404 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, which gave rise to the report that Carus was killed by " hghtning. But, as far as we have been able to investi- gate the truth, his death was the natural effect of his disorder ^." He is sue- The vacancy of the throne was not productive of any h^s two sons disturbance. The ambition of the aspiring generals Cannusand ^as checked by their mutual fears; and young Nume- rian, with his absent brother Carinus, were unanimously acknowledged as Roman emperors. The public ex- pected 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 disci- pline, were dismayed by the most abject superstition. Notwithstanding all the arts that were practised to dis- guise the manner of the late emperor's death, it was found impossible to remove the opinion of the multi- tude, 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 N umerian 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 obsti- nate prejudice ; and the Persians wondered at the un- expected retreat of a victorious enemy ^. A.D.284. Xhe intelligence of the mysterious fate of the late Vices of . Carinus. emperor, was soon carried from the frontiers of Persia s 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.
- See Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v. 71. etc.
' See Festus and his commentators, on the word Scrihonianum. Places struck with lightning were surrounded with a wall : thi7igs were buried with mysterious ceremony. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 250. Aurelius Victor seems to believe the prediction, and to approve the retreat.
