o death, the friends
and counsellors whom his father had placed about him, to guide his
inexperienced youth; and he persecuted with the meanest revenge his
school-fellows and companions who had not sufficiently respected the
latent majesty of the emperor.

With the senators, Carinus affected a lofty and regal demeanor,
frequently declaring, that he designed to distribute their estates among
the populace of Rome. From the dregs of that populace he selected his
favorites, and even his ministers. The palace, and even the Imperial
table, were filled with singers, dancers, prostitutes, and all the
various retinue of vice and folly. One of his doorkeepers [81] he
intrusted with the government of the city. In the room of the Praetorian
praefect, whom he put to death, Carinus substituted one of the ministers
of his looser pleasures. Another, who possessed the same, or even a
more infamous, title to favor, was invested with the consulship. A
confidential secretary, who had acquired uncommon skill in the art of
forgery, delivered the indolent emperor, with his own consent from the
irksome duty of signing his name.

[Footnote 80: Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v 69. He was a contemporary, but a
poet.]

[Footnote 81: Cancellarius. This word, so humble in its origin, has, by
a singular fortune, risen into the title of the first great office of
state in the monarchies of Europe. See Casaubon and Salmasius, ad Hist.
August, p. 253.]

When the emperor Carus undertook the Persian war, he was induced, by
motives of affection as well as policy, to secure the fortunes of
his family, by leaving in the hands of his eldest son the armies and
provinces of the West. The intelligence which he soon received of
the conduct of Carinus filled him with shame and regret; nor had he
concealed his resolution of satisfying the republic by a severe act of
justice, and of adopting, in the place of an unworthy son, the brave and
virtuous Constantius, who at that time was governor of Dalmatia. But the
elevation of Constantius was for a while deferred; and as soon as the
father's death had released Carinus from the control of fear or decency,
he displayed to the Romans the extravagancies of Elagabalus, aggravated
by the cruelty of Domitian. [82]

[Footnote 82: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 253, 254. Eutropius, x.
19. Vic to Junior. The reign of Diocletian indeed was so long and
prosperous, that it must have been very unfavorable to the reputation of
Carinus.]