Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Antoninus Caracalla

His gestis Galliam petiit atque ut primum in eam venit Narbonensem proconsulem occidit, cunctis deinde turbatis qui in Gallia res gerebant odium tyrannicum meruit, quamvis se aliquando fingeret et benignum, cum esset natura truculentus. et cum multa contra homines et contra iura civitatum fecisset, morbo implicitus graviter laboravit, circa eos qui eum curabant crudelissimus fuit. Dein ad orientem profectionem parans omisso itinere in Dacia resedit, circa Raetiam non paucos barbaros interemit militesque suos quasi Sullae milites et cohortatus est et donavit, deorum sane se nominibus appellari vetuit, quod Commodus fecerat, i cum multi eum, quod leonem aliasque feras occidisset, Herculem dicerent, et cum Germanos subegisset, Germanum se appellavit vel ioco vel serio, ut erat stultus et demens, adserens, si Lucanos vicisset, Lucanicum se appellandum, damnati sunt eo tempore qui urinam in eo loco fecerunt in quo statuae aut imagines erant principis, et qui coronas imaginibus eius detraxerunt, ut alias ponerent, damnatis et qui remedia quartanis tertianisque collo adnexas gestarent. Per Thracias cum praefecto praetorii iter fecit, inde cum in Asiam traiceret, naufragii periculum adiit antemna fracta, ita ut in scapham cum protectoribus descenderet. unde in triremem a praefecto classis receptus evasit. Excepit apros frequenter, contra leonem etiam stetit, quando missis ad amicos litteris gloriatus est seque ad Herculis virtutem accessisse iactavit.

After these things he made for Gaul, and as soon as he arrived there he killed the proconsul of Narbonensis; then, having thrown into confusion all who held office in Gaul, he earned the hatred a tyrant earns, although he sometimes pretended to be kindly too, when by nature he was savage. And after he had done many things against men and against the rights of the cities, he was seized by an illness and suffered severely; toward those who were treating him he was most cruel. Then, preparing an expedition to the East, he broke off the journey and stayed in Dacia; in the region of Raetia he killed not a few barbarians, and he both exhorted and rewarded his soldiers as though they were Sulla's soldiers. He did, indeed, forbid himself to be called by the names of gods, as Commodus had done, when many called him Hercules because he had killed a lion and other wild beasts; and when he had subdued the Germans he styled himself Germanus, whether in jest or in earnest, foolish and mad as he was, declaring that if he had conquered the Lucanians he ought to be styled Lucanicus. At that time those who urinated in a place where there were statues or images of the emperor were condemned, and those who removed garlands from his images to put up others; and those too were condemned who wore remedies against quartan and tertian fevers tied around the neck. He travelled through Thrace with the praetorian prefect; then, as he was crossing to Asia, he faced the danger of shipwreck when the yard-arm broke, so that he got down into a skiff with his bodyguards; from there he was taken aboard a trireme by the prefect of the fleet and escaped. He often took on boars, and even stood up against a lion, on which occasion he boasted in letters sent to his friends and bragged that he had attained the valour of Hercules.