Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/430

406 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, table, was filled with singers, dancers, prostitutes, and • all the various retinue of vice and folly. One of his door-keepers"^ he intrusted with the government of the city. In the room of the pretorian prefect, 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 favour, was in- vested with the consulship. A confidential secretary, who had acquired uncommon skill in the art of forgery, dehvered 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 satisfy- ing the republic by a severe act of justice, and of adopt- ing, 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 a 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". He cele- The only merit of the administration of Carinus that Roinan '^ history could record or poetry celebrate, was the un- games. common splendour 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 Diocle- tian represented to their frugal sovereign the fame and popularity of his munificent predecessor, he acknow- «" Cancellarius. This word, so humble in its origin, has by a singular fortune rose into the title of the first great office of state in the monarchies of Europe. See Casaubon and Salraasius, ad Hist. August, p. 253. >» Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 263, 254; Eutropius, ix. 19; Victor junior. The reign of Diocletian indeed was so long and prosperous, that it must have been very unfavourable to the reputation of Carinus.