Caracalla and Geta: Lives of the Roman Emperors of Gladiator II

Caracalla and Geta
from Cassius Dio & the Historia Augusta

Two brothers. One throne. A bloodbath that shocked the Roman world.

In 211 AD, Septimius Severus died, leaving the empire to his sons Caracalla and Geta. Within months the brothers were openly plotting murder.

"He killed his brother in his mother's arms and then ordered the Senate to thank him for it."December 211 AD: Caracalla invites Geta to a peace conference in their mother Julia Domna's apartments. The moment Geta steps into her embrace, centurions burst in and butcher him in her arms. Caracalla then unleashes the greatest purge since Sulla - 20,000-40,000 dead in weeks. The Senate votes him divine honors for saving the state.

This single volume gives you both primary sources, in clear modern English.- Cassius Dio (senator & eyewitness) - Books 77-78: the authentic, chilling contemporary account. No ancient source brings you closer to the terror of absolute power than a Roman senator who lived through it. Brutal, intimate, and unsparing.

• Historia Augusta - Lives of Caracalla, Geta, and relevant sections from Severus

Together they paint the full portrait of Rome's most psychopathic emperor:

• The fratricide in Julia Domna's apartments
• Caracalla's massacre of Alexandria
• The Edict of Universal Citizenship (a tax grab disguised as generosity)
• The fake "Antonine" beard
• The human-sacrifice rumors
• The blood-soaked German campaign and the infamous "Edict of Universal Citizenship"
• Caracalla's growing madness and the final betrayal by a Praetorian in a roadside latrine in 217