Arranged Marriage
Caracalla was forced to marry Plautilla in 202. This is an example of how women were used through the institution of marriage to form political alliances. This already started during the reign of Augustus, whose daughter Julia was quite important. First, she was married to Marcellus, who was the prospective heir at the time. When he died, she was married off again, now to Agrippa, one of Augustus’ most important generals at the time. When he died, the cycle repeated itself and Augustus had her married to Tiberius, which signified he would be the successor of Augustus. From this example we can gather that women were not only important as child-bearers, but also as a means to form political alliances. This we see with Plautilla as well. Emperor Septimius Severus strengthened his relationship with Plautianus, the father of Plautilla, by marrying off his son, Caracalla, to the daughter of Plautianus. The father of Plautilla, Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, was not only a high politician and army officer, but also paternal first cousin and close ally to Lucius Septimius.
Although marrying for political advantages often worked quite well, that was not the case for Caracalla and Plautilla. He despised his wife, as ancient sources tell us.
”Caracalla did not enjoy the marriage very much, since he was married to her by compulsion rather than by choice. He was so very hateful to the girl and to her father, that he did not share a bed or a home with her. He loathed the girl, and at every opportunity he threatened to kill both her and her father, when he would be the ruler of the empire.”
And what about Plautilla herself? We actually don’t know what she was thinking and can just imagine that she felt the same way. We don’t know much about her in general. That is quite common for women in antiquity: generally history is about people with power, which are often men, less about women.