ir 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 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.

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.

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. 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.

The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best