Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/435

 XII. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 411 success of the Persian war^ It is uncertain whether CHAP, they intended to divide between them the administra- tion, or the provinces, of the empire ; but it is very un- likely that their union would have proved of any long duration. The jealousy of power must have been in- flamed by the opposition of characters. In the most corrupt of times, Carinus was unworthy to live : Nu- merian deserved to reign in a happier period. His affable manners and gentle virtues secured him, as soon as they became known, the regard and affections of the public. He possessed the elegant accomplish- ments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well as adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His eloquence, however it was applauded by the senate, was formed not so much on the model of Cicero, as on that of the modern declaimers ; but in an age very far from being destitute of poetical merit, he contended for the prize with the most celebrated of his contemporaries, and still remained the friend of his rivals ; a circum- stance which evinces either the goodness of his heart, or the superiority of his genius But the talents of Numerian were rather of the contemplative than of the active kind. When his father's elevation reluct- antly forced him from the shade of retirement, neither his temper nor his pursuits had qualified him for the command of armies. His constitution was destroyed by the hardships of the Persian war ; and he had con- tracted, from the heat of the climate^, such a weak- ness in his eyes, as obhged him, in the course of a long retreat, to confine himself to the solitude and darkness of a tent or htter. The administration of all affairs, civil as well as mihtary, was devolved on Arrius Aper, the pretorian prefect, who, to the power of his im- ^' Nemesianus (in the C^-negeticons) seems to anticipate in iiis fancy that auspicious day. » He won all the crowns from Nemesianus, with whom he vied in didactic poetry. The senate erected a statue to the son of Carus, with a very am- biguous inscription, " To the most powerful of orators." See Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 251. ^ A more natural cause, at least, than that assigned by Vopiscus, (Hist. August, p. 251.) incessantly weeping for his father's death. m