The military hailed Macrinus as "imperator", and he arranged for the apotheosis of Caracalla. Aware of the impropriety of his unprecedented leap through the traditional "cursus honorum" from equestrian to Emperor, he respectfully sought senatorial approval for his "self-nomination". It was granted – the new emperor had a lawyer's approach to "imperium" but his foreign policy proved too cautious and placatory for the military. After little more than a year, he was murdered in a coup and replaced with an emperor of Syrian background and Severan descent, Varius Avitus Bassianus, more usually known by the Latinised name of his god and his priesthood, Elagabalus.