CARACALLA, "COMMENTARIUS DE BELLO PARTHICO"

Author(s): Richard Westall

Source: Hermes, 140. Jahrg., H. 4 (2012), pp. 457-467
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43652908
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 HERMES Hermes Band 140 Heft 4 2012
Zeitschrift fr klassische Philologie Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttg

CARACALLA, COMMENTARIUS DE BELLO PARTHICO

In AD 2 1 6-2 1 7, not yet aged thirty, the emperor Caracalla undertook two consecu-
tive military campaigns against the Parthians.1 In the first of these he penetrated
deep within Parthian-held Mesopotamia; the second ended, almost at the outset,
with Caracalla's inglorious assassination.2 Patently seeking to emulate Alexander
the Great, Caracalla had excellent reasons for engaging in such an adventure. The
murder of his brother Geta late in 21 1 and the subsequent suppression of those at-
tached to Geta's memory engendered hatred amongst the elite whose collaboration
was essential to government of the Empire. Paradoxically, by employing violence
to secure his hold upon power, Caracalla had rendered his position less secure.3
Redress was to be had through domestic appeasement and foreign adventure. Is-
suing the Constitutio Antoniniana in early 212, Caracalla extended the Roman
citizenship to all free-born inhabitants of the Roman empire, thereby augmenting
considerably the tax base with which to finance the army.4 Next, in imitation of

1 The author would like to thank Prof. Frederick Brenk for the invitation to collaborate in writ-
ing a chapter on political autobiography under the Antonines and Severans, in the course of which
the discovery discussed here was made. An especial note of gratitude is also due to Prof. Susan
Tieggiari, Prof. Scott Richardson, and Prof. Eran Almagor for their taking the time to read and
comment upon this piece. Last, but not least, the author would like to thank Prof. Karl-Joachim
Hlkeskamp and the anonymous readers of Hermes: Zeitschrift fr klassische Philologie for their
invaluable comments and observations.

For Caracalla's age, see Dio, 79.6.5. A later tradition claimed that he was forty-three years old
at the time: SHA, Car. 9.1. In regard to this subject, readers are also referred to the brilliant article
of G. Alfldy, "Nox Dea Fit Lux' Caracallas Geburtstag," pp. 9-36, in: G. Bonamente and M.
Mayer, edd., Historiae Augustae Colloquium Barcinonense 1993 (Bari 1996).
2 Caracalla was killed while relieving himself: Dio, 79.5.4-5; Herodian. 4.13.4; SHA, Car.
7.1-2. The very fact that he had found it expedient to surround himself with a bodyguard super-
numerary to the Praetorian Guard and of foreign extraction (Dio, 78.5.5-6.1; Herodian. 4.13.6;
SHA, Car. 6.7 ; A. von Domaszewski, "Untersuchungen zur rmischen Kaisergeschichte", RAM 57
(1902) 506-516, here 508) is itself eloquent testimony of the ill-will that was felt in certain circles.
3 Indeed, if not based in fact, then it is most likely in this period that there arose claims that
Caracalla had not only twice attempted to kill his elderly father, but also indulged in an adulterous
union with his mother Julia Domna. During Caracalla's visit to Alexandria in AD 215, the urban
masses taunted the emperor with being a latter-day Oedipus: Herodian. 4.9.3; E. Hohl, Ein poli-
tischer Witz auf Caracalla. Ein Beitrag zur Historia- Augusta- Kritik (Berlin 1950) 15-16 n. 11.
Cf. Dio, 78.22-23.
4 For the date of the Constitutio Antoniniana , see F. Millar, "The date of the Constitutio
Antoninian' Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 48 (1962) 124-131; cf. H. Halfmann, "Zwei
syrische Verwandte des severischen Kaiserhauses", Chiron 12 (1982) 217-235, here 229-230.
As to its fiscal motivation, see Dio, 78.9.5. It may be significant that Septimius Severus' deathbed

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458 Richard Westall

his father Septimius Severus (and h

prosecuted wars abroad. First, he con
formed and loosely-knit confederati
and Danube.5 Encouraged by that su
conquests, as well as the wealth and
launch a war against the Parthian em
This war presents various aspects of
thing, there is the fact that Caracall
this campaign.7 For another, as is in
Achilles at Ilium, Caracalla was engag
Caracalla allegedly asked for the hand
ing that ruler's refusal as a pretext f
of all is perhaps that which has hith
an account of this war against the Pa
There survive two references to Ca
against the Parthians in AD 216. In
marvellous victory that he had allege
ancient Near East, Caracalla claimed
world in attacking his enemies:

5 T1 'Avxcovlvo touto pv 7tEKp7

copKEi, KEKpaTTpcc oEpvvExo, Kai p
auvEpxiloev axah, co aux tcoxeiXev

But Antoninus concealed this occurrence,

routed them, since they were not to be seen
lion that unexpectedly rushed down from a
written. (Dio, 79.1.4-5)

Engaged in deconstructing the victor

the trouble to cite Caracalla as to a de
a profound distaste for Caracalla, he
nothing worthy of record for the hi

injunction to his sons had been, aside from

army and to forget about the rest (Dio, 77.1
5 J.F. Drinkwater, The Alamanni and R
50-51. As regards ethnogenesis sur place an
reference to earlier literature, see Drinkwa
6 It is to be remembered that Caracalla ha
ter second Parthian campaign in 198-199
Geschichte und Typologie der Kaiserreisen
Rmische Kaisertabelle: Grundzge einer
7 For disaffection in the ranks, see Dio, 7
8 Dio, 78.16.7; cf. 78.9.1 as well as 78.7-
9 Dio, 79.1.1; cf. 78.19.1 and 21 (on an in
Tiridates and a certain Antiochus).

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 Caracalla, Commentarius de Bello Partitico 459

Arbela (and hence allegedly within the region of Media) were conducted
Roman invading force with impunity, for the Parthians refused to descend f
mountains to the east of the Tigris and engage the Romans in combat. Th
to engage has parallels both in earlier Parthian history and in subsequent
responses to Roman aggression. Consciously misinterpreting this tactic, h
Caracalla magnified the importance of his "success" and validated it thr
addition of the miraculous.

In the second passage, which follows after an indeterminate period, Caracalla

is described as having written something that Dio's readers would find incredible
but for the fact that it was written by Caracalla himself:

. . . kX T|0eia- Kai yp xah iAicoi xcoi Tcepi axo ypa<J>evxi oi vxuxov.

. . . but true. Indeed, I have run across the book that he wrote about this. (Dio, 79.2, at the point
where Cod. Vat. 1288 commences)

Although going on to remark Caracalla's hostility towards the Senate, two sentences
later he resumes his narrative of the Parthian war (Dio, 79.3.1), as is indicated by
use of the particle ouv in conjunction with a genitive absolute in which the Parthi-
ans and Medes are explicitly named. Hence, context assures that whatever readers
would have found incredible must have related to the Parthian war, but nothing
more may be ventured. What is most significant is the clear evidence, reiterated,
for a literary narrative of that war.
The presence of the lion fighting alongside the emperor upon the battlefield is
unexpected and calls for comment. Employment of the singular Xcov xi and the
qualifying remark that it came down from the mountain together reassure that refer-
ence is being made to an animal and not to the German mercenaries who constituted
an especial bodyguard for the emperor. Although their golden hair encouraged the
metaphorical deployment of ovxe to indicate the mercenaries10, that is clearly
not the case here. Nor can it be said that Caracalla was referring explicitly to one
of the domesticated lions that he maintained in his living quarters and about his
own person.11 The animal in question may very well have been that "table- and
bed-companion" or poxp7ieov |iok,ivv te which Dio specifies as being named
"Rapier" or Akivqkt1, but the surviving text clearly states that the lion that fought

10 Dio, 79.6.1: x xe yp Kka Kai icaxovxapxai a<1> xpa Aovx xe KXei. For the
juridical status of the members of this bodyguard, see K.-W. Welwei, "Die 'Lwen* Caracallas,"
Bonner Jahrbcher 192 (1992) 231-239. The lion-metaphor may have had its basis in the blonde
hair of these Germans. If later report may be trusted, Caracalla himself wore a blonde, German-style
wig (Herodian. 4.7.3). In this context, it should also be remarked that the metaphor of "beast" 0qp
was allegedly applied to Caracalla during his passage through Asia Minor and his subsequent stay
at Alexandria in AD 215: Dio, 78.16.8, 23.4; cf. LSfi 799 s.v. 0ip 1. "beast of prey, esp. a lion".
11 Dio, 79.7.2-3: a<>' ou r| koi i 0pa xiv efA.0e, pn8v pq xo Xovxo, v Kai
Akivkt1v cvpae Kai poxpneov |iokavv xe noielxo, <|>povxaa, xi Kai Kpxnoev
axv ivxa Kai xfv ea0fxa axou rcpooKaxppTiev expe<>e pv yp Kai ou Aovxa
koXXjov, Kai e xiva icepi axv eixev, keIvov 5 Kai Sqpoaiai 7coAAKi Kaxe<1>Aet.

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 460 Richard Westall

alongside Caracalla "unexpectedly r

may have been writing with the inte
language is that the animal in quest
the battlefield was cited as a sign of
The language employed by Dio, as it
is itself indicative of a commentariu
but the use of kigtXXo in the firs
As is well known, commentarii conce
letters to the Senate or populus Rom
commentarii , in fact, Appian appropr
Consequently, use of the verb niox
the lion's assistance to himself durin
suggests identification of this work
Of course, the letter to the Senate
first year of the military campaign a
Caracalla wrote as emperor to that v
to the Senate describing the results
against the Alamanni in 213. 15 Like
ing his sojourn at Alexandria in earl
Caracalla came to discover, or so it w
and similar statements were a marvellous instrument for the dissemination of the
official version of events. Equally importantly, in view of Caracalla's lengthy
absences from Rome, it is to be surmised that his correspondence with the Senate
was relatively voluminous.
From the perspective of literary criticism, what rendered Caracalla's letter about
the Parthian war remarkable was its extraordinary length. Although in couched
in the traditional form of a letter from a Roman magistrate to the Senate, it stood
as a book in its own right, apparently filling the whole of a papyrus-roll. While
most letters of a public or private nature might be only a fraction of that length,
the literary commentarius was effectively a letter that constituted an ancient book
in its own right. In these circumstances, the variable nature of Dio's references

12 Ancient Greek as well as modern English tends to confuse "unexpectedly" with "suddenly",
hence R.J. Cunliffe, A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect (Norman 1963) 135 s.v. earcvri; cf. F.
Montanari, Vocabolario della lingua greca (Torino 1995) 701 s.v. a<J>vr|, ("all'improvviso,
subitaneamente"). Reflection shows that "to die suddenly" is manifestly not the equivalent of "to
die unexpectedly".
13 Cf. Dio, 79.7.2, this time for the omen of Caracalla's imminent death that was furnished
by Akinake. This latter passage should be compared with Plut. Artax. 5.3; E. Almagor, "Charac-
terization Through Animals: The Case of Plutarch's Artaxerxes ," Ploutarchos n.s. 7 (2009/2010)
3-22, here 9-11.
14 App. BC 2.79.330.
15 Dio, 78.13.6.
16 Dio, 78.23.2.

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 Caracalla, Commentarius de Bello Partitico 46 1

to the work becomes comprehensible. Caracalla wrote what was in effect

and circulated as such afterwards. However, in its first public reading, this
been a letter destined for reading by the members of the Senate.
Knowledge of Caracalla's account of the first campaigning season of th
thian war is due to the fact that the commentarius was circulated after its initial

reading in the Senate. Although the letter had been sent to Rome, Dio's testimony
suggests that he knew its contents from its subsequent or simultaneous circulation
as a book. Thoroughly disgusted by Caracalla's behaviour at Nicomedia in the
winter of 214- 215, Dio did not accompany the emperor further east in his travels.17
Rather, the historian returned to Rome, where he laboured upon his history of the
Roman people. Dio's use of the first-person plural demonstrates incontrovertibly
that the historian was present when the letter announcing Macrinus' accession to
the imperial throne was read out to the assembled Senate18, whereas its absence
from his description of Caracalla's book on the Parthian war implies the historian's
absence from the Senate at the reading of that letter.19 In view of the fact that Dio
uses the word itaov or "book" to describe Caracalla's letter, it seems necessary
to conclude that the work was being disseminated throughout Italy and the Em-
pire by Caracalla's agents. As demonstrably occurred when M. Aquilius Regulus
mourned the untimely death of his only son in AD 104 and seems to have been
the case with Julius Caesar in the 50s BC, it would appear that a vast quantity of
copies of Caracalla's Commentarius de Bello Partitico circulated so as to inform
the Roman people of their ruler's splendid achievements in emulation of Alexander
the Great in the East.20 Writing under the principte of Severus Alexander, Dio
was able to exercise his critical faculties openly and to express his disapprobation.
Consequently, he gave the Parthian campaign relatively short shrift and cited the
most incredible portion of the Commentarius de Bello Partitico in order to cast
discredit upon Caracalla.

17 Dio, 78.17.3-4, is particularly relevant to the senatorial delegation of which Dio was a
member.

18 Dio, 79.16.2, 37.5; cf. 16.4 for a later occasion.

19 Pace T.D. Barnes, "The Composition of Cassius Dio's Roman History ", Phoenix 38 (1984)
240-255, here 244. However, it should be remarked that Barnes admits a degree of uncertainty
through his employment of the verb "appears".
20 For commemoration of the prematurely deceased son of M. Aquilius Regulus, see Plin. Epist.
4.7.2,6,7; A.N. Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny: A Historical and Social Commentary (Oxford
1966) 270-271. Arguing from this instance to that of Caesar: T.P. Wiseman, "Publication of De
Bello Gallico ", 1-9, in K. Welch and A. Powell, edd., Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter: The War
Commentaries as Political Instruments (London 1998). For further information on the fascinating
figure of this delator become consularis , see PIR2 A 1005; Sherwin-White 1966: 93-94; S.H. Rut-
ledge, Imperial Inquisitions (London 2001) 192-198 no. 9. With respectability came a second life
as captator : E. Champlin, Final Judgements: Duty and Emotion in Roman Will, 200 B. C. - A. D.
250 (Berkeley 1991) 99-100. The tenor of his career is aptly summarised by Plin. Epist. 1,5,1: sub
Domitiano non minora flagitia commisit quam sub Nerone sed tectiora.

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 462 Richard Westall

It has been suggested that Caracalla

autobiography composed by the empero
sustained scrutiny. Inspection of the
that the content dealt specifically wit
in AD 216. Since Caracalla had not ac
advanced in age, it is hard to believe
figured within an autobiography in t
his testimony for this work, Cassius
points towards a commentarius , such
Vespasian, and Trajan. The presence
to influences deriving from the anc
Caracalla's literary work differed ma
of his imperial predecessors. On the
and put into circulation a commentar
the Parthians reveals once more how
content of this commentarius suggest
successor to Caesar and Alexander th
attempt to portray himself as standi
Throughout his brief reign Caracal
lationship to the soldiers who served
calla is a sign that survives of this sel
Septimius Bassianus, and upon his fa
been altered to M. Aurelius Antonin
emperors. In a manner reminiscent
Caracalla derived from the woollen cl
As emperor, Caracalla participated in
social distance and privilege that usu
addition, he liberally gave gratuities t
stipend. These actions were revolution
the senatorial elite, but rendered Ca
regime depended and thereby reinfor
Very rarely did commentarii achiev
lated amongst a reading public gathe
they enjoyed a flourishing existence
administrative cadres or viewed as a

21 H. Sidebottom, "Sevean historiography

Swain, S. Harrison, and J. Elsner (eds.), Se
22 However, there were the precedents of Su
place to remark that Caracalla undertook to
23 For unfavourable comment, see, for e
regards the payment and gratuities accorde
relevant: Dio 77.15.2.

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 Caracalla, Commentarius de Bello Parthico 463

toriographical work.24 The extraordinary document wherein the retire

surveyor Nonius Datus describes his involvement in the creation of an
Saldae (in Mauretania Caesariensis) is testimony to the fact that this su
continued to be exercised a full two centuries after it had been endowed with
literary status by Caesar and his epigonoi.25 To commemorate their victories in
wars fought against the Jews and Dacians, Vespasian and Trajan respectively had
utilised the form of the commentarius, thereby placing themselves within the tra-
dition of the first of the imperial Caesars. But these were noteworthy exceptions.
Most emperors tended to be satisfied with the pomp and circumstance of victory
titles and triumphal processions, leaving to their subjects the thankless and delicate
task of composing panegyrics suitable to the occasion. In theory, publication of
a commentarius ostensibly aimed to provide material for future historians while
furnishing a version of historical reality that was not only favourable to the subject
concerned but also rendered panegyric otiose. Within a poisonous political climate,
such theoretical considerations were not to be overlooked. It is perhaps no accident
that Caesar, Vespasian, and Trajan had all come to power within circumstances of
civil war or its threatened manifestation. Through the murder of his brother so as
to secure his hold upon the imperial throne, Caracalla had full title to membership
within this select group.
Not all of those who wrote commentarii to this end, however, possessed the
same unfailing grasp of literary sensibility displayed by Caesar. Caesar's com-
mentarii work so effectively as propaganda because of the fact that their author
did not succumb to the temptation to use the first-person plural that is a regular
feature of the letters to the Senate that they imitated.26 A sign of the times, Trajan's
commentarii do display such a first-person plural in the sole citation to survive
from that work.27 With its claim that a lion had miraculously appeared to fight
alongside the emperor, Caracalla's commentarius represents yet a further stage in
the corruption of sensibilities. While that assertion may have impressed the masses
to whom it was addressed, it also incurred the ridicule of the senatorial elite, as can
be seen from the way in which Cassius Dio cites this portion of the work. Whereas
Caesar had tended to eliminate any and all reference to the divine and supernatural
from his commentarii , Caracalla drew upon an ancient Near Eastern tradition that

24 Lucian, De conscr. hist. 16 and 48; F. Bmer, "Der Commentarius ", Hermes 81 (1953)
210-250; J. Rpke, "Wer las Caesars bella als commentariiT Gymnasium 99 (1992) 201-226.
25 CIL 8.2728 + 18122 = ILS 5795.
26 Cf. Cicero in his letters from Cilicia; M. Rambaud, L'art de la dformation historique dans
les Commentaires de Csar (Paris 1953) 24; G. Hutchinson, Cicero's Correspondence: A Literary
Study (Oxford 1998) 88-89.
27 Priscian. 6.13, p. 205 = HRR 2.117 Fl; R. Westall and F. Brenk, "The Second and Third
Century", in G. Marasco, ed., The Brill Companion to Graeco-Roman Political Autobiography
(forthcoming).

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 464 Richard Westall

viewed the ruler as embodying the w

the manifestation of divinity in hum
The association of the ruler with a li
that it made its appearance within th
as far as the second half of the third
names that signify "The king is a lio
( arru-laba ).28 Subsequently, seman
complex similes and the establishme
Sumerian ruler Ime-Dagan is record
from the steppes that advances irresi
wrote of himself that he was like "a
of ferocity persevered in the use of
tions by the Assyrian kings. For inst
thus: "Upon learning of his bad faith
march against Babylon".30 Throne-r
lions that represented the ruler's ma
a vogue for representing the ruler as e
By the destruction of the lion, or so
the powers of that particular animal
inscription explaining such a huntin

I am Assurbanpal, the king of the universe,

a fierce lion to issue forth from a cage after h
ding, have wounded him with an arrow even
Nergal, who has endowed me with power and
my belt and pierced him and he has died,

Commemoration of the hunting of l

and the elite within the Graeco-Roma
implication their competence to rule
phasised his worthiness as a successor
of coins that commemorated his havi
Matters are complicated, however. In t
went so far as to maintain domestic
calla was not the first to engage in th

28 E. Cassin, "Le roi et le lion", RHR 198

pictogram pirig or "king" was susceptible
Cassin 1981: 364-365.
29 Cassin 1981:360.
30 Cassin 1981:370.
31 Steier, "Lwe," RE 13A (1926) coll. 968-990, here 979; cf. Plin. HN 8.54; Iustin. 15.3.7;
Curt. 8.1.14-15.

32 Nor the last, if belief may be extended to the testimony of SHA, Hel. 21.25ff.

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 Caracalla, Commentarius de Bello Parthico 465

Domitian is incidentally recorded as having kept a tame lion33, and the P

queen Berenice is said to have had a pet lion that was so tame that it w
with her and lick her face.34
The pharaoh Ramses II (ca. 1 279-1 2 1 3 BC), better known to the Grae
world through the deformation of his throne-name as Osymandias, is to
within this dual tradition. By chance, both the Ramesseum containing re
tions of the battle of Kadesh and an ancient description of that monumen
In the representations it is possible to make out both a rampant lion alon
pharaoh's chariot on two occasions and a scene in which a lion wearing
depicted in a crouching pose. These representations and ancient viewers
to them are described as follows by the historian Diodorus Siculus, who
Egypt in the early 50s BC (Diod. 1.48.1):
Kai Kax iev xv Ttpxov x>v xoxcov xv aaiXea KaxeaKEuaOai TioAaopKo
imo 7ioxap,o'j Tpippvxov Kai TtpOKivSuvEovxa rcp xiva vxiTExaypvotx; pe
auvayoviopEvou xo Oipou KaxajiJiKxiK- iwcp o> xcov e^riyoupEvcov oi pv <
,f|0Etav XipOT&n ^ovxa xpE<J>pEvov im xo'j paaikoo auyKivuvEEtv ax
pxa Kai Tponrv noiElv xcv vavxcov i XTv a^Kiv, xiv ' ioxpouv xi ko0' 'm
vSpeio v Kai <1>opxiKc5 auxv yKcopieiv pouApEvo, Si xr1 xo iovxo e
5i0eaiv amoi) xf1 Vj/Dxi oripaivev.

On the first of the walls, the king is represented as besieging a fortress surrounded by
advancing with a lion against those offering resistance. The animal fights alongside him f
Some of those who explain this representation have said that this truly was a tame li
been raised by the king to share danger with him in battle and to put the enemy to fli
his might. Yet others have written that the king, who was extremely brave and wish
himself in vulgar fashion, indicated through the image of the lion the disposition of h

The uncertainty highlighted by Diodorus as to the value, symbolic or l

assign to the lion represented alongside the chariot of Ramses II is
modern viewers and not dispelled by the contemporary texts that describ
tle at Kadesh.35 In terms of both representation and this semantic uncert
parallel with Caracalla is highly suggestive and may not be incidental. C
after all, had visited Egypt in the year prior to undertaking a military c
against the Parthians.
In seeking to make sense of Caracalla's claim that a lion fought alongs
it should also be remembered that his mother Julia Domna came from th
priestly family of Emesa (Hirns) in northern Syria. Situated upon the rive
this city had been in existence since the third millennium BC. The prie

33 Stat. Silv. 2.5.

34 Aelian. Hist. anim. 5.39; Steier 1926: 981.
35 C. de Wit, Le rle et le sens du lion dans l'Egypte ancienne (Leiden 1951) 13-14;
oux, P. Bertrac, Y. Vernire, Diodore de Sicile: Bibliothque historique, Livre /, in
trans., and comm. (Paris 1993) 203 n. 3, on Chap. XLVIII; J.H. Breasted, The Battle
A Study in the Earliest Known Military Strategy (Chicago 1903) 44-45.

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466 Richard Westall

cult of Baal at Emesa, better known

Elagabalus, had stepped into promine
of Arabic princes who had ruled thi
sage in the late 60s BC.36 Since the m
particularly widespread in this region
mother Julia Domna in the especial a
rial princess is said to have been soug
her horoscope foretold that her hus
Moreover, prior to his father's becom
cognomen as his maternal grandfath
mother and the memory of her gran
the association of the ruler with the
ditional cause for representing hims
Near East, but was not particularly w
As emperors and generals before hi
to the Senate during his campaign a
sequent journey across the Balkans a
revealed by the episode of Macrinus'
reporting that a prophet had foretold
peror, a certain death-sentence if ev
correspondence between the imperia
from the capital.41 However, in writ
racalla chose to go beyond the format
the front. Rather, he decided to use
in order to relate his military succe
other actions concerning his troops
predecessors - Julius Caesar, Vespasi
an analysis of the known content of
this decision was also informed by t
calla was operating and by a desire t
Alexander the Great. Lions had been
and Egypt, and Caracalla's materna
spectacular archaeological remains ev

36 Avien. 1082-1093; C. Colpe, DNP 3.1

37 Cassin 1981: 372 n. 79.
38 SHA, Sev. 3.9. Cogent doubts have been
toria Augusta", Bonner Historia-Augusta Co
39 PIR 1 S 321 Septimius Bassianus = M. A
(Severus) Antoninus Augustus, qui et Caraca
Epit. 21; Dio, 78.9.
40 Kienast 19962: 162-163.
41 Dio, 79.4.1-4.

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 Caracalla, Commentarius de Bello Partitico 467

the past couple of centuries. The result, as visible from the hostile testimony
contemporary Cassius Dio, was the novel union of Graeco-Roman literary f
with ancient Near Eastern content.

Richard Westall

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