rubber dot backing to secure canvas when hung
- Wipe clean gently with a damp cloth if needed
- Arrives ready to hang