The Roman Empire is back on the big screens, via Ridley Scott’s new film, Gladiator II. If the feature film offers us the chance to see Paul Mescal in a skirt, it also allows us to discover a Roman emperor like no other played by Denzel Washington, Macrinus (Macrin in French).
As in the film, Emperor Macrinus lived in the 3rde century, but its history is different. Un article de National Geographic tells us how he rose from the shadows to become the most powerful man in the empire, his rise illustrating the diversity of the ancient Roman world.
Macrinus was born in the year 165 in Caesarea of Mauretania, a coastal city in the Roman province of the same name, in present-day Algeria. Provincial capital, Caesarea was similar to other cities in Roman Africa, such as Alexandria or Leptis Magna. At the time, the Roman Empire had established itself in parts of North Africa, allowing African Romans to travel to the outer reaches of the empire.
From administrative agent to emperor of Rome
Macrin comes from a family of the equestrian order, the equivalent of knights. According to the ancient historian Dio Cassius, his family was not predestined to join the imperial hierarchy because they were not part of the patricians, the highest Roman social class. Macrinus therefore climbed the ranks through various administrative functions, until being promoted in the year 212 to commander of the Praetorian Guard in Rome. During the reign of Emperor Caracalla, his position was to lead a unit of elite soldiers charged with protecting the emperor. At this time, Macrinus was one of the most powerful men in Rome.
But five years later, in 217, Caracalla no longer fully trusted Macrinus, after he heard a rumor that the latter would succeed him as emperor. Unpopular and brutal, Caracalla has no problem eliminating his rivals, since he has already killed his own brother, Geta, in 211. He now intends to do the same for Macrinus.
He gets wind of the project and strikes first. He organizes the assassination of Emperor Caracalla, stabbed by a guard during a bathroom break on the road to a temple in present-day Türkiye. Not wanting to appear as a usurper, Macrinus cremated the fallen emperor and sent his ashes to his mother, according to the historian Herodian.
Once Caracalla was removed, Macrinus quickly seized the title of emperor, trying to present himself as a merciful sovereign. According to Herodian, Macrinus encouraged centimation rather than decimation, that is, the killing of one soldier in a hundred, instead of one in ten. But over time, Emperor Macrinus lost the support of the military and his popularity among the people.
Caracalla’s aunt, Julia Maesa, who absolutely wants to regain power, spreads a rumor according to which Heliogabalus, her grandson, is the illegitimate son of Caracalla and that, in fact, the throne belongs to him. His side ended up fighting against Emperor Macrinus, whose reign and life ended after just over a year in power.
Source: www.slate.fr
