Caracalla by Ilkka Syvanne

Author:Ilkka Syvanne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Ancient
ISBN: 9781473895263
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

‘The enchantments of the enemy had made Antoninus frenzied and beside himself; at any rate, some of the Alamanni, on hearing of his condition, asserted that they had employed charms to put him out of his mind. For he was sick not only in body, partly from visible, and partly from secret ailments, but in mind as well, suffering from certain distressing visions, and often he thought he was being pursued by his father and by his brother, armed with swords [on the surface this text sounds credible. It is entirely possible that Caracalla could have suffered from feelings of guilt for having killed his brother, but in light of the tendentious reporting of Dio, it is still quite probable that this is not true, but that Caracalla had just caught a flu of some sort, as a result of which he saw feverish nightmares, which the enemy exploited by spreading disinformation to lower the Romans’ morale, or that someone had managed to poison Caracalla]. Therefore he called up spirits to find remedy against them, among others the spirit of his father and that of Commodus. … But to Antoninus no one even of the gods gave any response that conducted to healing either his body or his mind, although he paid homage to all the more prominent ones [Antoninus did all of this in order to calm his superstitious men; i.e. he calmed the superstitious men by using “magic” against the enemy’s evil eye]. … He received no help from Apollo Grannus, nor yet from Aesculapius or Serapis, in spite of his many supplications and his unwearying persistence. For even while abroad he sent to them prayers, sacrifices and votive offerings, and many couriers ran hither and thither every day carrying something of this kind [I would suggest that the real reason for this traffic was the conveying of intelligence reports in the form of prophecies. It is easy to see why Caracalla could have suspected a poisoning attempt.]; and he also went to them himself, hoping to prevail by appearing in person, and did all that devotees are wont to do [by doing this, Caracalla endeared himself with the followers of those religions, while he could also claim to receive messages from gods regarding the names of his enemies]; but he obtained nothing that contributed to health [it is of course possible that despite all the apparent cynicism in the use of religion, Caracalla may still have felt the urge to pray for his mother’s well-being when she was suffering from the breast cancer].’

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