o tillage a large and unhealthy tract of marshy
ground. An army thus employed constituted perhaps the most useful, as
well as the bravest, portion of Roman subjects.

But in the prosecution of a favorite scheme, the best of men, satisfied
with the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to forget the bounds
of moderation; nor did Probus himself sufficiently consult the patience
and disposition of his fierce legionaries. The dangers of the military
profession seem only to be compensated by a life of pleasure and
idleness; but if the duties of the soldier are incessantly aggravated
by the labors of the peasant, he will at last sink under the intolerable
burden, or shake it off with indignation. The imprudence of Probus is
said to have inflamed the discontent of his troops. More attentive to
the interests of mankind than to those of the army, he expressed the
vain hope, that, by the establishment of universal peace, he should soon
abolish the necessity of a standing and mercenary force. The unguarded
expression proved fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of summer,
as he severely urged the unwholesome labor of draining the marshes of
Sirmium, the soldiers, impatient of fatigue, on a sudden threw down
their tools, grasped their arms, and broke out into a furious mutiny.
The emperor, conscious of his danger, took refuge in a lofty tower,
constructed for the purpose of surveying the progress of the work. The
tower was instantly forced, and a thousand swords were plunged at
once into the bosom of the unfortunate Probus. The rage of the troops
subsided as soon as it had been gratified. They then lamented their
fatal rashness, forgot the severity of the emperor, whom they had
massacred, and hastened to perpetuate, by an honorable monument, the
memory of his virtues and victories.

When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance for the
death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus, his Praetorian
praefect, the most deserving of the Imperial throne. Every circumstance
that relates to this prince appears of a mixed and doubtful nature.
He gloried in the title of Roman Citizen; and affected to compare the
purity of his blood with the foreign and even barbarous origin of the
preceding emperors; yet the most inquisitive of his contemporaries, very
far from admitting his claim, have variously deduced his own birth, or
that of his parents, from Illyricum, from Gaul, or from Africa. Though
a soldier, he had re