Constitutio Antoniniana (212)
By promising the soldiers of II Parthica to increase their pay (and that of other legionaries), Caracalla had cemented the link between army pay and politics. Later events showed that it was more than the normal state budget could cover.
In the short term Caracalla obtained money from the confiscations of the property of Geta’s supporters. In 212 he decreed the Constitutio Antoniniana bestowing citizenship on nearly everyone in the Roman world. Although slaves and some others were excluded, its immediate benefit for Caracalla was the considerable taxes that could be collected on inheritance and manumission (both increased from five to ten percent).
In 215 he debased the currency with the introduction of a new coin, the antoninianus, which was in theory a double-denarius, but in fact only contained fifty percent more silver than a single denarius. Once these coins entered general circulation, however, the newer debased coins were not accepted as payment at the same rate as the old, and a rise in prices (i.e. inflation) was the inevitable result.
Around this time it was decided to divide Hispania Tarraconensis into Hispania Nova Citerior and Asturiae-Calleciae (NW), but the two provinces were reunited in 238.
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