Macrinus - Roman Emperor: 217-218 A.D.
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Macrinus (Latin: Marcus
Opellius Severus Macrinus Augustus; ca.
165 – June 218), was Roman
Emperor from 217 to 218. Macrinus
was of Berber (Indigenous
people of North Africa) descent and as a member of the equestrian
class he became the first emperor
who did not hail from the senatorial
class.
Macrinus was overthrown and executed in 218.
Background and career
Born in Caesarea (modern Cherchell,
Algeria) in the Roman
province of Mauretania to
an equestrian family,
Macrinus received an education which allowed him to ascend to the Roman
political class. Over the years he earned a reputation as a skilled lawyer, and
under the emperor Septimius
Severus he became an important
bureaucrat. Severus' successor Caracalla appointed
him prefect of
the Praetorian
Guard.
While Macrinus probably enjoyed the trust of Caracalla, this may have changed
when, according to tradition, it was prophesied that he would depose and succeed
the Emperor, and rumors spread regarding his alleged desire to take the throne
for himself. Given Caracalla's tendency towards murdering political opponents,
Macrinus probably feared for his own safety should the Emperor become aware of
this prophecy. According to Dio, Caracalla had already taken the step of
re-assigning members of Macrinus' staff.
In the spring of 217, Caracalla was in the eastern provinces preparing a
campaign against the Parthian
Empire. Macrinus was among his staff, as were other members of the
Praetorian Guard. In April, the Emperor went to visit a temple of Luna near
the spot of the battle
of Carrhae, accompanied only by his personal bodyguard, which included
Macrinus. Events are not clear, but it is certain that Caracalla was murdered at
some point on the trip (perhaps on April 8).
Caracalla's body was brought back from the temple by his bodyguards, along with
the corpse of a fellow bodyguard. The story as told by Macrinus was that the
dead guard had killed Caracalla. By April 11, Macrinus had proclaimed himself
emperor, and also nominated his sonDiadumenianus Caesar and
successor; he conferred upon him the name "Antoninus", thus connecting him with
the relatively stable reigns of the Antonine
emperors in the 2nd century.
Reign
(April 217 – June 218)
Despite his equestrian background, Macrinus was confirmed in his new role by the Senate.
According to S.N. Miller, this may have been due to both his background as an
accomplished jurist and his deferential treatment of the senatorial class. He
found it necessary, however, to replace several provincial governors with men of
his own choosing. Caracalla's mother Julia
Domna was initially left in
peace, but when she started to conspire with the military he ordered her to
leave Antioch.
Being at that time in an advanced stage of breast cancer (Cassius Dio) she chose
instead to starve herself to death.
In urgent matters of foreign policy, Macrinus displayed a tendency towards
conciliation and a reluctance to engage in military conflict. He averted trouble
in the province of Dacia by
returning hostages that had been held by Caracalla, and he ended troubles in Armenia by
granting that country's throne to Tiridates,
whose father had also been imprisoned under Caracalla. Less easily managed was
the problem of Mesopotamia,
which had been invaded by the Parthians in
the wake of Caracalla's demise. Meeting the Parthians in battle during the
summer of 217, Macrinus achieved a costly
draw near the town of Nisibis and
as a result was forced to enter negotiations through which Rome was obliged to
pay the enormous indemnity of
200 million sesterces to the Parthian ruler Artabanus
IV in return for peace.
Macrinus displayed some financial farsightedness when he revalued the Roman
currency. He increased the silver purity of the denarius from
51.5% to 58% — the actual silver weight increasing from 1.66 grams to
1.82 grams.
Macrinus' reluctance to engage in warfare, and his failure to gain victory over
even a historically inferior enemy such as the Parthians caused considerable
resentment among the soldiers. This was compounded by him curtailing the
privileges they had enjoyed under Caracalla and the introduction of a pay system
by which recruits received less than veterans. After only a short while, the
legions were searching for a rival emperor.
At a high point of his popularity monuments were built to honour Macrinus,
including the grand tetrastyle Capitoline
Temple, in Volubilis was
erected in 217 AD.
His popularity also suffered in Rome. Not only had the new emperor failed to
visit the city after taking power but a late-summer thunderstorm caused
widespread fires and flooding. Macrinus' appointee as urban prefect proved
unable to repair the damage to the satisfaction of the populace and had to be
replaced.
Downfall
This discontent was fostered by the surviving members of the Severan
dynasty, headed by Julia
Maesa (Caracalla's aunt) and her
daughters Julia
Soaemias and Julia
Mamaea. Having been evicted from the imperial palace and ordered to return
home by Macrinus, the Severan women plotted from their home near Emesa in Syria to
place another Severan on the imperial throne.
They used their hereditary influence over the cult of sun-deity Elagabalus
(the Latinised form of El-Gabal)
to proclaim Soaemias' son Elagabalus (named
for his family's patron deity) as the true successor to Caracalla. The rumor was
spread, with the assistance of the Severan women, that Elagabalus was
Caracalla's illegitimate son and thus the child of a union between first
cousins.
Execution (218)
On May 18, Elagabalus was proclaimed emperor by the Legio
III Gallica at
its camp at Raphana.
A force under his tutor Gannys marched on Antioch and
engaged a force under Macrinus on June 8 218. Macrinus, deserted by most of his
soldiers, was soundly defeated in the battle and
fled towards Italy disguised as a courier. He was captured near Chalcedon and
later executed in Cappadocia.
His son Diadumenian,
sent for safety to the Parthian court, was captured at Zeugma and
also murdered.
Macrinus' short reign, while important for its historical "firsts", was cut
short due to the inability of this otherwise accomplished man to control or
satisfy the soldiery. In his death at the hands of Roman soldiers,
Macrinus reinforced the notion of the soldiers as the true brokers of power in
the third-century empire and highlighted the importance of maintaining the
support of this vital faction. His reign was followed by another seventeen years
of rule under the Severan emperors Elagabalus andSeverus
Alexander.
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