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Caracalla: A Military Biography Hardcover – September 25, 2017

by Dr. Ilkka Syvänne (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 64 ratings
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Caracalla has one of the worst reputations of any Roman Emperor. Many ancient historians were very hostile and Edward Gibbon later dubbed him ‘the common enemy of mankind’. Yet his reign was considered by at least one Roman author to be the apogee of the Roman Empire. Guilty of many murders and massacres (including his own brother, ex-wife and daughter) he was, however, popular with the army, improving their pay and cultivating the image of sharing their hardships. Surprisingly this is the first full-length biography of this colorful character in English.

Ilkka Syvanne explains how the biased ancient sources in combination with the stern looking statues of the emperor have created a distorted image of the man and then reconstructs the actual events, particularly his military campaigns and reforms, to offer a balanced view of his reign. The biography offers the first complete overview of the policies, events and military campaigns of the reign and explains how and why these contributed to the military crisis of the third century.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pen and Sword Military
  4. Publication date
    September 25, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1473895243
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1473895249
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“I cannot praise the book enough. From the illustrations to the diagrams that show how Caracalla tried to emulate the army of Alexander the Great, the information in the book is priceless.”
A Wargamers Needful Things

“This is an excellent, thought-provoking look at a much maligned character… it is a critical read for any serious student of the period.”
The NYMAS Review Spring 2018

“Syvänne does an excellent job of reevaluating the traditional sources, consulting additional materials not necessarily available to past generations of scholars, such as ancient Armenian and Georgian histories, and critically comparing them, covering many critical issues in several appendices.”
StrategyPage

About the Author

Dr. Ilkka Syvänne gained his doctorate in history in 2004 from the University of Tampere in his native Finland. Since then he has written extensively about ancient and medieval warfare and his publications include: 'The Age of Hippotoxotai, Art of War in Roman Military Revival and Disaster 491-636' (Tampere UP 2004), 'The Reign of Gallienus' (Pen & Sword, 2019), the multivolume 'Military History of Late Rome' published by Pen & Sword and the critically acclaimed Caracalla. He is the co-author with Professor Katarzyna Maksymiuk of the 'Military History of Third Century Iran' (Siedlce UP, 2018) and the 'Military History of Fifth Century Iran' (Siedlce UP, 2019). He was Vice Chairman of the Finnish Society for Byzantine Studies from 2007 until 2016. He has been an Affiliated Professor of the University of Haifa since 2016. He lives in Kangasala, Finland.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pen and Sword Military (September 25, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1473895243
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1473895249
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 64 ratings

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Ilkka Syvänne

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
64 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Icarium Lifestealer
5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2022
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Lots of info (as much is possible for dudes dead 1900 years) good reference work
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Sally Winchester
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting review of Caracalla. It gives a much ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2018
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Very interesting review of Caracalla. It gives a much broader picture of this Emperor than one usually finds. Also shows aspects of his character that paint him in a very different and positive light.
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Doug Welch
4.0 out of 5 stars Worst Caesar or Greatest Caesar? Read and decide
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2017
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Caracalla has a very bad reputation in both the Classical literary sources and with Gibbon, the founder of modern Roman historiography. However unlike earlier phases of Roman history, there are scant sources to choose from covering this period. At best, we have Cassius Dio, full of the Senatorial bias that makes Roman historians infamous. Then we have Herodian, chock full of colorful details so vivid as to be proven fake. Finally among the more well-preserved ancient sources, we have the Historia Augusta (HA or SHA) so incredibly unreliable as to be considered by some to be parody. Military historian Ilkka Syvanne seems to turn the credibility of these sources on their heads beginning with taking the HA's assertion that Caracalla married his mother, Julia Domna at face value. This reviewer has never read anything corroborating this allegation. However Syvanne gives this claim credibility while damning the accounts of Dio and Herodian. In fact the outright dismissal of Dio seems to be the backbone of this book. That said, this military biography has much to its credit. The Third Century and its ensuing crisis has been sadly under reported and underrepresented in modern interpretation of the history of the Roman Empire but perhaps modern parallels have rendered this period of political upheaval, military disaster, economic ruin and superpower flux to be relevant for moderns. Since Platnauer's biography of Septimius Severus over a century ago, there have been few books covering the Severan dynasty before Anthony Birley's groundbreaking African Emperor  Septimius Severus: The African Emperor (Roman Imperial Biographies)  but in recent years we have had Levick's biography of Julia Domna  Julia Domna: Syrian Empress (Women of the Ancient World) , Arrizabalaga's mindblowing bio of Elagabalus  The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction? , Pearson's recent bio of Maximinus  Maximinus Thrax: From Common Soldier to Emperor of Rome  and an upcoming book on Alexander Severus. It seems that contemporary interest in the Severans has been stirred up.
There were definitely parts of this book I did not agree with, but I have been reading about the Severan dynasty for about six years and long-term exposure to consensus biases will no doubt lead to my own adoption of some of them. I have a hard time with Syvanne's nearly total inversion of the roles of Caracalla and his brother Geta with the author re-casting Caracalla as somebody who was decent and Geta as some kind of slouch. I am very interested in Syvanne's theory that Geta was somehow beholden to an African clique that may have been residual supporters of the murdered Praetorian prefect Plautianus, but he doesn't really talk much about his sources or hunches on this. Perhaps Syvanne could do a bio of Carcalla's father and flesh this out?
It must be stated that since the time of Gibbon, there have been many archaeological finds that further fleshed out the picture of the Severan dynasty including epigraphy, numismatics and other finds and also reexamination of later accounts and traditions that were not in line with the aims and prejudices of the Roman senatorial class and Syvanne does mention these and this is where this book gains a lot of value for researchers stuck in a rut with the three sources I have mentioned above.
The strengths of Sylvanne's book are his analyses of the various military forces arrayed during the age of Caracalla, which would be appropriate as he is a military historian. We start with a long-needed examination as to how the Roman military system had changed from the cohortal legion of Marius, Caesar and Trajan to something akin to a Greek phalanx, how the segmented armor, Gallic helmet, short gladius and pilum of the past gave way to new gear that would be with Roman troops until the start of the Dark Ages. Much of this is covered in Syvanne's Military History of Late Rome
 Military History of Late Rome 284-361 .
Syvanne starts with the assumption that Caracalla was some kind of political, diplomatic and military genius and seems to work from there, but compared to accepting the incest with Julia, this is less of a stretch of the imagination as a close reading of Dio or Herodian cannot help but expose blatant contradictions in those authors descriptions of Caracalla's wars against the Alamanni and Parthians. Speaking of those enemies of Rome, Syvanne does not spare their military systems from his examination and the curious reader is treated to probably the only analyses of Germanic and Persian warfare in this period currently available in the English language.
This book is also well illustrated including many vector graphics created by the author himself. Future Classicists just may need to master Adobe Illustrator to get their point across or to refute Syvanne!
In conclusion, this biography is a needed examination of the military history of the Severan age, and considering that it began with the then largest and longest civil war in Roman history and concludes with an epic military debacle that proved to be the last wind of the Parthians has been tragically overlooked, until now. Perhaps Syvanne could write a military biography of Caracalla's father or somebody could translate La Bohec's history of Lugdunum to continue exploiting interest in the Severans?
However humanist historians are not well served by Syvanne's lionization of a Caesar who was viewed as a dangerous psychopath by contemporaries. The deeply psychological biography of Caracalla in the mold of Arrizabalaga's book on Elagabalus will have to wait, but if you want to know the details of the tactical dispositions of both armies at the epic battle of Nisibis, this book will be for you.
13 people found this helpful
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OCProf
5.0 out of 5 stars Everything great
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2019
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A good picture of a bad man.
One person found this helpful
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OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE STATE UNIVERSITY - OPSU
5.0 out of 5 stars Caracalla
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2018
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Roman military biography
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Albert A. Nofi
5.0 out of 5 stars Monster and Military Genius?
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2018
Excerpts from the review on StrategyPage:

'Prof. Syvänne (Haifa), a rather iconoclastic scholar who has written extensively on the military history of the late Roman and early Byzantine empires, including The Military History of Late Rome AD 361-395, has produced a thought-provoking life of the Emperor Caracalla (r. A.D. 211-217). An important theme of this work is that Caracalla is one of several emperors who were on the receiving end of historians from a hostile Senatorial class, among them Domitian and Gallienus, both of whom have in recent years undergone some rehabilitation. Syvänne does an excellent job of reevaluating the traditional sources, consulting additional materials not necessarily available to past generations of scholars, such as ancient Armenian and Georgian histories, and critically comparing them, covering many critical issues in several appendices.

'Naturally, Caracalla’s military career, as described in much of Syvänne's book, offers evidence that he was an able commander. Using numerous maps and battle diagrams, Syvänne gives us a thoughtful analysis of Caracalla’s campaign in Caledonia during the latter part of his father’s reign (A.D. 209-211), and his operations in Germania (A.D. 212-214), during which he appears to have reached the Elbe. The treatment of Caracalla’ preparations for and execution of his campaigns against the Armenians and Parthians (A.D. 215-217) is particularly good, and it was while engaged in these operations that he was assassinated.'

For the full review, see StrategyPage
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Cliente Kindle
5.0 out of 5 stars Syvanne è piacevole da leggere
Reviewed in Italy on May 6, 2024
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Mai banale, riflessivo e aperto a punti di vista diversi. Cita diverse fonti cercando di dare una logica
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Keeley Dolphin
5.0 out of 5 stars A must to buy!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2021
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Absolutely love this book … very detailed about everything and anything in the Roman Empire and with Caracalla. Very pleased I bought this. Very fast delivery from Amazon too!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Even the best die young.
Reviewed in Canada on November 5, 2017
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No to his detractors, Caracalla was a brilliant General and peak great Emperor.
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IPA
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent biography of misunderstood emperor
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2020
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The author suggests that Caracalla was one of the best emperors in Roman history thanks to his superb military skills presumably because Caracalla was completely without any morals while not forgetting his failures. In short, he assumes Machiavellian view into his reign and also quotes Machiavelli to prove his case.
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CFive
4.0 out of 5 stars TRIES FOR A BALANCE BUT THE BLOKE REALLY WAS A NASTY PIECE OF WORK
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2022
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Briefly, this is an attempt by a very respected historian to redress the negative balance shown by the sources toward Caracalla. The emperor certainly had some good points but I don't see that he was the military genius the author portrays here neither can I believe that being at odds in a major way with the senate led to a stable situation for the majority.

However, having said that there is a lot to be learned here even if one disagrees with some of the conclusions. Gives a good overview of the military situation Caracalla faced, and dealt with, and explains the possible machinations around why Geta had to go. Overall a decent read.
2 people found this helpful
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