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:[1] but his austere temper insensibly degenerated into moroseness and cruelty ; and the imperfect writers of his life almost hesitate whether they shall not rank him in the number of Roman tyrants.[2] 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 manhood.[3]
The sentiments of the senate and peopleThe authority of the senate expired with Probus; nor was the repentance of the soldiers displayed by the same dutiful regard people for the civil power which they had testified after the unfortunate death of Aurelian. 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.[4] 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.[5] 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- ↑ Probus had requested of the senate an equestrian statue and a marble palace, at the public expense, as a just recompens of the singular merit of Carus. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 249 [xxx. 6].
- ↑ Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 242, 249 [xxix. 1, xxx. 3]. Julian excludes the Emperor Carus and both his sons from the banquet of the Caesars.
- ↑ John Malala, tom. i. p. 401. But the authority of that ignorant Greek 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. [The names of the sons were M. Aurelius Carinus and M. Aurelius Numerianus].
- ↑ Hist. Aug. p. 249 [xxx. 5]. Carus congratulated the senate, that one of their own order was made emperor.
- ↑ Hist. Aug. p. 242 [xxviii. 24].
