Caracalla

“ We may, perhaps, attribute the disparaging rumours which were circulated concerning the chastity of Julia Domna to the interested calumnies of Plautianus. Her husband was not the man to wink at such aberrations of duty, more especially if it be true that to conjugal infidelity she added political treason. Her evil reputation increased in the reign of her son Caracalla, though, by-the-bye, according to some historians she was only his stepmother, Caracalla being the son of Septimius by a former wife. ”

“ Such things show the trend of a temperament, though not, perhaps, its force. Presently the latter was displayed. For years those arch-enemies of Rome, the unconquerable Parthians, had been quiet; bound, too, by treaties which held Rome's honor. Not Caracalla's, however; he had none. An embassy went out to Artobane, the king. Caracalla wished a bride, and what fairer one could he have than the child of the Parthian monarch? ”

“ Without doubt the family had lived securely and delicately in Rome through the reigns of Septimius Severus and his son, growing in wisdom, stature, and prosperity, and, as far as we know, in favour with God and man, until the tragic events of the year 217 made it appear that the fortunes of the family had come to a sudden and decided collapse. The circumstances of the death of Caracalla were typical of that age of sovereignty. ”

“ Macrinus bestowed the title of Cæsar upon his son, and then hastened to follow up Caracalla’s victories over the Parthians. He encountered the Eastern monarch near Nis ́ibis, and suffered a shameful defeat, which forced him to retire into Syria. The soldiers were now tired of their chosen imperator, whose severity of discipline was an unwelcome change from the reckless liberality of Caracalla. Julia Mæsa, sister-in-law of Severus, persuaded one division of the army to accept as their prince her grandson, Bassia ́nus, whom she declared to be a son of Caracalla. ”

“ His beauty, and the splendid ceremonials at which he presided, made him a great favourite with the troops stationed in that part of Syria, and Maesa increased his popularity by spreading reports that he was in reality the illegitimate son of Caracalla. ”

“ A mixed body of Suevi assume the name of AlemaniIn the reign of the Emperor Caracalla, an innumerable swarm of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Main, and in the neighbourhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of food, of plunder, or of glory. [97] The hasty army of volunteers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and, as it was composed from so many different tribes, assumed the name of Alemanni, or Allmen, to denote at once their various lineage and their common bravery. [98] The latter was soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile inroad. ”

“ In 216 he ravaged Mesopotamia because Artabanus, the Parthian king, refused to give him his daughter in marriage. He spent the winter at Edessa, and in 217, when he recommenced his campaign, he was murdered between Edessa and Carrhae on the 8th of April at the instigation of Opellius (Opilius) Macrinus, praefect of the praetorian guard, who succeeded him. Amongst the numerous buildings with which Caracalla adorned the city, the most famous are the thermae, and the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus in the forum. ”

“ For the province of Cairoma is situate at the mountain foot, which divideth the plains of Guiana from the countries of the Orenoqueponi; by means whereof if any should come in our absence into his towns, he would slip over the mountains into the plains of Guiana among the Epuremei, where the Spaniards durst not follow him without great force. But in mine opinion, or rather I assure myself, that Carapana being a notable wise and subtle fellow, a man of one hundred years of age and therefore of great experience, is removed to look on, and if he find that we return strong he will be ours ”

“ Now Berreo began to grow into despair, and looked for no other success than his predecessor in this enterprise; until such time as he arrived at the province of Emeria towards the east sea and mouth of the river, where he found a nation of people very favourable, and the country full of all manner of victual. The king of this land is called Carapana, a man very wise, subtle, and of great experience, being little less than an hundred years old. ”

“ Even the duke envied him this quasi-royalty which Paris confers on its elect.
Caracal loved the cabaret rosses, where some rickety little monsieur advances on the platform, opens 191 his snarling mouth and, hammering his words that not a syllable may be lost, narrates his little nastiness to the public.
“It’s a new school,” Caracal explained. “Much more advanced than the décadents! It’s educating the public up to itself little by little. It has taken frankly for its flag the exact word in all its crudity.”
“Say, rather, the dirty word,” said Phil. ”

“ Bands of bashi-bazouks had come as far as the Drina. It would be necessary to go back. The duke saw it clearly—great events were preparing.
“You were present, I believe,” the duke said to Caracal, “when I spoke at Phil’s place of the old sorceress, who is a prophetess for some and a saint for others, and has more influence in the country than all the journalists in the world could have. This old woman predicts the future. I assure you, Caracal, she foretells astonishing things, absolutely amazing, and I myself have seen them realized many times over. ”

“ We stand close together on the brink of a chasm and look tremulously into the depths of her great heart; down, down, a thousand feet and more of living, breathing green, into every hue of purple and blue, deepening into black near the far-off valley, and disappearing into azure among the clouds,—silence, shadow, tenderness, sublimity, overspread by the ineffable loveliness of morning.
We are moving again, and now it is down, gradually, for Caracas lies a thousand feet below the summit. We follow along a white highroad, the mountain trail from Caracas to the sea. ”

“ Caraccas is a name taken from that of a tribe of Indians, and given to a country which includes New Andalusia, or Cumana, with Margarita, Barcelona, Venezuela, or Caraccas Proper, Maracaybo and Coro, on the coast of the Caribbean sea, Varinas and Spanish Guiana in the interior. ”

“ Nothing can be finer than the ride to Caracas by the old Spanish road, or more superb than its position in a magnificent valley, watered by four rivers, surrounded by a rampart of lofty mountains, and enjoying, by reason of its altitude, a climate of perpetual spring. ”

“ I am not strong enough to follow up the defeated rebels. I cannot leave the city totally unguarded, and my whole force is inferior in numbers to those of General Carabaño and Colonel Orellana. I can expect no help from Caracas at present, and, as you are doubtless aware, there are no garrisons in the smaller towns touched by the railway. Besides, I have no doubt that General Carabaño has entrained his men, and returned to the place from which he started, and since the culvert is broken, it is impossible to follow him up by train. ”

“ Caracal, behind his monocle, observed the different bands, in his heart deriding every one. He cross-questioned the comrades, and composed his newspaper chroniques on the café table.
“Eh bien! anything for my paper? A nice little scandal? Something strong?”
“I’ve got something new,” the good-natured Poufaille would say; “at my house, in the courtyard, a woman has been found dead.”
“Bravo! Young? pretty?” ”

“ The population of the city now exceeds 70,000, in which there is but a very small percentage of citizens of foreign birth.
Unquestionably Caracas is one of the most delightful places of residence in the world. It lies in a valley three thousand feet up from the sea, on either side of which towers a range of mountains, one about seven, the other nine thousand feet. The tropical heat is tempered to a springlike mildness by the high altitude, and the luxuriant fertility resulting from the misty rains wafted down from the mountains, make of the city and its environs a garden of astonishing beauty. ”

“ Caracas, until for the moment love—or what he called love—had almost made him forget the treasure in the ship beneath his feet. For the Pearl of Caracas was a woman.
Mercedes de Lara, daughter of the Viceroy of Venezuela, on her way home from Spain where she had been at school, to join her father, the Count Alvaro de Lara in the Vice-regal Palace at St. Jago de Leon, sometimes called the City of Caracas, in the fair valley on the farther side of those towering tree-clad mountains—the Cordilleras of the shore—had touched at Jamaica. ”

“ The northern and more cultivated portion of the province of Caracas is a mountainous region. The marginal chain is divided, like that of the Swiss Alps, into many ranges, enclosing longitudinal valleys. The most remarkable among these is 24the charming valley of Aragua, which produces an abundance of indigo, sugar, and cotton, and, what is perhaps the most singular of all, even European wheat. The southern margin of this valley is bounded by the beautiful Lake of Valencia, the ancient Indian name of which was Tacarigua. ”

“ The climate is delightful; the first impressions of the capital pleasing.
Caracas has a population of about eighty thousand, it being the usage that only one family shall occupy a house. It is a city of culture and fashion, of public statues to scholars and artists, as well as warriors, for not all of the history of this interesting republic is filled with war. While a land of hotheaded people, whose career has been largely filled with riots and revolutions, here and there are to be found evidences of a high civilization, producing marked contracts of the rival forces of man. ”

“ But even Caracal would have to confess himself beaten by a Duke of Morgania parading with a circus star—that would be Parisian enough! He would no longer accuse him of inheriting the prejudices of Morgania, nor of believing in the predictions of the mad old witch!
The duke blushed at his own scruples. He envied Caracal’s effrontery.
“It is true,” he said to himself, “I have been below the mark all through. For a grand seigneur like me to be as timid as a college-boy is absurd. Helia ought to be for me simply an episode—a pastime—and nothing more.” ”

“ When you have climbed to the top of the mountain, you see below you on the other side the beautiful valley in which lies the city of Caracas, cut up evenly by well-kept streets, and diversified by the towers of churches and public buildings and open plazas, with the white houses and gardens of the coffee-planters lying beyond the city at the base of the mountains. ”

“ See J. Watts de Peyster, The History of Carausius, the Dutch Augustus (1858) ; P.H. Webb, The Reign and Coinage of Carausius (1908) .
CARAVACA, a town of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Murcia; near the left bank of the river Caravaca, a tributary of the Segura. Pop. (1900) 15,846. Caravaca is dominated by the medieval castle of Santa Cruz, and contains several convents and a fine parish church, with a miraculous cross celebrated for its healing power, in honour of which a yearly festival is held on the 3rd of May. The hills which extend to the north are rich in marble and iron. ”

“ Caracal, who was not so deep but more brilliant, enjoyed a different prestige.
First of all, he lived in the Grands Quartiers, in a house with an elevator! so it was said. And while the others ate at Mère Michel’s, Caracal would be supping at Montmartre—suprême élégance!
Besides, he wrote in the newspapers. For a little article, for one’s name cited in the “Tocsin”—how low would not one stoop to obtain such a favor!
“‘Oysters and Melons,’ still life by X——,” or else “‘Old Tree-trunk,’ landscape by Z——”; and Z—— and X—— would march off together into immortality. ”

“ Caracal went on. “It’s a tendency of the aristocracy.”
“Why?” asked the duke.
“Because the common run of men, when they court a woman, make account of what others think of her; whereas a grand seigneur doesn’t care for the opinion of the public and chooses what pleases him.”
“That’s true!” said the duke.
“I can cite you a dozen examples,” Caracal continued. “There’s Clotilde Loisset, the circus-rider, who is an Hungarian princess to-day; Chelli, the danseuse, married to a Russian count who is Minister of State ”

“ All very square and very Spanish were these houses, very quaint to look upon; and if this is La Guayra, where is Caracas? Must we, too, clamber and climb away into those mountain heights, and, perchance, awaken the Great Mother, who sleeps so gently under the drowsy lullings of the deep sea? ”

“ THE province of Carrapa is twelve leagues from the city of Cartago, situated in a very rugged mountainous country, and the Cordillera of the Andes rises above it. The houses of the natives are small and very low, made of canes, and thatched with other small and delicate canes, of which there are many in these parts. Some of the houses of the chiefs are large, but others not. When the Christian Spaniards first entered the country there were five of these chiefs. ”

“ It was a thunderbolt which would soon burst and he would be famous; and, after the town, the country should have its turn! His work should be the life-encyclopedia of our day. He already had notes on the mosquitos, remarks on the grunting of pigs in their sties and the smells of the manure-heap. His novel would begin well.
“Tell me, M. Caracal,” Ethel chanced to ask just as he was thinking of all this, “have you found a title for your novel on country life which we were talking about the other day?”
“I am hunting for one, Miss Rowrer,” answered Caracal. ”