How was this absolute madman able to become a respected emperor

All you really needed to be emperor in the third century were popularity among the troops and enough tact to avoid assassinations.

He won the war

>>2733586
Severus is probably the first or second most overrated emperor (along with Theodosius I) who basically set the stage for the next century of the empire not to mention fathering one of the worst emperors in history.

File: Caracalla.png (394KB, 420x569px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2733673
>implying Caracalla did even one single thing wrong

Fuck off pleb.

File: Caracalla ''679'' feat. Roman Boyz.jpg (54KB, 540x720px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2733718

>elevate black dynasty
>Rome goes to shit immediately afterwards

What's the tldr on Caracalla erasing Geta from the history books? Was murder not enough?

>>2733864
Damnatio Memoriae had been a thing forever. It's just that Caracalla went well and truly beyond it what with additional actions like "murdering his brother in front of their mother" and all. I mean he's a guy who told his wife he'd kill her when he became sole emperor and then didn't even wait that long. He was just a psychopath of the highest order.

>>2733718
He's at fault even by Roman writers on view of instigating a nonsensical war with the Parthian Empire/Arsacid dynasty and on top of that this would lead to a chain-reaction of further weakening them to help the ascendance of the Sassanid family which would make things worse for the Romans.

>>2733934
Him and Severus pretty much bribing the troops to back them to an obscene degree likely instilled in them a sense of what was expected (much like the Praetorians and bribes/donatives) meaning any time some soldiers got uppity it was time for a new emperor.

>>2733864
Removing someone from history by destroying all their image was fairly common in Rome. It happened to Caracalla's immediate successor too.

File: severus.png (1MB, 800x811px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2733833
Severus was not black, he was Punic, i.e. Phoenician/Berber, i.e. 'light brown'.