The Constitutio Antoniniana an Edict for the Caracallan Empire
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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The constitutio Antoniniana An Edict for the Caracallan Empire Alex Imrie Doctor of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh 2015 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is entirely of my own composition and work. It contains no material previously submitted for the award of any other degree or professional qualification. Alex Imrie i I dedicate this thesis to my darling Rachael: my soul mate, my starry-eyed lassie and my constant inspiration. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I: And I will luve thee still my dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry. ii ABSTRACT The constitutio Antoniniana represents one of the most important legal documents of the Roman imperial period. By means of this edict, the emperor Caracalla enfranchised nearly every free person living within the borders of his empire. Despite its apparent significance, though, the constitutio remains a controversial document among modern scholars. Some consider it to be the logical conclusion to an evolutionary process in Roman citizenship that took over two centuries to achieve. Others, however, believe that it is a meaningless document given retrospective importance, changing little in the daily lives of the empire’s population and representing nothing more than a superficial initiative brought forth by an absolute monarch. The primary focus of this thesis concerns the various reasons that Caracalla might have had for passing the constitutio Antoniniana in the opening half of AD 212. By considering elements such as the emperor’s fascination with Alexander the Great and religious perspective, as well as issues surrounding the Roman imperial economy and army, I will construct an image of the constitutio that is more multi-faceted than has been presented in the past. The common thread running through these chapters, however, is that Caracalla employed his edict as a tool in a programme of refashioning the Severan dynasty – a programme that he found himself compelled to undertake in the aftermath of the murder of his brother and co-emperor, Geta. I will also argue that modern scholars have been wrong to dismiss the testimony offered by Cassius Dio, in which the senator claimed that a fiscal rationale underlay the legislation. Whilst the detail of Dio’s argument is undoubtedly questionable, this thesis will demonstrate that, on a basic level, the senator was correct to identify a fiscal initiative contained within the terms of the constitutio text. The final chapter of the thesis will form a case study of Caracalla’s imperial visit to Alexandria in AD 215/6. This is a challenging episode to analyse, since the hostile literary tradition appears content to label the violence which marked the emperor’s stay in the city as the result of a merciless massacre ordered by Caracalla in revenge for an assortment of minor slights and insults. This chapter will re-assess the events of the imperial visit and argue that the disturbances were not the result of the emperor’s uncontrollable temper, but rather that they resulted from riots among the local population that the local authorities were unable to control. Following this hypothesis, I will examine to what extent the effects and implications of the constitutio Antoniniana had a bearing on the disturbances in Alexandria. I contend that, although it is obviously impossible to draw a direct link between the edict and the unrest, it is possible to see that the social and fiscal implications of the legislation would have exacerbated pre-existing local sensitivities and pressures to breaking point. iii This work will represent one of the largest studies of Caracalla’s constitutio undertaken in the English language to date. The aim of my study is not to function as an apology for the emperor, but it is an attempt to view the constitutio Antoniniana in a more rational way. My thesis thus acknowledges that the context in which the legislation was passed is of critical importance not only to our understanding of the constitutio as a document, but also to our assessment of Caracalla’s actions following the murder of his younger brother. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As a mind far greater than mine once remarked: I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. The time that I have spent as a doctoral candidate at the University of Edinburgh has formed the most challenging and exciting period of my life to date. I have experienced bouts of soul-wrenching introspection and periods of uncontrollable happiness. And I would not change a single moment. The emperor Caracalla has been my constant companion since 2010, and yet I could never have finished this project without the unstinting support and guidance of a great many others. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Sandra Bingham. Since our first meeting in 2006, during my first degree, she has helped to transform me from a nervous undergraduate into someone who passionately desires a career in Classics. I will always appreciate her unerring integrity and her selfless dedication to my academic and personal development; I cannot imagine having had a better research supervisor. In fact, it is her humanity as much as her intellect that makes her the model of the professional academic that I aspire to be. I would like to thank my secondary supervisors and reviewers, Lucy Grig, Ulrike Roth and Eberhard Sauer, for providing me with a wealth of different perspectives from which to consider my research. I am also grateful to Andrew Erskine and Olivier Hekster, who graciously agreed to act as the examiners to this thesis. Their input has been informative and has allowed me to refine my argument further, and improve the structure of the dissertation. At the outset of my doctoral studies, I possessed some knowledge of Latin, but next to no Ancient Greek to speak of. I must therefore thank Anthony Ellis, Juan Lewis, Calum Maciver, Pavlina Saoulidou and Stephanie Winder for their continual good humour when faced with the prospect of having to remind me yet again of some fundamental grammar point that I’d mistaken. Their unceasing patience still astounds me. For their assistance in proofreading this work and their valued friendship, I would like to thank my colleagues in the graduate school of History, Classics and Archaeology: Amy Bratton, Nicole Cleary, Raphaëla Dubreuil, Fiona Mowat, Peter Morton, Alana Newman and Cas Valachova. Their willingness to listen to my latest ‘idea about Caracalla’ has always been noted and appreciated. Special mention and thanks must go to the following people: David Greenwood, for his dry sense of humour and the calming influence that only a senior colleague can exert, and for his dedication to ‘Mindsplat!’ To my great friend, Darren Maley, for, among other things, all of our stimulating conversations over the past decade and for introducing me to the much needed distracting quality of board games. And to Belinda Washington – for the many walks around George Square Gardens, come rain or shine, and for her unceasing programme of motivational strategies… My success in submitting this thesis is, to a large degree, theirs too. v My final thanks must go to my darling wife, Rachael. She has shared me with a long dead emperor for five long years and has always been there to inspire me and settle me, to energise me and to keep me going throughout every high and low that doctoral study can conjure. Were it not for Rachael’s keen mind and never-ending support, I doubt that I would even have commenced this endeavour, let alone finished it. I cannot sufficiently express how much I owe her. I only hope that the rest of my life will be long enough to pay her back. * * * This thesis was generously funded by the Kerr-Fry PhD Scholarship, without whose assistance I would never have been able to undertake doctoral study. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF FIGURES xii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I 13 Contextualising the constitutio Antoniniana CHAPTER II 34 The constitutio Antoniniana as an Act of Alexander imitatio CHAPTER III 49 The Political Expediency of the constitutio Antoniniana CHAPTER IV 71 The Economic Purpose of the constitutio Antoniniana CHAPTER V 102 The Military Application of the constitutio Antoniniana CHAPTER VI 120 The constitutio Antoniniana and the Alexandrian Incident CONCLUSION 175 APPENDIX I 181 The constitutio Antoniniana: text, translation and commentary APPENDIX II 192 A Case of Mistaken Identity: Julia Domna as Concordia on RIC 380 and 381 APPENDIX III 199 The Prefect and the Plot: a reassessment of the muder of Plautianus BIBLIOGRAPHY 212 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Citations of papyri included in this study conform to the standard abbreviations contained in the Checklist of Editions of Greek, Latin, Demotic, and Coptic Papyri, Ostraca and Tablets, which is continuously updated at: http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/papyrus/texts/clist.html Ancient Authors and Works Ael.