on war against
the Alamanni; in 214 he attacked the Goths in Dacia, whence he proceeded
by way of Thrace to Asia Minor, and in 215 crossed to Alexandria. Here
he took vengeance for the bitter sarcasms of the inhabitants against
himself and his mother by ordering a general massacre of the youths
capable of bearing arms. 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.

AUTHORITIES.--Dio Cassius lxxvii., lxxviii.; Herodian iii. 10, iv. 14;
lives of Caracalla, Severus and Geta, in _Scriptores Historiae
Augustae_; Eutropius viii. 19-22; Aurelius Victor, _De Caesaribus_,
20-23; _Epit._ 20-23; Zosimus i. 9-10; H. Schiller, _Geschichte der
romischen Kaiserzeit_ (1883), 738 ff.; Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopadie_, ii. 2434 ff. (von Rohden).

CARACAS, the principal city and the capital of the United States of
Venezuela, situated at the western extremity of an elevated valley of
the Venezuelan Coast Range known as the plain of Chacao, 6-1/2 m. S.S.E.
of La Guaira, its port on the Caribbean coast, in lat. 10 deg. 30' N.,
long. 67 deg. 4' W. The plain is about 11 m. long by 3 m. wide, and is
separated from the coast by a part of the mountain chain which extends
along almost the entire water front of the republic. It is covered with
well-cultivated plantations. The Guaira river, a branch of the Tuy,
traverses the plain from west to east, and flows past the city on the
south. Among its many small tributaries are the Catuche, Caroata and
Anauco, which flow down through the city from the north and give it a
natural surface drainage. The city is built at the narrow end of the
valley and at the foot of the Cerro de Avila, and stands from 2887 to
3442 ft. above sea level, the elevation of the Plaza de Bolivar, its
topographical centre, being 3025 ft. Two miles north-east is the famous
Silla de Caracas, whose twin summits, like a gigantic old-fashioned
saddle (_silla_), rise to an elevation of 8622 ft.; and the Naiguete,
still farther eastward, overlooks the