that the porticoes were gilded, and that the belt

or circle which divided the several ranks of spec. tators from each other, was studded with a pre. cious Mosaic of beautiful stones 97.

In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus, secure of his fortune, enjoyed

the acclamations of the people, the flattery of his
courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, for
want ofa more essential merit, were reduced to
celebrate the divine graces of his person w. In.
the same hour, but at the distance of nine hun-
dred miles from Rome, his brother expired 5 and
a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of
a stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus 99.
The sons of Carus never saw each other after

(their father's death. 'The arrangements which

their new fituation required, were probably de

' ferred till the return of the younger brother to

divide between them the administration, or the provinces, of the empire; but vit is very unlikely

the elegant accomplishments of a poet and orator, _C H A p. which dignify as well as adorn the humblest and , X"* , the most exalted station. His eloquence, hOWever it was applauded by the senate, was formed not so much on the mode] of Cicero, as on that of the modern declaimers ; but in an age. very far from being destitute of poetical merit, he contended for the prize with the most celebrated of _ his contemporaries, and still remained the friend of his rivals; a circumstance which evinces either the goodness of his heart, or the superiority of his genius '®'. But the talents of Numerian were rather of the contemplative, than of the active kind. When his father's elevation reluctantly forced him from the shade of retirement, neither his temper nor his pursuits had qualified him for the command of armies. His constitution was destroyed by the hardships of the Perfian war; and he had contracted, from the heat of the climate'ffl, such a weakness in his eyes, as obliged him, in the course of a long retreat, to confine himself to the solitude and darkness of a tent or litter. The administration of all affairs, ss civil as well as military, was devolved on Arrius Aper, the Praetorian praefect, who, to the power of his important office, added the honour of being father-in-law to Numerian. The Imperial

adherents;v and during many days, Aper delivered to the army the supposed mandates of their invisible sovereign "3, i i

It was not till eight months after the death of' Carus, that the' Roman army, returning by flow marches from the banks of the Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus, The le, gions halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed over to Heraclea, on the European 'fide of the Propontis "4. But a report' soon circulated through the camp, at first in secret whispers, and at length inlou'd clamours, of the emperor's death, and of the presumption of his ambitious minister, who still exercised the sovereign power in the name of a prince who was no mere. The impatience of the soldiers could not song support a state of suspense. With rude curiosity they broke into the Imperial tent, and discovered only the corpse of Numerian '05. The gradual decline of his health might have induced 'them to beiieVe that his death 1Was-natural ; but 'the concealment was interpreted as an evidence