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CARACALLA AND ‘ALEXANDER'S PHALANX’: CAUGHT AT A CROSSROADS OF EVIDENCE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2021

Alex Imrie
Alex Imrie*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh, UK
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

It is well known that Alexander the Great offered inspiration to successive monarchs and autocrats. Few of these, however, could claim to match the affection shown by the Roman emperor Caracalla (198–217 ce). Caracalla is said to have been an almost pathological aficionado of Alexander, constantly promoting a public association between himself and his idol. One aspect of Caracalla's imitatio Alexandri was allegedly the levy of a peculiar phalangite formation based on the arms and equipment of Alexander's time. For years it was impossible to gauge whether this was a real development or a hostile literary fabrication, but the discovery of funerary remains at Apamea in Syria, which appear to memorialize phalangites and lanciarii, confirmed to some the historicity of Caracalla's bizarre levy. This article argues, however, that the apparently convincing combination of evidence is illusory, and that Caracalla's ‘phalanx’ was rather a convenient label applied to an inherently Roman formation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , October 2021 , pp. 222 - 238
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Jon Coulston and Eberhard Sauer for sharing their thoughts on an early version of this article, and the anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback.

References

1 The near contemporary author Herodian (4.7.1) claimed that Caracalla loathed life in Rome and sought to leave the capital at his first convenience, ‘no doubt to deal with the military administration and to inspect the provincial territories’ (translation from C. R. Whittaker [ed. and trans.], Herodian. History of the Roman Empire from the Time of Marcus Aurelius, Books 1–4 [Cambridge, MA, 1969]).

2 Given this emphasis, it is hardly surprising that one of the most recent attempts to offer a biography of the emperor has been approached from a predominantly military angle. See I. Syvänne, Caracalla. A Military Biography (Barnsley, 2017).

3 Cass. Dio 78[77].3.1–2. All references to Dio utilize the Loeb numbering system.

4 How far this can be identified as a senatorial perspective on the matter, as opposed to a uniquely Dionian perspective, remains debatable. For opposing views, see Scott, A. G., ‘Cassius Dio, Caracalla and the Senate’, Klio 97.1 (2015), 157–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davenport, C., ‘Cassius Dio and Caracalla’, CQ 62 (2012), 796–815CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Cass. Dio 78[77].7.1–2 (translation from E. Cary [ed. and trans.], Dio Cassius. Roman History, Volume IX. Books 71–80 [Cambridge, MA, 1927]).

6 Cass. Dio 78[77].18.1.

7 The text of Dio's prose is admittedly fragmentary and lacunose, not to mention the potential impact of a later epitomator, but there does not appear to be any area where additional references to the phalanx might have naturally featured.

8 Hdn. 4.8.2–3. In addition, Herodian (4.9.4) and the author of the Historia Augusta (M. Ant. 6.2–3) refer to the raising of a phalanx, or at least the ruse of one, in the context of Caracalla's alleged massacre of the population of Alexandria in early 216.

9 Kemezis, A., Greek Narratives of the Roman Empire under the Severans. Cassius Dio, Philostratus and Herodian (Cambridge, 2014), 228CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Bishop, M. C. and Coulston, J. C. N., Roman Military Equipment. From the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome, second edition (Oxford, 2006), 12CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Strobel, K., ‘Strategy and Army Structure between Septimius Severus and Constantine’, in Erdkamp, P. (ed.), A Companion to the Roman Army (Oxford, 2007), 272Google Scholar; Balty, J. C., ‘Apamea in Syria in the Second and Third Centuries ad’, JRS 78 (1988), 97–104Google Scholar.

11 M. F. Schwarze, Römische Militärgeschichte, Band 2. Studie zur römischen Armee und ihrer Organisation im seschsten Jahrhundert n. Chr. (Norderstedt, 2017), 528; R. Cowan, ‘The Battle of Nisibis, ad 217: Last Battle of the Parthian Wars’, Ancient Warfare 3.5 (2009), 31; Balty (n. 10), 101. For the lanciarius Aurelius Mucianus, see AE 1993, 1575 = AE 2008, 1523 = AE 2013, 1695. For the lanciarius Lucius Septimius Viator, see AE 1993, 1574 = AE 2008, 1523. The inscription relating to the phalangarius is yet to be published formally, but for a credible restoration of the text, see Cowan (this note), 34. A third individual, Aurelius Zoilus, is recorded simply as a miles (soldier), but is observed carrying the same bundle of shafted weapons as the lanciarii: see J. C. Balty and W. Van Rengen, Apamea in Syria. The Winter Quarters of the Legio II Parthica. Roman Gravestones from the Military Cemetery (Brussels, 1993), pl. 3.

12 Balty (n. 10), 101.

13 P. A. García, Caracalla. La configuracion de un tirano (Madrid, 2009), 71; Syvänne (n. 2), 200–8.

14 A. R. Birley, Septimius Severus. The African Emperor (London, 1988), 194; D. Baharal, ‘Caracalla, Alexander the Great, and Education in Rome’, in P. Defosse (ed.), Hommages à Carl Deroux III. Histoire et epigraphie, Droit (Brussels, 2003), 27.

15 A. Imrie, The Antonine Constitution. An edict for the Caracallan Empire (Leiden, 2018), 105–7; D. Baharal, The Victory of Propaganda. The Dynastic Aspect of the Imperial Propaganda of the Severi. The Literary and Archaeological Evidence (London, 1996), 73–6.

16 Imrie (n. 15), 99–112; J. Langford, ‘Caracalla and Alexandri Imitatio: Self-Presentation and the Politics of Inclusion’, in J. Hawke (ed.), Hetairideia. Studies in Honour of W. Lindsay Adams on the Occasion of His Retirement (Chicago, IL, 2016), 305–38; Baharal (n. 14).

17 For a detailed examination of Plutarch's treatment of Alexander, see S. Asirvatham, ‘Plutatch's Alexander’, in K. R. Moore (ed.), Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great (Leiden, 2018).

18 Hdn. 4.4.7 and 4.8.2.

19 Plut. De Alex. fort. 330A.

20 Cass. Dio 79[78].3.3. For more on the significance of this garment and its potential function as an act of imitatio Alexandri, see Langford (n. 16), 329–34.

21 Plut. De Alex. fort. 330D (translation from F. C. Babbit, Plutarch. Moralia, Volume IV [Cambridge, MA, 1936]).

22 For the controversy surrounding the erroneous assumptions of the historical Alexander's pursuit of a brotherhood of man, see W. W. Tarn, Alexander the Great, Vol. 2. Sources and Studies (Cambridge, 1948); E. Badian, ‘Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind’, Historia 7 (1958), 425–44; P. A. Brunt, ‘The Aims of Alexander’, G&R 12 (1965), 205–15; A. B. Bosworth, ‘Alexander and the Iranians’, JHS 100 (1980), 1–21.

23 P. Giess. 40.1, lines 11–14: [Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ διάτ]αγμα ἐ[ξαπ]λώσει [τὴν] μεγαλειότητα [το]ῦ Ῥωμα[ίων δήμου συμβαίνει γὰρ τὴν αὐτὴ]ν περὶ τοῦς [ἄλλο]υς γεγενῆσθα[ι] ᾗπερ δ[ι]α[πρέπουσιν ἀνέκαθεν Ῥωμαῖοι τιμῇ κα]ταλειφ[θέντων μηδέν]ων τῶ[ν] ἑκάστης [χώρας ἐν οἰκουμένῃ ἀπολιτεύτων ἢ ἀτιμ]ήτω[ν]. Author's own translation.

24 Imrie (n. 15), 100–4; A. B. Molina, ‘Relación entre la Constitutio Antoniniana y la imitatio Alexandri de Caracalla’, Revista de estudios histórico-jurídicos 22 (2000), 17–29.

25 T. Whitmarsh, The Second Sophistic (Oxford, 2005); Baharal (n. 14).

26 Hdn. 4.8.2: ἔσθ’ ὅπου δὲ καὶ χλεύς εἴδομεν ἀξίας εἰκόνας, ἐν γραγαῖς ἑνὸς σώματος ὑπὸ περιφερείᾳ κεφαλῆς μιᾶς ὄψεις ἡμιτόμους δύο, Ἀλεξάνδρου τε καὶ Ἀντωνίνου.

27 C. Rowan, Under Divine Auspices. Divine Ideology and the Visualisation of Imperial Power in the Severan Period (Cambridge, 2012), 154; K. Dahmen, ‘Alexander in Gold and Silver: Reassessing Third Century ad Medallions from Aboukir and Tarsos’, AJN 20 (2008), 493–546.

28 SHA, M. Ant. 2.1.

29 C. T. Mallan, ‘The Spectre of Alexander’, G&R 64 (2017), 132–44. For a general overview of Dio's approach as a historian, see A. G. Scott, Emperors and Usurpers. An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio's Roman History, Books 79(78)–80(80) (Oxford, 2018), 3–17.

30 It should be noted that Caracalla is not the only emperor whom Dio depicts engaging in vigorous Alexander aemulatio. He describes Trajan (68[67].29.1–30.1) comparing his own eastern conquests with those of the Macedonian. While the emperor is seen lamenting, somewhat theatrically, his inability to press on to the Indus, Dio nevertheless offers this episode at the peak of Trajan's expansion. A comparison with Alexander the Great was, therefore, arguably appropriate. I will return to the general import of imperial imitatio Alexandri in the conclusion.

31 Cass. Dio 78[77].7.1.

32 Cass. Dio 59.17.3. This criticism of Caligula does not appear to be a Dionian invention, with a comparable passage found in Suetonius’ biography (Calig. 52). It is interesting that Caligula and Caracalla are compared directly in this manner, the only two emperors to bear nicknames based on items of military attire.

33 Cass. Dio 78[77].8.2.

34 Cass. Dio 78[77].8.3.

35 For example, the route of Caracalla's travels in Asia Minor is noted. For the emperor's visit to Ilium, see Cass. Dio 78[77].16.7. For more on reconstructing his route, see D. Boteva, ‘Following in Alexander's Footsteps: The Case of Caracalla’, in Ancient Macedonia. Sixth International Symposium, Vol. I (1999), 181–8; A. Johnston, ‘Caracalla's Path: The Numismatic Evidence’, Historia 32 (1983), 58–76; B. Levick, ‘Caracalla's Path’, in C. Deroux (ed.), Hommages à Marcel Renard (Brussels, 1969), 426–46.

36 Cass. Dio 78[77].9.5.

37 Cass. Dio 78[77].7.1. He expresses his disgust at the emperor for wearing a linen costume designed to appear like armour, undermining Caracalla's masculine fortitude and martial persona in one critique (79[78].3.2). This may, however, be yet another Dionian slight designed to denigrate Caracalla, since it has been shown that a linothorax might actually have provided comparable (and, in some cases, superior) protection, at least against ranged weapons, while weighing far less than a metal cuirass. See G. S. Aldrete, S. Bartell, and A. Aldrete, Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armour. Unravelling the Linothorax Mystery (Baltimore, MD, 2013), 125–8.

38 Cass. Dio 78[77].17–18.

39 Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 12; Balty (n. 10), 97–99; also see Balty and Van Rengen (n. 11). For a general overview of the Roman army in Syria, see K. Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (London, 2003), 411–15.

40 Cowan (n. 11), 31; Balty (n. 10), 100.

41 It is further conceivable that the remains may denote an even later visit of the legio II Parthica Gordiana, travelling with Gordian III between 242 and 244 ce. See M. Rocco, L'Esercito Romano tardoantico. Persistenze e cesure dai Severi a Teodosio I (Padua, 2012), 58, n. 173.

42 AE 1993 1574; AE 1993 1575; Cowan (n. 11), 34.

43 Balty (n. 10), 101; Strobel (n. 10), 275. There is an irony in that evidence for Alexander Severus’ phalanx is often drawn from the Historia Augusta. Even a cursory reading of this text reveals a deliberately literary comparison between the emperor Alexander and his Macedonian namesake: see SHA, Alex. Sev. 50.4–5; 55.1. In this respect, even though the allusion reflects positively on him in this case, the final Severan emperor appears to be similarly at the mercy of sources concerned with the practice of imitatio Alexandri.

44 Balty (n. 10), pl. 14.2. The other lanciarii are presented in an almost identical fashion (ibid., pls. 3–4).

45 Balty (n. 10), 99; Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 10–11.

46 ‘Ring-buckle gravestones’ of this kind are found in various locations all over the empire: see J. C. N. Coulston, ‘Art, Culture and Service: The Depiction of Soldiers on 3rd Century ad Military Gravestones’, in L. de Blois and E. Lo Cascio (eds.), The Impact of the Roman Army (200 bc–ad 476). Economic, Social, Political, Religious and Cultural Aspects (Leiden, 2007), 529–61.

47 It should be noted that the funerary altar to the phalangarius bears no sculptural feature at all. The iconographic evidence has been more useful in establishing the equipment of the lanciarii, though. See M. P. Speidel, The Framework of an Imperial Legion (Cardiff, 1992).

48 Y. Le Bohec, The Imperial Roman Army (London, 2000), 24.

49 Both Livy (37.40.1) and Appian (Syr. 32) claim that the Seleucid phalanx at the Battle of Magnesia (190 bce) numbered 16,000. Livy (33.4.4) offers an identical figure for the Macedonian phalanx at the Battle of Pydna (168 bce).

50 Cass. Dio 78[77].7.1.

51 C. A. Matthew, ‘The Length of the “Sarissa”’, Antichthon 46 (2014), 79–100.

52 Cowan (n. 11), 33–4. It is worth noting here that Dio's description of the soldiers wearing leather helmets in the same passage is doubly problematic, since this was not a feature in the panoply of either the Macedonian sarissaphoroi or Roman legionaries.

53 Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 39.

54 The term δόρυ is certainly a far more commonly found term, albeit used in reference to a variety of shafted weaponry and projectiles. For examples, see Hom. Il. 5.666, 12.303; Od. 1.256; Hdt. 7.89; Xen. Eq. 8.10. Evidence remains, however, that σάρισα (or σάρισσα) was known in connection with the Macedonian pike specifically: see Polyb. 2.69.9, 18.29.2; Livy 9.19; Ov. Met. 12.466.

55 Hdn. 4.8.2–3.

56 Hdn. 4.15.2: καὶ οἱ μὲν βάρβαροι τῷ πλήθει τῶν τόξων τοῖς τε ἐπιμήκεσι δόρασι τῶν καταφράκτων ἀπό τε ἵππων καὶ καμήλων τιτρώσκοντες αὐτοὺς ἄνωθεν μεγάλως ἔβλαπτον⋅ οἱ δὲ Ῥωμαῖοι τῶν μὲν συστάδην μαχομένων ῥᾳδίως ἐκράτουν. Translation from Whittaker (n. 1).

57 Cassius Dio (79[78].1.3) considers little of value in reporting the campaign, while the only other large battle scene before Nisibis in Herodian (4.11.1–7) concerns the alleged massacre of Parthians by Caracalla, in which the emperor feigned a desire to marry the daughter of Artabanus. Herodian describes a Roman surprise attack during the reception, at which point the Parthian army was nearly entirely dismounted and unable to flee.

58 J. C. N. Coulston, ‘Late Roman Military Equipment Culture’, in A. Sarantis and N. Christie (eds.), War and Warfare in Late Antiquity. Current Perspectives (Leiden, 2013), 464; Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 267–8.

59 As Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 234, have argued, we must be very careful here not to presume that the manufacture of military materiel was ‘culturally homogenous’.

60 Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 173–5. Both the Niederbieber and Niedermörmter types are excellent examples of this style of helmet.

61 Coulston (n. 58), 465; Strobel (n. 10), 277; Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 156–7, 173–5. For a sense of how the evolutionary process continued, see Coulston (n. 58), 470–5. For more on the spatha, see M. C. Bishop, The Spatha. The Roman Long Sword (Oxford, 2020).

62 For an overview of the move towards phalangite formations within the legions, see E. Wheeler, ‘The Legion as Phalanx in the Late Empire, Part I’, in Y. Le Bohec and C. Wolff (eds.), L'armée romaine de Dioclétian à Valentinien Ier (Paris, 2004), 309–58; E. Wheeler, ‘The Legion as Phalanx in the Late Empire, Part II’, Revue des Études Militaires Anciennes 1 (2004), 147–75.

63 J. C. N. Coulston, ‘Roman Archery Equipment’, in M. C. Bishop (ed.), The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment. Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Seminar (London, 1985), 220–366.

64 Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 134–5; J. L. Davies, ‘Roman Arrowheads from Dinorben and the “Sagitarii” of the Roman Army’, Britannia 8 (1977), 257–70; A. D. H. Bivar, ‘Cavalry Equipment and Tactics on the Euphrates Frontier’, DOP 26 (1972), 271–91.

65 Veg. Mil. 1.15. For an earlier discussion of military tactics against an eastern enemy, in which the author also describes the need to deepen a phalanx against eastern cavalry, see Arr. Tact. 11.

66 S. S. Lusnia, Creating Severan Rome. The Architecture and Self-Image of L. Septimius Severus (Brussels, 2014), 78–80; R. Brilliant, The Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum (Rome, 1967).

67 Strobel (n. 10), 277; Bishop and Coulston (n. 10), 173. This image of a Roman force with varied arms and armour is not unique to the Severan period or the Eastern Empire. A similarly diverse distribution has been identified at Alchester during the Claudian period, for example: see E. W. Sauer, N. J. Cooper, G. B. Dannell, B. Dickinson, P. Erwin, A. Grant, M. Henig, A. W. McDonald, and M. Robinson, ‘Alchester, a Claudian “Vexillation Fortress” near the Western Boundary of the Catuvellauni: New Light on the Roman Invasion of Britain’, AJ 157 (2001), 1–78.

68 For a detailed breakdown of the content of each frieze, see M. Lloyd, ‘The Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum: A Reconsideration’, in E. C. De Sena (ed.), The Roman Empire during the Severan Dynasty. Case Studies in History, Art, Architecture, Economy and Literature (Piscataway, NJ, 2013).

69 R. Cowan, ‘Aspects of the Severan Field Army: The Praetorian Guard, Legio II Parthica and Legionary Vexillations ad 193–238’, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow (2002).

70 The precise number cannot be estimated but, as noted above, it is highly unlikely to have reached the 16,000 suggested by Dio (see n. 49). A similar pattern of recruitment can be observed later, with Gordian III said to have brought troops to the east from the Gothic front: see RG Sapor 6.

71 Kühnen, A., Die imitatio Alexandri in der römischen Politik (Münster, 2008)Google Scholar; D. Spencer, The Roman Alexander. Reading a Cultural Myth (Exeter, 2002), 29–38. Even before the Principate, figures such as Pompey and Caesar had engaged in acts of imitatio or veneratio: see D. Den Hengst, ‘Alexander and Rome’, in D. W. P. Burgersdijk and J. A. van Waarden (eds.), Emperors and Historiography. Collected Essays on the Literature of the Roman Empire by Daniël den Hengst (Leiden, 2010), 68–83; P. Green, ‘Caesar and Alexander: Aemulatio, Imitatio, Comparatio’, in Classical Bearings. Interpreting Ancient History and Culture (London, 1989), 193–209.

72 Suet. Aug. 50.1.

73 Cass. Dio 68.29.2; 68.30.1. See also n. 30.

74 Smith, R., ‘The Casting of Julian the Apostate “in the likeness” of Alexander The Great: A Topos in Antique Historiography and Its Modern Echoes’, Histos 5 (2011), 44–106Google Scholar.

75 Cass. Dio 75[74].6.2a.

76 Cass. Dio 76[75].13.2; K. Buraselis, ΘΕΙΑ ΔΩΡΕΑ. Das Gottlich-kaiserliche Geschenk. Studien zur Politik der Severer und zur Constitutio Antoniniana (Vienna, 2007), 29.

77 Buraselis (n. 76), 33.

78 Athanassiadi, P., Julian. An Intellectual Biography (London, 1992), 193Google Scholar. This is particularly well seen in the unlikely case of Nero, whom Suetonius (Ner. 19.2) records as having dubbed a newly formed legion ‘the phalanx of Alexander the Great’, before deploying them to the Caspian Gates.