MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, the Roman emperor, was born at Lyons A.D. 188. His original name was Bassianus, and the name Caracalla was derived from the favourite long tunic which he wore and introduced into the army. On the death of his father Severus, whom he made an open attempt to assassinate, he ascended the throne with Geta his brother. He soon procured the assassination of his colleague, and sacrificed twenty thousand persons of both sexes who were suspected of belonging to his brother's party. The rest of his reign was spent in wandering from place to place, making havoc wherever he went, in an endeavour to banish the recollection of his past guilt by engaging in new enormities. In Alexandria he repaid the pleasures in which the inhabitants had indulged by a general massacre; and he laid waste Mesopotamia in revenge for a slight which he had received from Artabanus the Parthian king. On his progress to Carthage, he was assassinated at the instigation of Macrinus, his successor, A.D. 217. See ROMAN HISTORY.

in Antiquity, an outer garment provided with a capuchin or hood, and not unlike the Roman lacerna. The caracalla, as worn in Gaul, reached no lower than the knee; but after its introduction by the Emperor Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus (who thence obtained the surname of Caracalla), it was lengthened so as to reach the ankle, and its use became general among the Romans, both in the city and the camp. Such garments were commonly called Antonian, to distinguish them from the Gallic caracalla. (Aurel. Vict. Epit. 21; De Ces. 21; Spartan. Ser. 21.) Salmasius, Scaliger, and after them Du Cange, derive the word casaque or casacch from caraque, for caracalla; and St Jerome mentions (Ep. 128) that the caracalla, with a retrenchment of the capuchin, became an ecclesiastical garment.