In the 2024 film Gladiator II by Ridley Scott, the mad and tyrannical Emperor Caracalla, played by Fred Hechinger, is murdered in the Roman Senate by Macrinus (Denzel Washington). However, the historical sources provide a completely different picture of the emperor and his death.
What do we actually know about what happened to the emperor on 08.04.217 AD?
We have three sources from different authors on Caracalla's death, which describe the events differently, but all agree that Caracalla was not murdered in Rome, but on a campaign against the Parthians in the east of present-day Turkey between the cities of Edessa and Carrhae. The reports also agree that the emperor dismounted his horse on his way to take a toilet break, which also prompted his entourage to stop. The accounts differ in the details of what is said to have happened next:
The ancient authors Cassius Dio and Herodian report that the emperor was stabbed in the back by Iulius Martialis, a high-ranking member of the Praetorian Guard, while attending to his needs. The murderer then fled, but was later killed by Caracalla's horsemen. According to one of these two reports, Caracalla died on the spot, while in the other the emperor fell to the ground but was only finally killed by his own tribunes, who are said to have rushed to his aid under the pretense of wanting to help him. In a third account of the emperor's death - the Historia Augusta - the emperor's bodyguard is said to have conspired against him. In this version, the role of the murderer is attributed to the emperor's riding servant. He is said to have killed Caracalla only when he remounted his horse. However, the surrounding conspirators then declared Martialis to be the actual murderer.
The accounts of Caracalla's death at the time therefore differ greatly in many respects. What is certain, however, is that Caracalla did not die as a weak emperor in Rome, but as the leader of his soldiers, and that he was not killed by his successor Macrinus, but by Iulius Martialis. Macrinus, one of the two commanders of the guard, was possibly only acting in the background.
It is important to emphasize that in ancient historiography there is often a discrepancy between real history and its representation. We do not know exactly what actually happened, and although it almost certainly did not take place as it is portrayed in films, this cinematic version also remains an interpretation of the "death of Caracalla" in the minds of people today.
Tom Stallkamp and Friedrich W. Brüggemann
Photo: Friedrich W. Brüggemann.
