ceived a learned education; though a senator, he
was invested with the first dignity of the army; and in an age when the
civil and military professions began to be irrecoverably separated from
each other, they were united in the person of Carus. Notwithstanding the
severe justice which he exercised against the assassins of Probus, to
whose favor and esteem he was highly indebted, he could not escape
the suspicion of being accessory to a deed from whence he derived the
principal advantage. He enjoyed, at least, before his elevation, an
acknowledged character of virtue and abilities; but his austere temper
insensibly degenerated into moroseness and cruelty; and the imperfect
writers of his life almost hesitate whether they shall not rank him in
the number of Roman tyrants. When Carus assumed the purple, he was about
sixty years of age, and his two sons, Carinus and Numerian had already
attained the season of manhood.

The authority of the senate expired with Probus; nor was the repentance
of the soldiers displayed by the same dutiful regard for the civil
power, which they had testified after the unfortunate death of Aurelian.
The election of Carus was decided without expecting the approbation of
the senate, and the new emperor contented himself with announcing, in
a cold and stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne. A
behavior so very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor afforded
no favorable presage of the new reign: and the Romans, deprived of power
and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs. 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.

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 dis