arrangements which their new situation required were probably deferred
till the return of the younger brother to Rome, where a triumph was
decreed to the young emperors for the glorious success of the Persian
war. [100] It is uncertain whether they intended to divide between them
the administration, or the provinces, of the empire; but it is very
unlikely that their union would have proved of any long duration.
The jealousy of power must have been inflamed by the opposition of
characters. In the most corrupt of times, Carinus was unworthy to live:
Numerian deserved to reign in a happier period. His affable manners and
gentle virtues secured him, as soon as they became known, the regard and
affections of the public. He possessed the elegant accomplishments of
a poet and orator, which dignify as well as adorn the humblest and the
most exalted station. His eloquence, however it was applauded by the
senate, was formed not so much on the model of Cicero, as on that of
the modern declaimers; but in an age very far from being destitute of
poetical merit, he contended for the prize with the most celebrated
of his contemporaries, and still remained the friend of his rivals;
a circumstance which evinces either the goodness of his heart, or the
superiority of his genius. [101] But the talents of Numerian were
rather of the contemplative than of the active kind. When his father's
elevation reluctantly forced him from the shade of retirement, neither
his temper nor his pursuits had qualified him for the command of armies.
His constitution was destroyed by the hardships of the Persian war; and
he had contracted, from the heat of the climate, [102] such a weakness
in his eyes, as obliged him, in the course of a long retreat, to confine
himself to the solitude and darkness of a tent or litter.

The administration of all affairs, civil as well as military, was
devolved on Arrius Aper, the Praetorian praefect, who to the power of
his important office added the honor of being father-in-law to Numerian.
The Imperial pavilion was strictly guarded by his most trusty adherents;
and during many days, Aper delivered to the army the supposed mandates
of their invisible sovereign. [103]

[Footnote 100: Nemesianus (in the Cynegeticon) seems to anticipate in
his fancy that auspicious day.]

[Footnote 101: He won all the crowns from Nemesianus, with whom he vied
in didactic poetry. The senate erected a statue to the son of Carus,
with a very ambi