Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/434

 410 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. XII. A. D. 284. Sept. 12. Return of Numerian with the army from Persia. conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain, might be sud- denly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep ^ In the decoration of these scenes, the Ro- man emperors displayed their wealth and liberality ; and we read on various occasions, that the whole fur- niture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber ^. The poet who describes the games of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd at- tracted to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, affirms, that the nets designed as a defence against the wild beasts were of gold wire ; that the porticoes were gilded, and that the belt or circle which divided the se- veral ranks of spectators from each other, was studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful stones *. In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the em- peror Carinus, secure of his fortune, enjoyed the ac- clamations of the people, the flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, for want of a more essential merit, were reduced to celebrate the divine graces of his person ^ In the same hour, but at the distance of nine hundred miles from Rome, his brother expired ; and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of a stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus^. The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father's death. The arrangements which their new situation required, were probably deferred till the re- turn of tlie younger brother to Rome, where a triumph was decreed to the young emperors, for the glorious <= Calphurn. Eclog. vii. 64. 73. These lines are curious; and the whole eclogue has been of infinite use to Maffei. Calphurnius, as well as Mar- tial, (see his first book,) was a poet ; but when they described the amphi- theatre, they both wrote from their own senses, and to those of the Romans. «* Consult Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 16. xxxvii. II. e Balteus en gemmis, en inlita portions auro Certatira radiant, etc. Calphurn. vii. f Et Martis vultus at Apollinis esse putavi, says Calphurnius ; but John Malela, who had perhaps seen pictures of Carinus, describes him as thick, short, and white, tom. i. p. 403. & With regard to the time when these Roman games were celebrated, Scaliger, Salmasius, and Cuper have given themselves a great deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject.