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| “ | This is war! Real war! | „ |
| ~ Caracalla's last words. |
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, best known by his nickname Caracalla or Emperor Caracalla, is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Emperor Geta) of the 2024 epic historical drama film Gladiator II, the sequel of the 2000 film Gladiator.
He is a sadistic Roman emperor who ascends to the throne of the Roman Empire sixteen years after the brief one of Commodus. Upon coming across with a gladiator named Hanno (who is actually Lucilla's son and Commodus' nephew Lucius Verus), Caracalla and his brother Geta use him to gain their people’s approval but soon get concerned over a conspiracy to their joint rule, unaware they are being manipulated by the real threat.
He was portrayed by Fred Hechinger, who also played Ethan Russell in The Woman in the Window and Chameleon in Kraven the Hunter.
History[]
Past[]
Caracalla and Geta were born sometime prior to the events of the original Gladiator film. Allegedly, when they were in their mother’s womb, Caracalla was nearly a victim to Geta as he tried to cut his umbilical cord so he would suffocate and be born dead, but failed. They grew up together well into adulthood, but Caracalla privately feared Geta. Following Emperor Commodus’ death and his nephew Lucius Verus’ disappearance, Caracalla and Caracalla rose up to become the Roman Emperors, exploiting Lucius’ mother Lucilla to do so, but Rome’s people feared them rather than liking them, plus Lucilla and politicians sympathetic to her, like Senator Gracchus, conspired to overthrow them. At some point, Caracalla acquired a monkey whom he trained as his pet, naming him Dundus.
Gladiator II[]
Sixteen years after Maximus Decimus Meridius’ last stand, Caracalla and Geta dispatch General Justus Acasius, Lucilla’s lover, to Numidia in order to fully conquer Africa Nova, leading to an attack that claims the lives of several including Lucius’ wife Arishat and captures the survivors like Lucius (now known as “Hanno”) to sell them as slaves back in Rome. Once the Roman Army returns triumphantly, Caracalla and Geta receive Acasius as a hero and announce that they will celebrate gladiatorial games in the Colisseum in his honor. Later on, Caracallaand Geta tell Acasius that, no matter his feelings, he must keep leading their armies to conquer more territories like Persia and India, then allowing him to leave to meet with Lucilla at their house.
Sometime afterwards, after Lucius gets sold to Macrinus for killing savage monkeys and showing his potential as a gladiator, Geta and Caracalla come to see Lucius accompanied by their entourage. There, Lucius manages to kill a rival gladiator, which impresses both brothers, convinced that Lucius will entertain the audience in the gladiatorial games after he recites a poem of Virgil that they don’t get to understand. Later on, Caracalla and Geta attend Lucius’ debut in the Colisseum’s arena, where he fights a gladiator mounting a rhinoceros. While he initially loses, Caracalla and Geta recite his poem and ask Lucilla if they should give him mercy. Realizing “Hanno” is her son, Lucilla quickly agrees, but Lucius refuses to accept mercy and defeats the gladiator, proceeding to kill him under Geta’s demands.
Some days afterwards, the Colisseum hosts a naval battle, where Lucius comes close to shoot an arrow to Acasius to avenge his wife, but fails and nearly hits Caracalla and Geta, prompting them to leave their podium and demand the culprit to be found, with no success. Confirming that “Hanno” is her son Lucilla confides Acasius about her discovery after talking to Macrinus and Lucius, asking him to protect her son. Unfortunately, Lucilla’s maid betrays her employers by telling Macrinus and his associates about the truth of Lucilla’s plans, after which Macrinus alerts Geta and Caracalla in his plot to gain their trust.
Alarmed, Caracalla and Geta have Lucilla, Acasius and their collaborators captured after killing their guards. While thinking on the punishment for their treason, Caracalla loses his cool when Acasius mocks Geta and tries to slash him to death, but Geta stops him and the prisoners are taken away. While intending to crucify Acasius for his betrayal, Macrinus insists that due to his popularity, he should instead be sent to the gladiatorial games. Both emperors agree and Acasius is forced to kill four of his former troopers before facing Lucius, which Caracalla and Geta force a shackled Lucilla to watch, ignoring her pleas. However, Acasius manages to make Lucius hear him, so Lucius declines to kill him and the archers do it under Geta’s orders.
Acasius’ death causes an uproar upon Rome’s population, challenging the brothers’ rule, much to their dismay. While discussing what to do with Macrinus, who has become close to them by this point, Caracalla finds himself at the end of his brother’s wrath, who throws him and Dundus his drink to the face, prompting them to leave the room. Taking the chance, Macrinus approaches Caracalla and plays on his insecurities about Geta, leading Caracalla to tell Macrinus how Geta may hate him after failing to kill him on the womb, concluding that Geta is too dangerous to stay in power. Hours later, Caracalla comes across Geta armed with a knife and lunges at him to kill him. Caracalla struggles to do so due to Geta wrestling him, but Macrinus comes to his aid and the two stab Geta to death.
The following day, Caracalla announces his brother’s death and appoints Dundus (to the shock and dismay of the court) and Macrinus as his consuls to assist him in ruling Rome as a sole emperor, putting himself at odds even more with the court to the point they agree to side with Macrinus if he overthrows Caracalla after he leaves the room. Now a pawn, Caracalla hosts an execution eventby the Praetorian Guard for Lucilla and her fellow conspirators at the Colisseum, but Lucius and his fellow gladiators break into the Colisseum to free Rome. In the ensuing chaos, as the audience rebels against the archers, Caracalla gets finally backstabbed by Macrinus through a nail being introduced on his ear to perforate his brain. However, Macrinus’ plot ends up going nowhere as he proceeds to shoot an arrow to Lucilla, angering Lucius and prompting him to avenge his mother by chasing Macrinus out of the city and killing him in front of the country’s militaries, avenging Arishat and all those who were killed under Caracalla’s commands.
Personality[]
Caracalla was a sadistic, tyrannical ruler who ruled Rome and all of the Colosseum's entertainment. He got amused easily by people fighting each other, as he enjoyed watching discord unfold among combatants in the Colosseum. His corrupt rule impacted the amount of bloodshed on the floors of the arena, showing his intense liking for war. Despite he is the older of two brothers in real life, he seems less-sane than Geta in the movie due to cognitive erosion in his brain, this may be to highlight his madness and brutality. However, he is less intelligent than his brother Geta but somewhat crueler than him because he is very easy to get egged on and killed him. Real life Caracalla was a serious and tyrannical ruler but also was a capable person and didn’t has some childishness manner like the movie.
Trivia[]
- Despite being an epic historical drama, much like its predecessor, Gladiator II takes many historical liberties with the real Caracalla.
- In 200 AD, the real-life Roman Emperor was Septimius Severus, the father of Caracalla and Geta, not them, as he succeeded Commodus in reality after Commodus’ twelve years as emperor, instead of the mere months he reigned in the universe of the two films.
- The real Caracalla never had a pet monkey named Dundus nor a pet in general, being Dundus an original character to the film.
- Despite his claims that he and Geta shared a womb in the film, which implies they were fraternal twins born concurrently, Caracalla was born in reality over a year before Geta.
- While Caracalla murdered Geta as in the film, he did it out of his own volition (with Macrinus, who was a Praetorian prefect instead of an acquaintance to the emperors having nothing to do with it) in front of their mother Julia Domna, who never appears nor is mentioned in the film.
- The aftermath of Caracalla murdering Geta didn’t end up with Macrinus backstabbing him the next day. In real-life, Caracalla went on to rule for six years after Geta’s death and was assassinated under Macrinus’ orders by Justin Martialis, a soldier Caracalla had declined to appoint as centurion.
- Gladiator director Ridley Scott has called Caracalla as well as his brother Geta "definitely damaged goods from birth", deeming their leadership as the harbinger of the end of the centuries of Roman dominance over the ancient Earth while they ignore Rome's problems and a kind of reversal to Romulus and Remus, the legendary brothers who were raised by a wolf mother and founded Rome(precisely, they appear in a statue during the film and Caracalla ends up murdering Geta just like Romulus did with Remus).
- Barry Keoghan was originally cast to play Caracalla in Gladiator II in January 2023, but dropped out in May 2023 just before filming due to scheduling conflicts, leading to his recasting with Fred Hechinger.
- Upon seeing Lucius Verus fight for the first time, Caracalla is seen surrounded by many men just like Geta is surrounded by many women, all those people serving as their lovers. This is most likely a reference to the real Caracalla’s bisexuality, who was known for getting in many affairs with both men and women.
- Although the filmmakers claim that Caracalla suffers from cognitive erosion on his brain, the film never explains what kind of disease Caracalla may be suffering. Some reviews interpret the character as having syphilis, but it’s unconfirmed at the current moment. Although, the syphilis theory was supported by Geta complaining about how his brother was diseased from frequent attendance of brothels.
- One of the visual inspirations for Caracalla’s look in the film according to Hechinger and Scott, who had discussions about it, was the late English musician Sid Vicious. For Caracalla’s “crazed behaviour”, it was decided to give him Dundus as a pet to symbolize his personality through his pet while Hechinger made sure to not “soil” Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as Commodus from the previous film when playing Caracalla, instead finding inspiration along with Quinn from the titular characters of MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head to portray a more humous and chaotic dynamic between the brothers.
- It’s unknown what happened to Dundus after the events of the film, as Caracalla seemed to be the only character who cared for him and Dundus is never seen after Macrinus betrays them.
- Caracella appointing his per monkey as the First Consul of Rome may be an indirect reference to how Emperor Nero had planned to appoint his favourite horse as a Consul.
- Fred Hechinger starred in Gladiator II and Kraven the Hunter, both of which came out in 2024.
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 Duology Villains
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