The Death of Caracalla

8 April, 217 AD

Whilst travelling between Edessa and Carrhae on a visit to a Temple of Luna, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus (known to history as Caracalla), stopped on the road near Harran to relieve himself.

Whilst Caracalla was urinating out of sight on the roadside, one of his Praetorian bodyguards, Julius Martialis, snuck up behind the emperor and murdered him with a single sword stroke.

Martialis himself was then murdered by the rest of the emperor’s bodyguards.

It was said that Martialis’s brother had been executed on the orders of Caracalla a few days earlier, over an unproven charge. Another story said that Martialis was resentful at not being promoted to the rank of centurion.

The Praetorian Prefect, Marcus Opelius Macrinus, was proclaimed as the new emperor three days later – there are those who believe that it was Macrinus who recruited Martialis and arranged for Caracalla’s murder.