Legions of Rome

by Stephen Dando-Collins

  At 64 years old, Severus rode at the head of the Roman army to meet the tribal leaders to finalize a peace treaty. With him rode his ambitious eldest son, 22-year-old Caracalla—a nickname, derived from his habit of always wearing a particular type of cloak. Caracalla’s actual name, which changed several times, was Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus. Ahead on the moorland, the Caledonians had formed up in battle array for the parley. Caracalla rode just behind his father, but in front of the emperor’s escort. As they came up to the Caledonians, the young prince drew his sword and appeared to prepare to plunge it into his father’s back. Other Romans of the party cried out a warning to Severus, who turned, saw Caracalla’s sword, and gave his son a cold stare, which checked the youth.

  Severus, short but well built, said nothing, just dismounted and walked to the tribunal prepared for the negotiations, which then proceeded. The treaty was agreed—Roman troops would not enter tribal territory, but in return the Maeatae had to give up their lands and withdraw north. Issuing an invitation for Caledonian chiefs and their dependants to visit him at his headquarters at Eburacum, Severus withdrew.

  Back at Eburacum, Severus sent Praetorian Prefect Papinian to bring Caracalla to his quarters. When the pair arrived, they found the emperor unwell on a couch. Severus’ influential freedman, chief secretary Castor, was also present. A sword lay on a table in front of the emperor, with the handle pointing toward Caracalla. Severus castigated his son for daring to draw a sword against him, and in public. He then dared Caracalla to take up the sword in front of him and slay him; or, to order Papinian to kill him. Caracalla slunk away.

  Shortly after, a delegation of Caledonian chieftains arrived at Eburacum, and were treated as the special guests of the emperor and the empress, Julia Domna. The empress even entertained the wife of Caledonian leader Argentocoxus and was impressed with her wit. [Dio, LXXVII, 16] With winter closing in, the treaty was sealed, and the tribal leaders returned to Scotland. But the peace would be temporary.

  AD 210

  LX. EXECUTIONS AT YORK

  Legionaries or Praetorians?

  Caracalla simmered with humiliation until one day, late in AD 210, he burst from his quarters at Eburacum, “shouting and bawling that he was being wronged by Castor,” his father’s right-hand man. “Thereupon certain soldiers who had been got ready beforehand assembled and joined in the outcry.” But “they were quickly checked when Severus himself appeared among them and punished the more unruly ones.” [Dio, LXXVII, 14] What form that punishment took was not revealed. Not many weeks later, on February 4, 210, Severus died at Eburacum.

  Discoveries of the skeletons of beheaded men in a Roman cemetery at modern-day York in 2004 led the press and BBC Television to suggest that these were victims of a massacre carried out at Eburacum by Caracalla following his father’s death. A number of graves, including those of fifty adult males, were found outside the old city walls, in a graveyard bordering the old Roman road from the southwest. Many of these men had been beheaded; one had manacles around his ankles. Pottery shards at the burial site suggested that the graves dated from early in the third century. In 2005, another grave containing the remains of a further twenty-four men was found nearby; at least eighteen of these men had also been decapitated. [Girling]

  The decapitations had taken place from behind, and had been rough affairs; in one case, thirteen sword or ax blows had been required to sever a victim’s head. Scientific analysis of the bones showed that none of the men in the graves was older than 45. All were quite tall for the time, at around 5 feet 9 inches (174 centimeters). All were powerfully built, and their arms showed evidence of extreme exertion over a number of years. Isotope analysis of their teeth indicated that these men originated from the Mediterranean, the Alps, even from Africa. [Ibid.]

  Even though the evidence suggested that these men were connected to the Roman military—Eburacum was the base of the 6th Victrix Legion in the third century and headquarters of Severus’ army of numerous legions during his Scottish campaigns—a story that these skeletons were evidence of a bloody wave of executions of Severus’ courtiers carried out by Caracalla quickly gained media currency.

  However, the York Archaeological Trust in its Annual Report for 2005–6 played down the Caracalla massacre theory, pointing out that these skeletons came from four different periods. Additionally, while Cassius Dio reported that Caracalla did execute many of his father’s courtiers, including Castor, once he became emperor, those executions apparently took place later, in Rome.

  But perhaps one group of York’s beheaded skeletons was connected to Caracalla’s AD 210 outburst against Castor; perhaps they were Praetorian guardsmen; members of Caracalla’s severely punished “cheer squad.” These men were Roman citizens—it was the right of every citizen to be beheaded if convicted of a “capital crime”—and their uniformly large physical size marks them as possible Praetorians. Ever since Severus’ AD 193 reforms, serving legionaries had been made Praetorians—on the strength of their physicality and bravery. And Severus’ Praetorian recruits came from all areas of the empire, just like the decapitated men at York. Cassius Dio, who had contact with Severus’ Praetorians, described them as “soldiers most savage in appearance, most terrifying in speech, and most boorish in conversation.” [Dio, LXXV, 2]

  It is quite possible that here, then, unearthed at York, was the gruesome evidence of Caracalla’s tantrum, and of the price that Praetorian guardsmen had paid for their obedience to his wishes.

  AD 217

  LXI. KILLING CARACALLA

  Eastern retreat

  Spring had come, the standards of the legions had been sanctified in the lustration during March’s Quatranalis ceremonials, and in Mesopotamia, the emperor Caracalla, now 29 years old, was planning to resume the war against the Parthians. It was April 8 when Caracalla set off from Edessa with a mounted column, planning to ride to Carrhae (modern-day Harran in Turkey), to set the campaign in motion. Some distance along the road, the column came to a halt for a rest break. Caracalla dismounted and stretched his legs. Around him, others followed suit. Among them were men of his personal bodyguard unit, the Lions. These bodyguards were Scythians and Germans, for Caracalla did not trust the Praetorians or any other Roman soldiers to protect him. These bodyguards were former prisoners who had been slaves before Caracalla had taken them from their Roman masters, armed them, given them the same privileges and pay as centurions, and made them his closest companions.

  A mature soldier named Julius Martialis now approached the emperor on foot, looking as if he wanted to discuss something with him. Martialis was a retired legionary now serving in the Evocati militia. Apparently living in the East after leaving his legion, he had been recalled to service for Caracalla’s campaign. Martialis had recently asked the emperor for promotion to centurion, but his request had been denied. This, said Dio, was enough motivation for what Martialis was about to do. [Dio, LXXIX, 5]

  Coming up to Caracalla, Martialis leaned close, as if about to confide something to him, then jabbed him with a small dagger. No one saw the strike, and Martialis hurried away. Only when the emperor collapsed to the ground was the alarm raised among the bodyguards. Martialis, instead of throwing the murder weapon away, kept hold of it, and a Scythian of the Lions bodyguard, seeing the bloodied blade in his hand, launched a javelin at him as he tried to make his escape. The javelin transfixed the assassin, who fell down dead.

  But Caracalla was not dead. As soldiers and staff members crowded around the seriously wounded emperor on the roadway, two tribunes of the Praetorian Guard, the brothers Aurelius Nemesianus and Aurelius Apollinaris, pushed through the crowd and huddled over Caracalla. But instead of helping him, the brothers finished the job, killing the emperor. Like other mad emperors before him, notably Caligula and Commodus, Caracalla died at the hands of his own people.

  According to Cassius Dio, who was with the imperial party in Mesopotamia at the time, all three of Caracalla’s assailants had been put up to the deed b
y Caracalla’s prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Marcus Oppellius Macrinus. [Ibid.] Macrinus had already been in secret communication with the troops stationed throughout Mesopotamia, promising to end the unpopular war with the Parthians, which the legions considered “especially burdensome.” For three days following the assassination of Caracalla, Macrinus kept a low profile. Then, on April 11, which happened to be the birthday of the late and well-remembered emperor Septimius Severus, Macrinus was hailed by the troops as their new emperor. [Ibid.]

  At 53 years old, Macrinus was a native of Mauretania in North Africa, and even wore an earring as the Moors did. Of Equestrian rank at the time of Caracalla’s death, Macrinus became the first man to obtain the Roman throne without having been a senator. To keep his word to the army that he would end this Parthian war, Macrinus immediately sent a friendly message to the Parthian king, Artabanus V, together with freed Parthian prisoners, hoping to bring about a peace treaty between them. In response, Artabanus demanded that the Romans rebuild all the cities and fortresses that they had destroyed throughout Parthia, make large financial reparations, and then withdraw entirely from Mesopotamia.

  Macrinus had barely received this haughty proposal when he learned that Artabanus and a large Parthian army of mounted archers and heavy cataphracts, even camel units, was advancing on the Roman headquarters at Nisibis. There, the two armies warily camped opposite each other beside a water source, and before long blows were exchanged between Romans and Parthians over control of the water. This soon exploded into a full-scale battle outside the Roman camp.

  Macrinus himself, who was described as “exceedingly timorous” by Dio, apparently panicked when the tide of battle turned against his troops. [Dio, LXXIX, 27] When it looked as if the Roman camp would fall, Macrinus departed with his entourage, leaving his soldiers to their own devices. The non-combatants in the Roman camp, the armor-bearers and baggage attendants, then rushed out of the camp and charged the Parthians who, thinking these men were armed Roman reinforcements, reeled away.

  The onset of night saved the Roman army from total defeat, but the flight of Macrinus dejected the troops he had deserted, and they were subsequently “conquered” by the Parthians. Macrinus then purchased an end to the war, paying 200 million sesterces in gifts and cash to the Parthian king and the nobles around him. Macrinus also ceased Roman military operations in Armenia against Tiridates, the Armenian king, who had won the support of the Parthians. Macrinus even sent Tiridates a crown, recognizing his sovereignty over Armenia. Both sides then withdrew from Mesopotamia, with the Parthians returning to their own territory and the Romans pulling back to Syria. [Ibid.]

  Macrinus sent word to the Senate that the war was over, but he failed to tell the senators at home that he had paid for peace and given up territory that since the time of Severus had been considered Roman. The Senate sacrificed to the goddess Victory in the deceitful Macrinus’ honor, and offered him the title of Parthicus, an honor he guiltily declined. Still, Macrinus had kept his word to the legions; he had terminated the war. But the way he had done it was “exasperating because of their defeat,” as far as some Roman soldiers were concerned. [Dio, LXXIX, 29] Others perceived Macrinus as weak and easy to manipulate. While the legions were encamped en masse in Syria prior to marching back to their individual bases, a mood of mutiny swept through their ranks.

  This mood was exacerbated when Macrinus ordered reductions to pay and conditions for future legion recruits. Caracalla had introduced higher pay and certain exemptions from duty for legionaries, and this had achieved its aim of making him highly popular with the legions. But it had also increased the annual salary bill for the legions by 280 million sesterces a year. [Dio, LXXIX, 36] Macrinus was at Antioch in the late spring when word reached him that his own troops were in revolt against him. A new civil war was about to begin.

  AD 217–218

  LXII. MACRINUS AGAINST ELAGABALUS

  Praetorians versus legions

  Seventeen-year-old Varius Avitus Bassianus had been born at Emesa in Syria, where his mother’s family provided the hereditary high priests of the eastern sun god Baal—known as Elagabalus among the Romans. The youth’s grandmother Julia Maesa, sister-in-law of the late emperor Septimius Severus, was determined that a grandson of hers would occupy the throne and restore the Severan dynasty that had ended with the death of Caracalla earlier that year, AD 217. The wealthy grandmother promoted her grandson’s claim to the throne, which had been seized on April 8 by Praetorian prefect Macrinus on the death of the young emperor

  Macrinus was not popular with either soldiers or civilians. As a result of his capitulation to the peace demands of the Parthians, “the soldiers despised him and paid no heed to what he did to win their favor,” said Dio. [Dio, LXXIX, 20] In September, crowds at the chariot races at Rome’s Circus Maximus made a demonstration about the state of the nation, acting as if the low-born Macrinus did not exist, and ridiculing his appointees—Macrinus had elevated another man of non-senatorial rank, city prefect Oclatinius Adventus, to the consulship alongside him, and among the provincial governors Macrinus appointed, one had once been a slave, another a legionary.

  By the new year of AD 218, Bassianus, Julia Maesa’s grandson, who was living at Emesa with his grandmother, claimed that he was the illegitimate son of Caracalla—who would have had to father him at the age of 11 if the claim was true. There was much residual loyalty to the murdered Caracalla among the troops, and they chose to believe the story and support a relative of the late emperor Severus and continue the Severan royal line. Before long, the young pretender took the name Elagabalus, to link him with the sun god of that name and further enhance his prestige and suitability for the throne. On May 16, encouraged by his mother and grandmother, and supported by just the small unit of ethnic soldiers that guarded the shrine and mint at Emesa, together with a few freedmen and six Equestrians and Emesa senators, Elagabalus laid claim to Macrinus’ throne. [Dio, LXXIX, 31]

  The new prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Ulpius Julianus, led a mixed force of Praetorians, auxiliaries and Moorish cavalry against a military camp at Emesa, where Elagabalus was being chaired around the ramparts as the new emperor. But, after failing to break into the camp, Julianus’ troops, convinced that the youth truly was a member of the Severan line, killed their officers and defected to Elagabalus.

  From Antioch, Macrinus wrote to the Senate in Rome telling of the uprising. When it received the letter, the Senate declared war on Elagabalus and his cousin Alexander Severus, together with their mothers and their grandmother. Macrinus, in the meantime, hurried to Apamea, hoping to secure the loyalty of the 2nd Parthica Legion, which had been stationed there since Caracalla’s death and the termination of the eastern campaign. Created by Severus as a counter to the Praetorian Guard, the 2nd Parthica had been commanded with “a firm hand” by Aelius Decius Triccianus, the present governor of Pannonia, who had enhanced its loyalty to Macrinus. [Dio, LXXX, 4]

  In late May AD 218, in front of the men of the 2nd Parthica, Macrinus announced that he was making his 10-year-old son Diadumenianus his coemperor, as if to counter Elagabalus’ dynastic claims by creating a dynasty of his own. He also promised every legionary of the 2nd Parthica 20,000 sesterces, and handed out 4,000 sesterces to every man on the spot. [Dio, LXXIX, 34] While he was throwing a banquet for the locals, a soldier brought him a severed head—of his Praetorian prefect Julianus. Unnerved by this, Macrinus returned to Antioch. Once he had gone, the 2nd Parthica and other units wintering in the region of Apamea lost faith in him and swore loyalty to Elagabalus.

  In the first week of June, joined by the 2nd Parthica Legion and other troops who had defected to him, Elagabalus set off for Antioch. Macrinus, with only cohorts of the Praetorian Guard staying faithful to him, marched to intercept the young usurper. By this period the Praetorians were wearing scale armor in preference to the heavy segmented metal armor they are seen wearing on Trajan’s Column a century earlier. But even this lighter armor was consi
dered too heavy by some soldiers, and at their request Macrinus gave his Praetorians permission to dispense with the armor and their heavy “grooved” shields, which “thus rendered them lighter for battle.” [Ibid., 37]

  At a village 24 miles (38 kilometers) northeast of Antioch, the two comparatively small armies met on June 8. Elagabalus’ mother and grandmother had even come along, riding in chariots. Young Elagabalus himself was riding a horse in the column, but he was not in command. For her grandson’s military commander, Julia Maesa had chosen not a general but Elagabalus’ longtime Greek tutor, Gannys, who, according to the contemporaneous Dio, “was utterly without military experience and had spent his life in luxury.” [Ibid., 38] Seeing Macrinus’ column approaching from the direction of Antioch, Gannys was anxious to occupy a pass in the column’s path. There, he marshaled his troops in good order.

  Elagabalus’ troops, no doubt unimpressed at being commanded by a slave, put up a half-hearted defense when Macrinus’ stripped-down Praetorians came running to the attack. When men began pulling out of Elagabalus’ rear ranks, the boy’s mother and grandmother jumped down from their chariots and ran among them, urging the soldiers to return to the struggle. Then the youngster himself was seen riding toward the fight with sword in hand. The defense stiffened, but Elagabalus would not have been victorious had not Macrinus again lost his nerve. The emperor rode off back to Antioch accompanied by a few men, leaving his troops to continue the fighting. Seeing this, his Praetorians lost heart, and capitulated.

  On entering Antioch, Macrinus told the Antiochans that he had won the battle. He then put his son in the care of a trusted freedman and sent them riding east, making for Parthia, where, the freedman was instructed, they should seek the protection of King Artabanes. Macrinus then shaved off his bushy beard and shaved his head. That night, wearing a dark, hooded civilian cloak, he slipped out of the city with a few loyal companions. He succeeded in reaching Cilicia, where, pretending to be a soldier, he secured a carriage of the Cursus Publicus Velox, the government courier service. Using this he drove all the way through Cappadocia, Galatia, and Bithynia, to reach the port of Eribolon.