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he was murderous. And towards the soldiers he was most generous with gifts, but he made it his business to strip, plunder, and wear out all other men, and not least the senators. Thus throughout the whole time of his reign the land subject to him was ravaged so that once when Julia said, "No longer is any resource, just or unjust, left to us," he replied, drawing his sword, "Take heart, mother; for as long as we have this, nothing will fail 3.112 us." And in addition to everything he was also faithless. For having invited Abgarus, the king of Osroene, to come to him as a friend, when he came, he bound him and so subdued Osroene. And the king of the Armenians, who was at odds with his own sons, he summoned with friendly letters as if to make peace between them, and he did the same things to them as he had to Abgarus. But he did not gain control of the Armenians; instead they resorted to arms; and no one trusted him any longer. However, in necessities and urgent campaigns he was frugal and without extravagance and would walk and run with the soldiers, not bathing, not changing his clothes, but sharing in every task and eating the same food as they did. And sometimes he would challenge the leading men of the enemy to single combat. However, he did not manage matters of strategy well. And everything about him was counterfeit, even the currency itself. And he was sick with both visible and unmentionable diseases, and often it seemed that his father and his brother, armed with swords, were pursuing him. For which reason it is said that he brought up by incantations the souls of his father and of Commodus and of others, and that only Commodus said to him, "Go nearer to justice," and upon his death, "having a grievous disease in hidden places." And he had eavesdroppers and spies, and everything, even the smallest details, was reported to him. And he would announce that he would hold court or conduct some other public business rather early, but he would prolong it even beyond midday or even into the evening itself, not even admitting into the antechamber the assembled members of the senate. And he committed murders and acted unlawfully and squandered money, nor would he listen to his mother who gave him much good advice about these and 3.113 other things. And he delighted in magi and sorcerers. And having campaigned against the Parthians, and having been in Antioch and living in luxury and organizing contests of single combat, he lamented as if he were in danger and enduring great toils, and he reproached the senate as living in ease, and finally he wrote to it, "I know that my actions do not please you; but for this reason I have arms and soldiers, so that I may not pay attention to those who gossip." Again he campaigned against the Parthians because Artabanus, having promised his own daughter to him, did not give her to him, for he knew that he had made the marriage a pretext for seizing the kingdom of the Parthians, he ravaged much of their country and subdued Arbela and having broken open the tombs of the Parthian kings, he scattered their bones, but a war with the nation was not joined by him. So then he committed other lawless acts on his campaigns and he also devised a certain peculiar garment, cutting and sewing it together in a barbaric way in the manner of a cloak, and he constantly wore it, from which he was also nicknamed Caracallus. And he ordered the soldiers to be attired in this way. He was, however, killed by soldiers. For Macrinus the prefect, having had it foretold to him by some seer that he would be emperor, and fearing that for this reason he might be destroyed by Antoninus, did not delay, but having prepared two men who were tribunes in the bodyguard, he plotted against him. And as he was going from Edessa to Carrhae and had dismounted from his horse to relieve himself, a certain soldier, sent by the tribunes, approached him, as if needing to say something, and having approached he struck him with a small dagger. 3.114 And so he lived and so he perished, having lived twenty-nine years, and of these having been sole ruler for six years plus two months and some days. And it is said that when he was in Antioch for the last time it seemed to him in a dream that his father stood over him with a sword, saying, "You killed your brother, and I will kill you." And

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ἐφόνα. καὶ εἰς μὲν τοὺς στρατιώτας φιλοδωρότατος ην, τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς ἀνθρώπους περιδύειν, ἀποσυλᾶν, ἐκτρύχειν ἐτίθετο σπούδασμα, καὶ οὐχ ηκιστα τοὺς συγκλητικούς. ουτω δὲ παρὰ πάντα τὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς αὐτοῦ χρόνον ἡ ὑπήκοος αὐτῷ γῆ ἐπορθήθη ωστε ποτὲ τῆς ̓Ιουλίας εἰπούσης οτι "οὐκέθ' ἡμῖν ουτε δίκαιος ουτ' αδικος πόρος ὑπολείπεται" ἀπεκρίνατο τὸ ξίφος ἠρκώς "θάρσει, μῆτερ· εως γὰρ αν τοῦτ' εχωμεν, οὐδὲν ἡμᾶς ἐπι3.112 λείψει." ην δ' ἐπὶ πᾶσι καὶ απιστος. καλέσας γὰρ τὸν τῆς ̓Οσροηνῆς βασιλέα Αυγαρον ηκειν παρ' αὐτὸν ὡς φίλον, ἐλθόντα εδησε καὶ ουτω τὴν ̓Οσροηνὴν ἐχειρώσατο. καὶ τὸν τῶν ̓Αρμενίων βασιλέα πρὸς τοὺς ἰδίους παῖδας διαφερόμενον γράμμασι φιλικοῖς ὡς εἰρηνεύσων αὐτοὺς μετεπέμψατο, τὰ δ' αὐτὰ τῷ Αὐγάρῳ καὶ εἰς ἐκείνους ἐποίησεν. ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ τῶν ̓Αρμενίων ἐκράτησεν, εἰς οπλα δ' ἐχώρησαν· καὶ οὐδεὶς ετι ἐκείνῳ ἐπίστευεν. ἐν μέντοι ταῖς ἀνάγκαις καὶ ταῖς κατεπειγούσαις στρατείαις λιτὸς ην καὶ ἀπέριττος καὶ συνεβάδιζε τοῖς στρατιώταις καὶ συνέτρεχε, μὴ λουόμενος, μὴ μεταμφιεννύμενος, ἀλλὰ πᾶν εργον συνεργαζόμενος καὶ τὰ αὐτὰ ἐκείνοις σιτούμενος. καὶ τοὺς προέχοντας δὲ τῶν πολεμίων εἰς μονομαχίαν προεκαλεῖτο ἐνίοτε. τὰ μέντοι στρατηγικὰ οὐκ ευ ἐκείνῳ μετεχειρίζετο. πάντα δ' ην αὐτῷ κίβδηλα, καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ νόμισμα. ἐνόσει δὲ καὶ ἐμφανέσι καὶ ἀρρήτοις ἀρρωστήμασι, καὶ πολλάκις καὶ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν ξιφήρεις ἐδόκει ἐλαύνειν αὐτόν. διὸ λέγεται καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ἐπῳδαῖς ἀναγαγεῖν τοῦ τε πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Κομόδου καὶ αλλων, μόνον δὲ τὸν Κόμοδον αὐτῷ φάναι "στεῖχε δίκης ασσον," καὶ ἐπὶ τελευτῆς "κρυφίοισι τόποις εχων δυσαλθέα νοῦσον." ειχε δὲ καὶ ὠτακουστὰς καὶ διοπτεύοντας, καὶ πάντα αὐτῷ καὶ τὰ βραχύτατα ἀνηγγέλλετο. καὶ ἐπήγγελλε μὲν ὡς πρωιαίτερον δικάσων η αλλο τι δημόσιον πράξων, παρέτεινε δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ τὴν μεσημβρίαν η καὶ εἰς ἑσπέραν αὐτήν, μηδὲ εἰς τὰ πρόθυρα εἰσδεχόμενος τοὺς συνειλεγμένους τῆς γερουσίας. ὁ δὲ καὶ ἐμιαιφόνει καὶ παρηνόμει καὶ τὰ χρήματα κατανήλισκεν, οὐδ' ἐπείθετο τῇ μητρὶ καὶ περὶ τούτων καὶ τῶν 3.113 αλλων παραινούσῃ πολλὰ καὶ χρηστά. εχαιρε δὲ καὶ μάγοις καὶ γόησι. κατὰ Πάρθων δὲ στρατεύσας, καὶ ἐν ̓Αντιοχείᾳ γενόμενος καὶ τρυφῶν καὶ ἀγῶνας μονομαχίας συνιστῶν, ὡς ἐν μεγάλοις πόνοις ἐγκινδυνεύων καὶ καρτερῶν ἀπωδύρετο, καὶ τὴν γερουσίαν ὡς ἐν ῥᾳστώνῃ ζῶσαν ὠνείδιζε, καὶ τέλος εγραψεν αὐτῇ ὡς "οιδα οτι οὐκ ἀρέσκει ὑμῖν τὰ ἐμά· ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ οπλα καὶ στρατιώτας εχω, ινα μὴ τῶν λογοποιούντων ἐπιστρέφωμαι." Αυθις δὲ εἰς τοὺς Πάρθους στρατεύσας οτι ὁ ̓Αρτάβανος τὴν θυγατέρα ἑαυτοῦ αὐτῷ μνηστευσάμενος οὐ παρέσχε ταύτην αὐτῷ, ἠπίστατο γὰρ οτι πρόφασιν τὸν γάμον τοῦ τὴν Πάρθων σφετερίσασθαι βασιλείαν πεποίητο, πολλὰ μὲν τῆς χώρας αὐτῶν ἐκάκωσε καὶ τὰ Αρβηλα παρεστήσατο καὶ τὰ μνημεῖα τῶν βασιλέων τῶν Πάρθων ἀναρρήξας διέρριψε τὰ ὀστᾶ, πόλεμος δὲ αὐτῷ πρὸς τὸ εθνος οὐ συγκεκρότητο. ταλλα τε ουν παρηνόμει ἐν ταῖς στρατείαις καί τινα ἰδίαν ενδυσιν βαρβαρικῶς πως συγκόπτων καὶ συρράπτων ἐς μανδύα τρόπον προσεξεῦρε, καὶ συνεχῶς αὐτὸν ἐνεδύετο, οθεν καὶ Καράκαλλος ἐπεκλήθη. καὶ τοὺς στρατιώτας δὲ ουτως ἐστολίσθαι ἐκέλευεν. ἀνῃρέθη μέντοι ὑπὸ στρατιωτῶν. ὁ γὰρ Μακρῖνος ὁ επαρχος ἐκ μάντεώς τινος προειρημένον εχων αὐτῷ ὡς αὐταρχήσει, καὶ φοβηθεὶς μὴ διὰ τοῦτο ὑπὸ τοῦ ̓Αντωνίνου διαφθαρῇ, οὐκ ἀνεβάλετο, ἀλλὰ δύο τινὰς χιλιαρχοῦντας ἐν τῷ δορυφορικῷ παρασκευάσας ἐπεβούλευσεν αὐτῷ. καὶ ἐξ ̓Εδέσσης ἐς Κάρας ἀπιόντι καὶ ἀποβάντι τοῦ ιππου δι' ἀπόπατον προσῆλθέ τις στρατιώτης, τῶν χιλιάρχων ὑποπεμψάντων αὐτόν, ὡς εἰπεῖν τι δεόμενος, καὶ προσελθὼν ἐπάταξεν αὐτὸν ξιφιδίῳ μικρῷ. 3.114 Καὶ ὁ μὲν ουτως ἐβίω καὶ ουτως ἀπώλετο, ζήσας ετη ἐννέα καὶ εικοσιν, αὐταρχήσας δ' ἐκ τούτων ἐνιαυτοὺς εξ ἐπὶ δύο μησὶ καὶ ἡμέραις τισί. λέγεται δὲ ἐν ̓Αντιοχείᾳ τὸ τελευταῖον οντι αὐτῷ δόξαι κατ' οναρ τὸν πατέρα ξιφήρη ἐπιστῆναι λέγοντα ὡς "σὺ τὸν ἀδελφὸν εκτεινας, καὶ ἐγὼ σὲ κτενῶ." καὶ