The only merit of the administration of Carinus that history could
record, or poetry celebrate, was the uncommon splendor with which, in
his own and his brother's name, he exhibited the Roman games of the
theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre. More than twenty years
afterwards, when the courtiers of Diocletian represented to their frugal
sovereign the fame and popularity of his munificent predecessor, he
acknowledged that the reign of Carinus had indeed been a reign of
pleasure. [83] But this vain prodigality, which the prudence of
Diocletian might justly despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport
by the Roman people. The oldest of the citizens, recollecting the
spectacles of former days, the triumphal pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and
the secular games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were all
surpassed by the superior magnificence of Carinus. [84]

[Footnote 83: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 254. He calls him Carus, but
the sense is sufficiently obvious, and the words were often confounded.]

[Footnote 84: See Calphurnius, Eclog. vii. 43. We may observe, that the
spectacles of Probus were still recent, and that the poet is seconded by
the historian.]

The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best illustrated by the
observation of some particulars, which history has condescended to
relate concerning those of his predecessors. If we confine ourselves
solely to the hunting of wild beasts, however we may censure the vanity
of the design or the cruelty of the execution, we are obliged to confess
that neither before nor since the time of the Romans so much art and
expense have ever been lavished for the amusement of the people. [85]
By the order of Probus, a great quantity of large trees, torn up by the
roots, were transplanted into the midst of the circus. The spacious
and shady forest was immediately filled with a thousand ostriches, a
thousand stags, a thousand fallow deer, and a thousand wild boars; and
all this variety of game was abandoned to the riotous impetuosity of the
multitude. The tragedy of the succeeding day consisted in the massacre
of a hundred lions, an equal number of lionesses, two hundred leopards,
and three hundred bears. [86] The collection prepared by the younger
Gordian for his triumph, and which his successor exhibited in the
secular games, was less remarkable by the number than by the singularity
of the animals. Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and
variegated