Editing Caracalla (section)

== Death ==
At the beginning of 217, Caracalla was still based at Edessa before renewing hostilities against Parthia.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/howromefelldeath0000gold/page/74 74]}} On 8{{nbsp}}April 217 Caracalla, who had just turned 29, was travelling to visit a temple of the moon god [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]],<ref>see about Caracalla's planned visit to the shrine {{aut|Frank Kolb}}: ''Literarische Beziehungen zwischen Cassius Dio, Herodian und der Historia Augusta'', Bonn 1972, pp. 123ff.</ref> while on the road from Edessa to Carrhae, now [[Harran]] in southern Turkey, where in 53{{nbsp}}BC the Romans had suffered [[Battle of Carrhae|a defeat]] at the hands of the Parthians.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/howromefelldeath0000gold/page/74 74]}} After stopping briefly to urinate, Caracalla was approached by a soldier, '''Justin Martialis''', and stabbed.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/howromefelldeath0000gold/page/74 74]}} A Scythian bodyguard of Caracalla killed Martialis with his lance.  The two Praetorian tribunes rushed to the emperor, as if to help him, and completed the assassination.<ref>Dio Cassius 79 (78),5,2-5. See, Herodian and 4.13 ''Historia Augusta'', Caracalla 6.6-7.2. See also {{aut|Michael Louis Meckler}}: ''Caracalla and his late-antique biographer'', Ann Arbor, 1994, pp. 152-156.</ref>

Martialis had been incensed by Caracalla's refusal to grant him the position of [[centurion]], and the [[praetorian prefect]] [[Macrinus]], Caracalla's successor, saw the opportunity to use Martialis to end Caracalla's reign.{{sfn|Dunstan|2011|pp=406–407}} In the immediate aftermath of Caracalla's death, his murderer, Martialis, was killed as well.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/howromefelldeath0000gold/page/74 74]}} When Caracalla was murdered, Julia Domna was in Antioch sorting out correspondence, removing unimportant messages from the bunch so that when Caracalla returned, he would not be overburdened with duties.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/howromefelldeath0000gold/page/76 76]}} Three days later, Macrinus declared himself emperor with the support of the Roman army.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/howromefelldeath0000gold/page/75 75]}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ando|first1=Clifford|title=Imperial Rome AD 193 to 284: The Critical Century|date=2012|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-5534-2|page=63}}</ref>