Caracalla: The Common Enemy of Mankind?

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Often up there in the upper echelons of most articles listing Rome's worst emperors, it's fair to say that history has not been kind to Caracalla. Whether it was contemporary sources depicting him as a deranged Heracles and Alexander the Great loving megalomaniac or the 18th century historian Edward Gibbon labelling him 'the common enemy of mankind,' for centuries he has been an epitome of infamy.

To talk through what we know about this figure, and whether he deserves this reputation, Tristan was joined by Edinburgh University's Dr Alex Imrie, an expert on the Severan Dynasty and the author of The Antonine Constitution: An Edict for the Caracallan Empire.

Alex's Twitter: @AlexImrie23

Tristan's Twitter/Instagram: @ancientstristan

The first of a new miniseries about the Severans.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the Entrance on History Hit.
0:05.8	I'm Tristan Hughes, your host.
0:07.8	And in today's podcast, where it seems, according to the sources that we're talking today,
0:11.9	about an absolute nutter, a terrible, terrible, terrible person who is consistently ranked
0:19.1	among the worst emperors of ancient Rome.
0:23.1	They're all pretty bad.
0:24.1	It's the fact that this guy's ranked among the worst really does say something.
0:28.8	And this was the figure of Caracalla, who ruled in the early third century AD during
0:35.5	the severe and dynasty.
0:37.2	Now, to talk all about Caracalla and what we know about his reign and why he has this terrible
0:42.7	reputation and whether it is deserved, I was delighted to get on the show Dr. Alex Imry
0:48.5	from the University of Edinburgh.
0:50.7	Alex, absolute legend, brilliant speaker.
0:53.9	It was wonderful to get him on the podcast.
0:55.7	You're going to absolutely love this one.
0:57.8	So that's further ado to talk all about Caracalla.
1:01.8	Here's Alex.
1:07.5	Alex, it's great to have you on the podcast.
1:09.8	Thank you for having me.
1:10.8	Thank you for inviting.
1:11.8	It's a pleasure to join a fantastic lineup.
1:13.8	I've been listening to great number of episodes over the last couple of weeks to bring
	...

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