Capreolus, bp. of Carthage, known in connexion with the council of Ephesus, A.D. 431. N. Africa at that time being ravaged by the Vandals under Genseric, it was impossible to convene the bishops to appoint representatives from the church of Carthage at the council. The bishop, however, in his zeal for the catholic doctrine, dispatched an elaborate letter in its defence, which is extant, both in Greek and Latin. There is also extant an other letter by Capreolus on this controversy, written in answer to inquiries addressed to him from Spain, by Vitalis and Constantius. Both letters are in Migne, vol. liii. p. 843. Also a fragment of the letter which he addressed to Theodosius, who convoked the council, is quoted by Ferrandus in his letter to Pelagius and Anatolius, c. 6, Patr. Migne, lxvii. 925. The Sermo de Tempore Barbarico, on the Vandal invasion of Africa, usually attributed to St. Augustine, and other sermons in which Augustine describes the Vandal ravages, are considered by Tillemont (xvi. 502) to have been written by Capreolus (Hardouin, i. 1419‒1422; Fleury, xxv. 41; Till. xii. 559, xiii. 901, xiv. 376, 399, xvi. 495, 502, 789), but this is doubtful.
Tillemont supposes Capreolus to have succeeded to the see of Carthage shortly before the death of Augustine (430), as the letter convoking the council of Ephesus seems to have been addressed to him and to Augustine (xii. 559). Another object of his letter to Ephesus was to implore the council not to re-open the question of the Pelagian heresy. When his letter was read, Cyril and all the bishops exclaimed, "That is what we all say; that is what we all wish," and they ordered it to be inserted in the Acts of the council (Vinc. Lerin. c. 31; Labbe, Conc. iii. 529). He is probably the "priest" in Africa in the time of Aspar, mentioned in the Book of Promises, ascribed to Prosper (i. 4, c. 6).
It is instructive to note the importance that he attaches to the descent of the God-man into Hades. Chaps. 5‒12 are taken up with answering the new error. He quotes Ps. xvi. 10; John x. 18; I. Cor. ii. 7, 8; II. Cor. v. 18, 19; Heb. i. 2, 3; Col. ii. 15; Heb. x. 28‒30; John xx. 17. He does not quote John xvi. 32, but says (c. 13) that it would be endless to adduce all scripture testimonies. His answer to the argument from Ps. xxii. i is drawn from the latter half of the verse (as it is in the LXX and Vulgate, which are not improbably right), "Far from my health are the words of my failings," and based on the mystery of the union of the two natures, "that human condition should know itself" (c. 5).
The death of Capreolus is generally dated c. A.D. 435. His burial was commemorated in the calendar of Carthage between July 21 and 30; the note of the day is lost.
Caracalla, the nickname of M. Aurelius Severus Antoninus Bassianus, son of Lucius Septimius Severus, born April 4, 188, declared Caesar A.D. 196, three years after his father's accession; succeeded to the empire in conjunction with his brother Geta, Feb. 211, sole emperor after slaying his brother in his mother's arms A.D. 212, in Gaul 213, in Germany and on the Danube 214, at Antioch and Alexandria 215, marched against Parthia 216, killed on the way from Edessa to Carrhae, April 8, 217. His mother, according to contemporary authorities, was Julia, a Syrian woman, whom Severus had married because of certain prophecies. Spartianus, in the time of Constantine, assures us that Julia was his stepmother, and that his mother was Severus's first wife Marcia. This would make his story somewhat less horrible, but compels the historian at the cost of some inconsistency to refer his birth to 174, or earlier.
The principal authorities are Tertullian, addressing Scapula, governor of Africa, in 211; the sober, contemporary, and apparently impartial, narrative of Herodian (bks. vii. viii.); the abridgment, by the very late compiler Xiphilinus, of the 77th book of the contemporary historian Dion Cassius, with which the compiler seems to have incorporated fragments of other works of a like early date; the narrative written for Constantine by Lampridius Spartianus in the Historia Augusta; laws, coins, inscriptions (see Clinton), and especially a record in the Digest, bk i, tit. 5, l. 17, from the 22nd book of Ulpian.
Dion charges him with inheriting all the worst features of the races from which he sprang; on his father's side, the braggart levity of the Gaul and the truculence of the African; on his mother's, the tricksiness of the Syrian. Tertullian (ad Scap. c. 4) calls him Antoninus, and informs us that "his father Severus had a regard for Christians; . . . and Antoninus . . . was brought up on Christian milk. And, moreover, Severus knew most illustrious men and most illustrious women to be of this sect, and not only did not hurt, but honoured [exornavit or, more probably, exoneravit, exonerated] them by the witness he bore them, and withstood the raging populace." It has been inferred that the young prince was not only brought up amid Christian influences, but had a Christian wet-nurse.
We can easily conceive how injurious it must have been for the child to find the Christians in the palace screened, while yet he was taken to see shows of wild beasts where Christians were thrown to them to devour. Spartianus tells us that he was a most charming child, quick at learning, engaging with his prattle, and of a very tender heart. "If he saw condemned criminals thrown to the beasts, he cried, or looked away, which more than won the hearts of the people. At seven years of age, when he heard that a boy that was his playmate had been severely beaten for Jewish superstition, it was a long while before he would look at his own father or the boy's father again, or at the people who had him flogged. By his own intercession he restored their ancient rights to the people of Antioch and Byzantium, who had helped Niger against his father. It was for his cruelty that he took an aversion to Plautianus. But all this was only while he was a boy [sed haec puer ]." The "Jewish superstition" has been interpreted, with great probability, to mean Christianity. The Plautianus mentioned was, teste Herodian, a vile tyrant, all-powerful with Severus, whose daughter Caracalla was compelled to marry, much against his will, in the hope of reforming him from certain low tastes, such as won him the favour of the city populace.
