avorable presage of the new reign: and the Romans, deprived of power
and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs. [69] 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 noontide 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. [70]

[Footnote 68: Hist. August. p. 249. Carus congratulated the senate, that
one of their own order was made emperor.]

[Footnote 69: Hist. August. p. 242.]

[Footnote 70: See the first eclogue of Calphurnius. The design of it
is preferes by Fontenelle to that of Virgil's Pollio. See tom. iii. p.
148.]

It is more than probable, that these elegant trifles never reached
the ears of a veteran general, who, with the consent of the legions,
was preparing to execute the long-suspended design of the Persian war.
Before his departure for this distant expedition, Carus conferred on his
two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the title of Caesar, 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. [71] 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.

[Footnote 71: Hist. August. p. 353. Eutropius, ix. 18. Pagi. Annal.]

The successor of Artaxerxes, [711] Varanes, or Bahram, though h