Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/425

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 401 The authority of the senate expired with Probus; CHAP, nor was the repentance of the soldiers displayed by L_ the same dutiful regard for the civil power, which they The senti- had testified after the unfortunate death of Aurelian. ggnate and The election of Carus was decided without expecting people, 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 behaviour so very opposite to that of his amiable pre- decessor, afforded no favourable presage of the new reign ; and the Romans, deprived of power and free- dom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs ^ The voice of congratulation and flattery was not how- ever silent ; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and contempt, an eclogue which was composed on the ac- cession of the emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoid- ing the noon-tide heat, retire into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some recent cha- racters. 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 sink- ing 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 Carus de- never reached the ears of a veteran general, who, with s^ama-^ the consent of the legions, was preparing to execute tians, and the long suspended design of the Persian war. Before into the his departure for this distant expedition, Carus con- ^*^^- ferred on his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the title of Caesar ; and investing the former with almost an equal share of the imperial power, directed the young prince, first to suppress some troubles which had arisen in Gaul, and afterwards to fix the seat of his residence y Hist. August, p. 249. Carus congratulated the senate, that one of their own order was made emperor. ^ Hist. August, p. 242. Fontenelle to that of Virgil's PolJio. See torn. iii. p. 148. VOL. I. D d
 * See the first eclogue of Calphurnius. The design of it is preferred by