XII. CHAP. purpose of surveying the progress of the work62. The tower was instantly forced, and a thousand swords A. D. 282, were plunged at once into the bosom of the unfortuAugust. nate Probus. The rage of the troops subsided as soon Election and cha Carus. as it had been gratified. They then lamented their fatal rashness, forgot the severity of the emperor, whom they had massacred, and hastened to perpetuate, by an honourable monument, the memory of his virtues and victories63. When the legions had indulged their grief and reracter of pentance for the death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus, his Prætorian præfect, the most deserving of the Imperial throne. Every circumstance that relates to this prince appears of a mixed and doubtful nature. He gloried in the title of Roman Citizen; and affected to compare the purity of his blood, with the foreign and even barbarous origin of the preceding emperors; yet the most inquisitive of his comtemporaries, very far from admitting his claim, have variously deduced his own birth, or that of his parents, from Illyricum, from Gaul, or from Africa. Though a soldier, he had received a learned education; though a senator, he was invested with the first dignity of the army; and in an age, when the civil and military professions began to be irrecoverably separated from each other, they were united in the person of Carus. Notwithstanding the severe justice which he exercised against the assassins of Probus, to whose favour and esteem he was highly indebted, he could not escape the suspicion of being accessary to a deed from whence he derived the principal advantage. He enjoyed, at least before his elevation, an acknowledged character of virtue and abilities; but his austere temper insen 62 Turris ferrata. It seems to have been a moveable tower, and cased with iron. 63 Probus, et vere probus situs est; Victor omnium gentium Barbararum: victor etiam tyrannorum. 64 Yet all this may be conciliated. He was born at Narbonne in Illyricum, confounded by Eutropius with the more famous city of that name in Gaul. His father might be an African, and his mother a noble Roman. Carus himself was educated in the capital. See Scaliger, Animadversion. ad Euseb. Chron. p. 241. 65 Probus had requested of the senate an equestrian statue and a marble palace, at the public expense, as a just recompense of the singular merit of Carus. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 249. XII. sibly degenerated into moroseness and cruelty; and CHAP. the imperfect writers of his life almost hesitate whether they shall not rank him in the number of Roman tyrants. When Carus assumed the purple, he was about sixty years of age, and his two sons Carinus and Numerian had already attained the season of manhood67. 69 ments of The authority of the senate expired with Probus; The senti nor was the repentance of the soldiers displayed by the the senate same dutiful regard for the civil power, which they and peohad testified after the unfortunate death of Aurelian, ple. The election of Carus was decided without expecting the approbation of the senate, and the new emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne. A behaviour so very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor, afforded no favourable presage of the new reign: and the Romans, deprived of power and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs The voice of congratulation and flattery was not however silent; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and contempt, an eclogue, which was composed on the accession of the emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the noon-tide heat, retire into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some recent characters. The rural deity had described in prophetic verses, the felicity promised to the empire, under the reign of so great a prince. Faunus hails the approach of that hero, who, receiving on his shoulders the sinking weight of the Roman world, shall extinguish war and faction, and once again restore the innocence and security of the golden age. It is more than probable, that these elegant trifles Carus denever reached the ears of a veteran general, who, with feats the Sarmatians, and 66 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 242-249. Julian excludes the empe- marches ror Carus and both his sons from the banquet of the Cæsars. into the 67 John Malela, tom. i. p. 401. But the authority of that ignorant Greek East; is very slight. He ridiculously derives from Carus, the city of Carrhæ, and the province of Caria, the latter of which is mentioned by Homer. 68 Hist. August. p. 249. Carus congratulated the senate, that one of their own order was made emperor. 69 Hist. August. p. 242. 70 See the first eclogue of Calphurnius. The design of it is preferred by Fontenelle, to that of Virgil's Pollio. See tom. iii. p. 148. CHAP. the consent of the legions, was preparing to execute XII. the long suspended design of the Persian war. Before A. D. 283. audience sian am bassadors. his departure for this distant expedition, Carus conferred on his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the title of Cæsar, and investing the former with almost an equal share of the Imperial power, directed the young prince, first to suppress some troubles which had arisen in Gaul, and afterwards to fix the seat of his residence at Rome, and to assume the government of the Western provinces. The safety of Illyricum was confirmed by a memorable defeat of the Sarmatians; sixteen thousand of those barbarians remained on the field of battle, and the number of captives amounted to twenty thousand. The old emperor, animated with the fame and prospect of victory, pursued his march in the midst of winter through the countries of Thrace and Asia Minor, and at length, with his younger son Numerian, arrived on the confines of the Persian monarchy. There encamping on the summit of a lofty mountain, he pointed out to his troops the opulence and luxury of the enemy whom they were about to invade. The successor of Artaxerxes, Varanes, or Bahram, He gives though he had subdued the Segestans, one of the most to the Per- Warlike nations of Upper Asia", was alarmed at the approach of the Romans, and endeavoured to retard their progress by a negotiation of peace. His ambassadors entered the camp about sunset, at the time when the troops were satisfying their hunger with a frugal repast. The Persians expressed their desire of being introduced to the presence of the Roman emperor. They were at length conducted to a soldier, who was seated on the grass. A piece of stale bacon and a few hard pease composed his supper. A coarse woollen garment of purple was the only circumstance that announced his dignity. The conference was conducted with the same disregard of courtly elegance. Carus, taking off a cap which he wore to conceal his baldness, assured the ambassadors, that, unless their mas 71 Hist. August. p. 353. 72 Agathias, 1. iv. p. 135. Orientale of M. d'Herbelot. virtues." Eutropius, ix. 18. Pagi Annal. We find one of his sayings in the Bibliothêque "The definition of humanity includes all other XII. ter acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he would CHAP. speedily render Persia as naked of trees, as his own head was destitute of hair73. Notwithstanding some traces of art and preparation, we may discover in this scene the manners of Carus, and the severe simplicity which the martial princes, who succeeded Gallienus, had already restored in the Roman camps. The ministers of the Great King trembled and retired. ries and The threats of Carus were not without effect. He His victoravaged Mesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever opposed extraordihis passage, made himself master of the great cities of nary death Seleucia and Ctesiphon (which seemed to have surrendered without resistance), and carried his victorious arms beyond the Tigris. He had seized the favourable moment for an invasion. The Persian councils were distracted by domestic factions, and the greater part of their forces were detained on the frontiers of India. Rome and the East received with transport the news of such important advantages. Flattery and hope painted, in the most lively colours, the fall of Persia, the conquest of Arabia, the submission of Egypt, and a lasting deliverance from the inroads of the Scythian nation's. But the reign of Carus was destined to expose the vanity of predictions. They A. D. 283 were scarcely uttered before they were contradicted Dec. 25. by his death; an event attended with such ambiguous circumstances, that it may be related in a letter from his own secretary to the præfect of the city. "Carus," says he, "our dearest emperor, was confined by sick"ness to his bed, when a furious tempest arose in the "camp. The darkness which overspread the sky was "so thick, that we could no longer distinguish each "other; and the incessant flashes of lightning took "from us the knowledge of all that passed in the ge❝neral confusion. Immediately after the most violent 73 Synesius tells this story of Carinus; and it is much more natural to understand it of Carus, than (as Petavius and Tillemont chuse to do) of Probus. 74 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 250. Eutropius, ix, 18. The two Victors. 75 To the Persian victory of Carus, I refer the dialogue of the Philopatris, which has so long been an object of dispute among the learned. But to explain and justify my opinion, would require a dissertation. XII. 66 CHAP. "clap of thunder, we heard a sudden cry, that the emperor was dead! and it soon appeared, that his "chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set fire to the "royal pavilion, a circumstance which gave rise to "the report that Carus was killed by lightning. But, "as far as we have been able to investigate the truth, "his death was the natural effect of his disorder"."" He is suc his two The vacancy of the throne was not productive of any ceeded by disturbance. The ambition of the aspiring generals sons Cari- was checked by their mutual fears, and young NumeNumerian rian, with his absent brother Carinus, were unanimous nus and ly acknowledged as Roman emperors. The public expected that the successor of Carus would pursue his father's footsteps, and without allowing the Persians to recover from their consternation, would advance sword in hand to the palaces of Susa and Ecbatana”. But the legions, however strong in numbers and discipline, were dismayed by the most abject superstition. Notwithstanding all the arts that were practised to disguise the manner of the late emperor's death, it was found impossible to remove the opinion of the multitude, and the power of opinion is irresistible. Places or persons struck with lightning were considered by the ancients with pious horror, as singularly devoted to the wrath of Heaven". An oracle was remembered, which marked the river Tigris as the fatal boundary of the Roman arms. The troops, terrified with the fate of Carus and with their own danger, called aloud on young Numerian to obey the will of the gods, and to lead them away from this inauspicious scene of war. The feeble emperor was unable to subdue their obstinate prejudice, and the Persians wondered at the unexpected retreat of a victorious enemy79. 76 Hist. August. p. 250. Yet Eutropius, Festus, Rufus, the two Victors, Jerome, Sidonius Apollinaris, Syncellus, and Zonaras, all ascribe the death of Carus to lightning. 77 See Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v. 71, &c. 78 See Festus and his commentators, on the word Scribonianum. Places struck with lightning, were surrounded with a wall: things were buried with mysterious ceremony. 79 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 250. Aurelius Victor seems to believe the prediction, and to approve the retreat. |