Authors: Stephen Dando-Collins
The spring of
AD
200 found Severus and his army back outside Hatra for a renewal of the siege, for Severus was galled by the fact that this one city should be allowed to resist him when all others in the region had fallen. Severus’ latest siege engines were brought up as the struggle was renewed, but the Atreni tribe defending Hatra were also equipped with destructive weapons, some of which were massive catapults that launched two large arrows at a time. These had such a long range that they hit Severus’ bodyguards as the emperor sat on a lofty tribunal from which he was watching the siege progress, no doubt scattering both emperor and attendants.
Severus’ legionaries were subsequently sent against one of the walls of Hatra using covered mantlets on wheels. They managed to break down a small part of the wall, and assault troops massed at the breach. In response, the defenders fired containers of burning bituminous naphtha against the wooden siege sheds; these burst over them and “consumed the engines and all the soldiers on whom it fell.” [Dio,
LXXVI
, 11] The horrible fate of these men soured the enthusiasm of the other Roman troops who witnessed it, and the attack faltered.
Except those built by Priscus, all the siege machines were destroyed by fire as a result of Hatran barrages. Fireproofing precautions, which often involved a layer of earth on the top of wooden siege machines, may have prevented Priscus’ engines from being engulfed in flame. Eventually, another large breach was made in a wall by Priscus’ surviving siege machinery. Severus’ troops were eager to force their way through the breach, but Severus unaccountably decided to give the enemy twenty-four hours to surrender. A day later, the Hatrans had not only failed to give up but had secretly rebuilt the breached wall during the night.
Of Severus’ legions, Dio said that those that had come from Europe “alone had the ability to do anything.” [Dio,
LXXVI
, 12] Yet even they shied away from tackling
the wall now that the Arabs had been given time to strengthen their defenses. “They were so angry” about Severus’ twenty-four-hour delay that “not one of them would any longer obey him.” [Ibid.] “The others, Syrians,” said Dio—apparently the Syria-based legions such as the 3rd Gallica, the 4th Scythica, the 6th Ferrata and the 10th Fretensis—were ordered to make the assault in the place of the European legions but they were “miserably destroyed” and the attack repulsed. [Ibid.]
One of Severus’ generals said that if the emperor gave him 550 men from the European legions he would take the city, but Severus sourly pointed out that he could not even find that many European soldiers because of the disobedience of their legions. [Ibid.] After twenty days of bloody failure, like Trajan before him, Severus gave up the siege of Hatra. He withdrew from Mesopotamia, leaving garrisons at various cities and forts, and traveled to Palestine. At the temple to Jupiter built on the site of the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem, Severus sacrificed to the memory of Pompey the Great, the first Roman general to take Jerusalem.
The campaign had cost the lives of thousands of Roman troops and secured no great lasting benefits for Rome, other than buying a little time before her assets beyond the Euphrates were again besieged and overrun. Now, Severus turned his back on military affairs and played tourist. He went to Egypt, and at Alexandria locked up the tomb of Alexander the Great so that no one in the future could view his mummified body. He then sailed down the Nile, halting only when he learned that disease was ravaging Ethiopia ahead.
By
AD
202, Severus was back in Rome. He had left the new 1st Parthica and 3rd Parthica legions in the East, and they built bases for themselves in Mesopotamia—the former at Singara, the latter at Rhesana. Severus brought the 2nd Parthica Legion back to Italy with him following the Parthian expedition. Even though Severus had reformed the Praetorian Guard after he came to power, he never totally trusted it; Praetorians had, after all, murdered his predecessor Pertinax. The 2nd Parthica Legion was now installed at Alba Longa, in the Alban Hills, just 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Rome, becoming the first legion based in Italy south of the River Po since the late days of the Republic, some 230 years before.
Here at Alba, the 2nd Parthica, which had proved its loyalty to Severus in the East, became the emperor’s pseudo lifeguards. Now the Praetorians knew that the emperor’s pet legion was just several hours’ march away at Alba should they ever have thoughts of murdering the occupant of the throne. The 2nd Parthica Legion,
or the Alban Legion as it would colloquially become known, was now serving as Severus’ life insurance.
The following year, the triumphal Arch of Septimius Severus was inaugurated in Rome. In one of the panels, a Roman soldier is seen escorting an eastern prisoner who may well have been King Abgar of Osroene, who had surrendered to Severus following the fall of Edessa. Abgar did subsequently go to Rome, with a massive escort. [Dio,
LXXX
, 16] He may have taken part in Severus’ triumphal procession. On an inscription on the arch, Severus claimed to have restored the state and enlarged the empire. For the moment, the Roman Empire’s extended borders were secure, the frontier lands quiet. But peace, in the third century, would be a rare phenomenon for Romans.
AD
208–210
LIX. SEVERUS’ SCOTTISH INVASION
Invigorating idle legions
The emperor Septimius Severus, feeling that the legions “were becoming enervated by idleness,” and having concluded that Rome controlled less than half of Britain, decided to correct both situations by invading the island’s northern unconquered portion. [Dio,
LXXVII
, 11] In
AD
197, while Severus was planning his Parthian campaign, the Maeatae tribe of Scotland, which lived beside Hadrian’s Wall, was being troublesome—their neighbors, the Caledonians, having failed to abide by their promises to Rome that they would keep the Maeatae under control. With his focus on the East, as a temporary solution Severus had authorized the governor of northern Britain, Virius Lupus, “to purchase peace from the Maeatae for a large sum.” [Dio,
LXXVI
, 5]
But by 208, Severus was now ready to turn his attention to Scotland personally. In the spring, he arrived in Britain with his wife, sons and a large army. Then, from his headquarters at Eburacum, he advanced past Hadrian’s Wall and launched an offensive against the Maeatae, near the wall, then against the Caledonians in the Highlands. “But as he advanced through the country he experienced countless hardships in cutting down the forests, leveling the heights, filling up swamps, and bridging the swamps.” [Dio,
LXXVII
, 13] Cassius Dio, a senator at the time, says that the warriors of Scotland, who lived in tents, were “very swift in running and very firm
in standing their ground.” They were armed with a shield, short spear and a dagger. The tribes also still used war chariots drawn by small, fast horses, as they had at the time of Agricola’s campaigns 120 years before. [Ibid.]
The tribes avoided pitched battles but instead used their livestock as bait, luring the Roman troops intent on plunder into swamps and bogs. The tribesmen would “plunge into the swamps and exist there with only their heads above water,” said Dio. While “the water caused great suffering to the Romans,” the tribesmen only attacked the Romans “when they became scattered.” Wounded Roman soldiers who could not walk “would be slain by their own men, in order to avoid capture.” [Ibid.]
Over the three years of the campaign, Roman losses were enormous: “Fully 50,000 died,” said Dio. But Severus “did not desist until he had approached the extremity of the island.” [Ibid.] By this time suffering from severe gout, he himself was carried the length of Scotland in a litter. By the end of the summer of
AD
210, Severus’ expensive campaign had not subjugated the tribes of northern Britain, but it forced them to parley.
At 64 years old, Severus rode at the head of the Roman army to meet the tribal leaders to finalize a peace treaty. With him rode his ambitious eldest son, 22-year-old Caracalla—a nickname, derived from his habit of always wearing a particular type of cloak. Caracalla’s actual name, which changed several times, was Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus. Ahead on the moorland, the Caledonians had formed up in battle array for the parley. Caracalla rode just behind his father, but in front of the emperor’s escort. As they came up to the Caledonians, the young prince drew his sword and appeared to prepare to plunge it into his father’s back. Other Romans of the party cried out a warning to Severus, who turned, saw Caracalla’s sword, and gave his son a cold stare, which checked the youth.
Severus, short but well built, said nothing, just dismounted and walked to the tribunal prepared for the negotiations, which then proceeded. The treaty was agreed—Roman troops would not enter tribal territory, but in return the Maeatae had to
give up their lands and withdraw north. Issuing an invitation for Caledonian chiefs and their dependants to visit him at his headquarters at Eburacum, Severus withdrew.
Back at Eburacum, Severus sent Praetorian Prefect Papinian to bring Caracalla to his quarters. When the pair arrived, they found the emperor unwell on a couch. Severus’ influential freedman, chief secretary Castor, was also present. A sword lay on a table in front of the emperor, with the handle pointing toward Caracalla. Severus castigated his son for daring to draw a sword against him, and in public. He then dared Caracalla to take up the sword in front of him and slay him; or, to order Papinian to kill him. Caracalla slunk away.
Shortly after, a delegation of Caledonian chieftains arrived at Eburacum, and were treated as the special guests of the emperor and the empress, Julia Domna. The empress even entertained the wife of Caledonian leader Argentocoxus and was impressed with her wit. [Dio,
LXXVII
, 16] With winter closing in, the treaty was sealed, and the tribal leaders returned to Scotland. But the peace would be temporary.
AD
210
LX. EXECUTIONS AT YORK
Legionaries or Praetorians?
Caracalla simmered with humiliation until one day, late in
AD
210, he burst from his quarters at Eburacum, “shouting and bawling that he was being wronged by Castor,” his father’s right-hand man. “Thereupon certain soldiers who had been got ready beforehand assembled and joined in the outcry.” But “they were quickly checked when Severus himself appeared among them and punished the more unruly ones.” [Dio,
LXXVII
, 14] What form that punishment took was not revealed. Not many weeks later, on February 4, 210, Severus died at Eburacum.
Discoveries of the skeletons of beheaded men in a Roman cemetery at modern-day York in 2004 led the press and BBC Television to suggest that these were victims of a massacre carried out at Eburacum by Caracalla following his father’s death. A number of graves, including those of fifty adult males, were found outside the old city walls, in a graveyard bordering the old Roman road from the southwest. Many of these men had been beheaded; one had manacles around his ankles. Pottery shards at the burial site suggested that the graves dated from early in the third century. In
2005, another grave containing the remains of a further twenty-four men was found nearby; at least eighteen of these men had also been decapitated. [Girling]
The decapitations had taken place from behind, and had been rough affairs; in one case, thirteen sword or ax blows had been required to sever a victim’s head. Scientific analysis of the bones showed that none of the men in the graves was older than 45. All were quite tall for the time, at around 5 feet 9 inches (174 centimeters). All were powerfully built, and their arms showed evidence of extreme exertion over a number of years. Isotope analysis of their teeth indicated that these men originated from the Mediterranean, the Alps, even from Africa. [Ibid.]
Even though the evidence suggested that these men were connected to the Roman military—Eburacum was the base of the 6th Victrix Legion in the third century and headquarters of Severus’ army of numerous legions during his Scottish campaigns—a story that these skeletons were evidence of a bloody wave of executions of Severus’ courtiers carried out by Caracalla quickly gained media currency.
However, the York Archaeological Trust in its Annual Report for 2005–6 played down the Caracalla massacre theory, pointing out that these skeletons came from four different periods. Additionally, while Cassius Dio reported that Caracalla did execute many of his father’s courtiers, including Castor, once he became emperor, those executions apparently took place later, in Rome.
But perhaps one group of York’s beheaded skeletons was connected to Caracalla’s
AD
210 outburst against Castor; perhaps they were Praetorian guardsmen;
members of Caracalla’s severely punished “cheer squad.” These men were Roman citizens—it was the right of every citizen to be beheaded if convicted of a “capital crime”—and their uniformly large physical size marks them as possible Praetorians. Ever since Severus’
AD
193 reforms, serving legionaries had been made Praetorians—on the strength of their physicality and bravery. And Severus’ Praetorian recruits came from all areas of the empire, just like the decapitated men at York. Cassius Dio, who had contact with Severus’ Praetorians, described them as “soldiers most savage in appearance, most terrifying in speech, and most boorish in conversation.” [Dio,
LXXV
, 2]
It is quite possible that here, then, unearthed at York, was the gruesome evidence of Caracalla’s tantrum, and of the price that Praetorian guardsmen had paid for their obedience to his wishes.
AD
217
LXI. KILLING CARACALLA
Eastern retreat
Spring had come, the standards of the legions had been sanctified in the lustration during March’s Quatranalis ceremonials, and in Mesopotamia, the emperor Caracalla, now 29 years old, was planning to resume the war against the Parthians. It was April 8 when Caracalla set off from Edessa with a mounted column, planning to ride to Carrhae (modern-day Harran in Turkey), to set the campaign in motion. Some distance along the road, the column came to a halt for a rest break. Caracalla dismounted and stretched his legs. Around him, others followed suit. Among them were men of his personal bodyguard unit, the Lions. These bodyguards were Scythians and
Germans, for Caracalla did not trust the Praetorians or any other Roman soldiers to protect him. These bodyguards were former prisoners who had been slaves before Caracalla had taken them from their Roman masters, armed them, given them the same privileges and pay as centurions, and made them his closest companions.