CARACAL, The(Felis caracal), belongs to a group of Lynxes characterized by comparative slenderness of body and length of tail and ears. It is somewhat larger than a fox, of a uniform reddish brown colour above, and whitish beneath, with two white spots above each of the eyes, and with a long black tuft of hair at the tip of the ears, the latter, according to Sir W. Jardine, being only present in spring, or at the commencement of the breeding season. It is to the ear-tufts that it owes its name, which is derived from two Turkish words signifying “black-ear.” The caracal is widely distributed, being found throughout Africa and South-western Asia. It feeds on the smaller quadrupeds and birds, hunting the former in packs after the manner of wolves, and climbing trees in pursuit of the latter. It is said also to resemble the jackal in following in the wake of the lion and other large carnivora, in order to feed on what those lords of the lower creation may leave, and on this account has received the name of the “lion’s provider.” Like the cheetah, it was formerly trained by Eastern princes to hunt the smaller quadrupeds, and such birds as the crane and pelican; but from its fierceness, and the extreme irritability which it displays in confinement, it does not seem well-fitted for domestication.

Frequent reference is made in Greek and Roman literature to the lynx, and from such descriptions as are given of it there is little doubt that the caracal, and not the more northerly species now known as the lynx, was referred to. In South Africa, where the caracal abounds, its hide is made by the Kaffres into skin cloaks, known as karosses.

CARACALLA, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (188— 219 a.d. ), a Roman emperor, son of the Emperor Septimius Severus, was born at Lyons in 188. His original name, Bassianus, has been entirely dropped in favour, either of the nickname Caracalla (taken from the long hooded tunic which he wore, and introduced into the army), or of the imperial title of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, which he received at the time when his father declared himself the adopted son of Μ. Aurelius. Dion Cassius regularly calls him Tarantus, from his resemblance to a certain coarse and bloodthirsty gladiator. The heartless cruelty of his disposition was early displayed in an attempt to assassinate his father; and when, on his father’s death, he mounted the throne (211) as colleague of his brother Geta, he did not shrink from murdering him in the presence of his mother, to seize the supreme power, nor from making himself secure by butchering 20,000 persons whom he suspected. It is said that he was, however, unable to rid himself of remorse, and that it was the torment of conscience which drove him to spend the rest of his life in the maddest acts of destruction and bloodshed. He visited Gaul, Germany, France, Egypt, and various parts of Asia, plundering everywhere, and committing the most atrocious crimes. In Alexandria he took vengeance for the sarcasms of the people by a general massacre; and he laid Mesopotamia waste because Artabanus, the Parthian king, refused to give him his daughter in marriage. In 217 he was killed at the instigation of Macrinus, who succeeded him. See Roman History.