The post established by Cao Cao at…

Severus' campaigning has made significant gains by 210, despite Caledonian guerrilla tactics and purportedly heavy Roman casualties.

The Caledonians sue for peace, which Severus grants on condition they relinquish control of the Central Lowlands.

This is evidenced by extensive Severan era fortifications in the Central Lowlands.

The Caledonians, short on supplies and feeling their position becoming desperate, re-form their alliance with the Maeatae and join their fresh offensive.

Severus prepares for another protracted campaign within Caledonia.

He is now intent on exterminating the Caledonians, telling his soldiers: “Let no one escape sheer destruction, No one our hands, not even the babe in the womb of the mother, if it be male; let it nevertheless not escape sheer destruction.” (Dio Cassius (Xiphilinus) ‘Romaika’, Epitome of, Book LXXVI Chapter 15.)

A punitive expedition led by Severus' son Caracalla is sent out with the purpose of slaughtering everyone it encounters from any of the northern tribes.

Severus meanwhile prepares for total conquest but is already ill.

Liu Zhang, at the suggestion of his advisor Zhang Song, asks Liu Bei to come to his assistance in the battle against Zhang Lu in 211.

The welcoming of Liu Bei is a plan by Zhang Song, Fa Zheng, and Meng Da to ultimately make him their leader, since they consider him more ambitious and worthy of serving than Liu Zhang.

Wang Lei, Huang Quan, Li Hui, and others try to persuade Liu Zhang not to accept Liu Bei into his territory, but their pleas are ignored and Liu Bei is welcomed as a guest general of Liu Zhang who will go to the front to fight against Zhang Lu.

Zhong Yao, an advisor of Cao Cao, suggests an invasion of Zhang Lu's territory in the year 211.

However, Ma Chao and Han Sui, whose territory is between Cao Cao's and Zhang Lu's, interpret the massing of forces as an attempt to invade their own lands.

They rebel against Cao Cao, and after much fighting, Cao Cao's forces are victorious.

However, they are in no shape to continue the invasion to Hanzhong.

Ma Chao retreats to Hanzhong and pledges allegiance to Zhang Lu, who considers marrying his daughter to him.

However, a servant of Zhang Lu's, Yang Bo, says, "A man like that, who has no love for even his parents (referring to the execution of Ma Teng caused by Ma Chao's rebellion), cannot love another" and the marriage proposal is scrapped.

Ma Chao then borrows soldiers from Zhang Lu and attempts to regain some of his lost territory from Cao Cao, but is ultimately unsuccessful.

His failures cause the relationship between the two to sour.

When Liu Bei's forces surround Liu Zhang, Ma Chao chooses this time to take his leave of Hanzhong, and with his personal army he joins Liu Bei.

Ma Chao's subordinate Pang De, however, remains in Zhang Lu's service.

His illness fatal, Severus withdraws to Eboracum.

He is famously said to have given the advice to his sons: "Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, and scorn all other men" before he died on February 4, 211.

Caracalla attempts to take over command but when his troops refuse to recognize him as emperor, he makes peace with the Caledonians and retreats south of Hadrian's Wall to press his claim for the throne.

The Romans will never campaign deep into Caledonia again: they will soon withdraw south permanently to Hadrian's Wall.

Caracalla and Geta, proclaimed joint emperors when Septimius Severus dies in Eboracum (now York) in the beginning of 211, return to Rome.

As both brothers want to be sole ruler, relations between them become increasingly hostile.

When they try to rule the Empire jointly they actually consider dividing it in halves, but are persuaded not to do so by their mother.

The shared throne is not a success: the brothers argue about every decision, from law to political appointments.

Later sources speculate about the desire of the two of splitting the empire in two halves.

By the end of the year, the situation is unbearable.

Caracalla tries to murder Geta during the festival of Saturnalia without success.

Later in December, he arranges a meeting of reconciliation with his brother in his mother's apartments, and has him murdered in her arms by by members of the Praetorian Guard loyal to him.

Following Geta's assassination, Caracalla orders a damnatio memoriae pronounced by the Senate against his brother's memory, his name to be removed from all inscriptions and his images erased.

Geta's image is simply removed from all coinage, paintings and statues, leaving a blank space next to Caracalla's.

The now sole emperor also takes the opportunity to get rid of his political enemies, on the grounds of conspiracy with the deceased.

Cassius Dio states that around twenty thousand persons of both sexes were killed or proscribed during this time.

Among those killed are Caracalla's ex-wife, Fulvia Plautilla, and her brother and other members of the family of his former father-in-law Gaius Fulvius Plautianus.

Plautianus had already been executed for alleged treachery against emperor Severus in 205 and succeeded by Aemilius Papinianus as Prefect Commander of the Praetorian Guard.

Little is known about Papinianus, who was perhaps of Syrian birth and a native of Emesa, for he is said to have been a kinsman of Septimius Severus' second wife, Julia Domna.

One source shows him as a follower of the casuistry of Quintus Cervidius Scaevola, another shows him to have been his pupil.

A concurring (but dubious) passage in the Augustan History claims that he studied law with Severus under Scaevola.

An intimate friend of the emperor Severus, Papinianus had accompanied him to Britain during 207,where he served in "the forum of York" in response to an uprising by Scottish Highlanders.

He was at some time made a master of petitions (requests), magister libellorum, by Severus.

He also served as Treasurer and Captain of the Guard for the Emperor.

Before the emperors' death, he had commended his two sons Caracalla and Geta into the lawyers' charge.

Sharing in the governship of the Roman Empire with Geta proves unsatisfactory for Caracalla, who decides at sometime to usurp his brother.

Papinian’s efforts at keeping peace between the brothers only proves to encourage the hatred of Caracalla, who consequently passes an order to have the lawyer beheaded (Spart.

Caracall.

4), and his body dragged through the streets of Rome.

His death follows the fratricide of Geta, among the general slaughter of his friends and those perceived associated with him.

The author of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article though states that the details of Papinianus' death "are variously related, and have undergone legendary embellishment."

Much of his output has been lost, as what we have is small compared to other jurists such as Ulpian or Paul.

The principal works of Papinianus include: Quaestiones in thirty-seven books (written before 198); nineteen books of Responsa (written sometime between 204 and his death); two books of Definitiones; two books De adulteriis, and other works, the shortest of these being a manual on the duties for commissioner's of streets and bridges.

Papinianus will become one of the most revered of Roman Jurists by the Romans, as third year law students were given the title "Papinianistae" ("they that are worthy to study Papinian").

Only inhabitants of Italia, for the most part, hold full Roman citizenship before 212.

Colonies of Romans established in other provinces, Romans (or their descendants) living in provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout the Empire, and small numbers of local nobles (such as kings of client countries) hod full citizenship also.

Provincials, on the other hand, are usually non-citizens, although some hold the Latin Right.

An edict issued in 212 by Caracalla, the Constitutio Antoniniana (Latin: "Constitution [or Edict] of Antoninus") (also called Edict of Caracalla), declares that all free men in the Roman Empire are to be given full Roman citizenship and all free women in the Empire are given the same rights as Roman women.

The Roman Historian Cassius Dio contends that the sole motivation for the edict was a desire to increase state revenue.

At this time, aliens did not have to pay most taxes that were required of citizens, so although nominally Caracalla was elevating their legal status, he was more importantly expanding the Roman tax base.

Zhang Song's true intentions are revealed to Liu Zhang by his elder brother Zhang Su.

Liu Zhang executes Zhang Song and begins his battle against Liu Bei, who then begins his conquest of Yi Province.

Cao is titled "Duke of Wei" in 213, given the nine bestowments, and given a fief of ten cities under his domain, known as Wei.

The Alemanni are first mentioned by Cassius Dio describing the campaign of Emperor Antoninus in 213.

At this time they apparently dwell in the basin of the Main, to the south of the Chatti.

Cassius Dio (78.13.4) portrays the Alemanni as victims of this treacherous emperor.

They had asked for his help, says Dio, but instead he colonized their country, changed their place names and executed their warriors under a pretext of coming to their aid.

When he became ill, the Alemanni claimed to have put a hex on him (78.15.2).

The emperor, it was claimed, tried to counter this influence by invoking his ancestral spirits.

In retribution, Antoninus leads the Legio II Traiana Fortis against the Alemanni.

The Romans do defeat the Alamanni in battle near the river Main, but fail to win a decisive victory over them.

After a peace agreement is brokered and a large bribe payment given to the invaders, the Senate confers upon him the empty title of Germanicus Maximus.

The legion is as a result honored with the name Germanica.

The Gallic hooded tunic the emperor habitually wears while campaigning, and which he makes fashionable, gives him his historical nickname, Caracalla.

The Historia Augusta, Life of Antoninus Caracalla, relates (10.5) that Caracalla then assumed the name Alemannicus, at which Helvius Pertinax jested that he should really be called Geticus Maximus, because in the year before he had murdered his brother, Geta.

Not on good terms with Caracalla, Geta had been invited to a family reconciliation, at which time he was ambushed by centurions in Caracalla's army and slain in his mother Julia's arms.

True or not, Caracalla, pursued by devils of his own, had left Rome, never to return.

Caracalla soon departs for the eastern frontier, where for the rest of his short reign he will be known for his unpredictable and arbitrary operations launched by surprise after a pretext of peace negotiations.

If he had any reasons of state for such actions they remained unknown to his contemporaries.

Whether or not the Alemanni had been previously neutral, they are certainly further influenced by Caracalla to become hereafter notoriously implacable enemies of Rome.

This mutually antagonistic relationship is perhaps the reason why the Roman writers persist in calling the Alemanni barbari, "savages".

The archaeology, however, shows that they were largely Romanized, lived in Roman-style houses and used Roman artifacts, the Alemannic women having adopted the Roman fashion of the tunic even earlier than the men.

Most of the Alemanni are probably at the time in fact resident in or close to the borders of Germania Superior.

Although Dio is the earliest writer to mention them, Ammianus Marcellinus used the name to refer to Germans on the Limes Germanicus in the time of Trajan's governorship of the province shortly after it was formed, circa 98/99.

At that time the entire frontier was being fortified for the first time.

Trees from the earliest fortifications found in Germania Inferior are dated by dendrochronology to 99/100.

Caracalla had devalued the Roman currency around the time of his accession, decreasing the silver purity of the denarius from 56.5% to 51.5%, the actual silver weight dropping from 1.81 grams to 1.66 gram—though the overall weight has slightly increased.

Caracalla raises the annual pay of an average legionary to 675 denarii during his time as emperor and lavishes many benefits on the army that he both fears and admires, as instructed by his father Septimius Severus, who had told him on his deathbed to always mind the soldiers and ignore everyone else.

Caracalla does manage to win the trust of the military with generous pay rises and popular gestures, like marching on foot among the ordinary soldiers, eating the same food, and even grinding his own flour with them.

His official portraiture marks a break with the detached images of the philosopher–emperors who preceded him: his close-cropped haircut is that of a soldier, his pugnacious scowl a realistic and threatening presence.

This rugged soldier–emperor iconic archetype will be adopted by most of the following emperors who depend on the support of the military to rule, like his eventual successor Maximinus Thrax.

Faced with a rapidly expanding military budget and cost overruns on his elaborate building projects, Caracalla has increased taxes as well as devalued the currency.

The Roman economy plunges into depression.

In 212 or 213, he issues—probably for financial reasons—an edict extending Roman citizenship to nearly all free provincials throughout the empire, including subject peoples, thereby widening the base of the inheritance tax, which only Roman citizens pay, and further undermining Italy's special status.

He grants benefits to property owners and makes them responsible for imperial taxes and services.

All Jews in the empire, who share in the newly granted citizenship and its privileges, gain access to Roman magistracies.

Caracalla leaves the capital in 213, about a year after the murder of Geta, and will spend the rest of his reign in the provinces, particularly those of the East.

He keeps the Senate and other wealthy families in check by forcing them to construct, at their own expense, palaces, theaters, and places of entertainment throughout the periphery.

New and heavy taxes are levied against the bulk of the population, with additional fees and confiscations targeted at the wealthiest families.