Onyx cameo bust of Caracalla

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Caracalla succeeded to the imperial throne when his father, Septimius Severus, died in Eburacum (modern York, England) in A.D. 211. After disposing of his brother and co-emperor, Geta, Caracalla embarked on a number of military campaigns that took him to the Rhine and Danube frontiers. In A.D. 216, he launched a major expedition against Parthia, but he died in mysterious circumstances near Carrhae (modern Harran, Turkey) the following year.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art