ANTONYUS. Septimus Severus renamed his first son, Julius Bassianus, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in A.D. 195, when the child was seven years old, thus borrowing for his son the names of the famous Antonine emperor. Because he wore a Gallic cloak called a caracallus, the soldiers called the boy Caracalla. His reign, A.D. 211-217, was marked by brutality. Spartianus Aelius tells that Caracalla ordered his soldiers to cut Papinianus, the noted jurist, into pieces (Scriptores historiae Augustae IV.i).

Lady Philosophy recalls such instances of imperial brutality, Bo III, Prosa 5.49-51. [Papynian]