#CLST6 #LookCloser9

Yeah yeah I know I explaining the joke makes it not funny anymore, but here we go.

This is a bust of the emperor Caracalla. He ruled (at first jointly with his father) from 198 to 217, when he was assassinated. Long story short, he was horrible.

He greatly contributed to the decline of the empire, and was known as one of the most bloodthirsty emperors out there. Not exactly in line with the Pax Romana of earlier. When his father died, he killed his brother Geta, and hunted down all of his brother's associates too.

He really wanted to not have threats to his power, and in ruling he expressed that. He was a very superstitious, unstable, and violent man.

In war, he was no better. On expeditions along the northern border against Germanic tribes, he even massacred a tribe he was allied with!

In the end, one of his generals (and successor) plotted his assassination, and he went down thereafter. While Caracalla wasn't totally bad, (he extended citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire and built a colossal bath complex in Rome), he certainly wasn't good.

It's quite fitting that in this statue he is scowling. It accurately expresses his outlook on ruling the empire. He wanted to be seen as tough, foreboding, and all-powerful. It's too bad he was only concerned with that and not much else.

Citations:
Image: Marie-Lan Nguyen (image on Wikipedia)
Caracalla biographical info: Professor Frank P. Kolb, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen https://www.britannica.com/biography/Caracalla
Caracalla's Scowl: Josho Brouwers, https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/caracallas-scowl/