Carus

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Carus
Persicus Maximus
River Tigris, Sasanian Empire
Issue
Names
Marcus Aurelius Numerius Carus (possibly)[1]
Regnal name
Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Carus Augustus[2]

Marcus Aurelius Carus (c. 222 – July or August 283) was

Germanic tribes and Sarmatians along the Danube
frontier with success.

He died while campaigning against the

Sassanid Empire and is believed to have died of unnatural causes. It was reported that he had been struck by lightning.[3] He was succeeded by his sons Carinus and Numerian, creating a dynasty which, though short-lived, provided further stability to the resurgent empire.[4]

Biography

Possible bust of Carus in the Museo Archeologico Ostiense.[5][6]

Carus, whose name before the accession may have been Marcus Numerius Carus,

Probus in 282.[13]

Two traditions surround his accession to the throne in August or September of 282. According to some mostly Latin sources, he was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers after the murder of Probus by a mutiny at Sirmium.[14] Greek sources however claim that he rose against Probus in Raetia in a usurpation and had him killed.[15] Allegedly, he initially refused the offer at first out of loyalty, but soon accepted.[16] The often unreliable Historia Augusta is aware of both traditions, although it prefers the former.[17] He does not seem to have returned to Rome after his accession, contenting himself with an announcement to the Senate.[18] This was a marked departure from the constitutionalism of his immediate predecessors, Tacitus and Probus, who at least outwardly respected the authority of the senate, and was the precursor to the even more despotic military autocracy of Diocletian.[19] Despite this, he still sought to deify the emperor Probus.[20]

Campaign against the Sassanids and death

Naqsh-e Rustam, symbolizing the supposed victories of Bahram II over Carus (top) and Hormizd I Kushanshah (bottom).[21]

Carus bestowed the title of

Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and marched his soldiers beyond the Tigris.[22][28]

The

Sassanid King Bahram II, limited by internal opposition and his troops occupied with a campaign in modern-day Afghanistan, could not effectively defend his territory.[27] The Sasanians, faced with severe internal problems, could not mount an effective coordinated defense at the time; Carus and his army may have captured the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon.[3] The victories of Carus avenged all the previous defeats suffered by the Romans against the Sassanids, and he received the title of Persicus Maximus.[29] Rome's hopes of further conquest, however, were cut short by his death; Carus died in Sasanian territory, probably of unnatural causes, as he was reportedly struck by lightning.[3] Alternate theories suggest that he died of illness, or that a rival for power poisoned him. Another theory hints at the future emperor Diocletian being involved in the killing.[20] However, Leadbetter considered it unlikely for Carus to be assassinated, as his army had just won a victory.[30]

Legacy

Like the conquests of

Persia
was abandoned to her rightful possessors, and not till Diocletian, a decade later, was the Persian contest decided in Rome's favor, by that emperor's decisive victory.

In the sphere of civil affairs, Carus is remembered principally for the final suppression of the authority of the senate, which had been partially restored under Tacitus and Probus. He declined to accept their ratification of his election, informing them of the fact by a haughty and distant dispatch. He was the last emperor to have united a civil with a military education, in that age when the two were increasingly detached; Diocletian (Imp. 284–305), who succeeded Carus after the brief reign of the latter's sons, was to confirm and formalize the separation of professions, and the autocratic foundation of the imperial rule.[32]

Though Carus was known throughout his life for his austere and virtuous manners, the suspicion of his complicity in Probus' death, along with his haughty conduct towards the senate, tarnished his reputation before his death, and Julian, as Gibbon observes, conspicuously places him among the tyrants of Rome, in his catalogue of The Caesars.[33]

Family tree

previous
Tacitus
Roman Emperor
275–276
Florianus
Roman Emperor
276
Probus
Roman Emperor
276–282

Carus
Roman Emperor
282–283
next
Diocletian
Roman Emperor
284–305
Prisca

Carinus
Roman Emperor
282–284
Numerian
co-emperor 282–284
Galeria Valeria

See also

Sources

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

  • Leadbetter, William, "Carus (282–283 A.D.)", DIR
  • .
  • .
  • Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, Routledge, 2001
  • Gibbon, Edward Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (1888)
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Carus, Marcus Aurelius". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

References

  1. ^ a b Jones, pg. 183
  2. .
  3. ^ a b c Potter 2013, p. 26.
  4. OCLC 503449219
    .
  5. ^ "Portraiture of Emperor Carus". rome101.com. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Portrait-bust of a man, perhaps Carus". Ostia Atica. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  7. ^ Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, (The Modern Library, 1932), ch. XII., p. 292
  8. ^ Victor, 38:1
  9. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
    . (Tom B. Jones, "A Note on Marcus Aurelius Carus" Classical Philology 37.2 (April 1942), pp. 193–194).
  10. ^ Historia Augusta, "Vita Cari", 4:2
  11. ^ Gibbon, ibid; and ch. XIII., p. 340
  12. ^ Historia Augusta, "Vita Cari", 5:4
  13. ^ Gibbon, ch. XII., p. 292
  14. ^ Jerome, Chron. s. a. 282
  15. ^ Zonaras, 12:29
  16. ^ C, Franco (6 September 2020). "Roman Emperor Carus | History Cooperative". Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  17. ^ Historia Augusta, "Vita Cari", 6:1
  18. ^ Southern, pg. 132
  19. ^ Gibbon, p. 293; and ch. XIII., pp. 328, 329
  20. ^ a b c Cavazzi, Franco (16 December 2021). "Emperor Carus". The Roman Empire. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  21. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica
  22. ^ a b Zonaras, 12:30
  23. ^ Victor 38:2
  24. ^ Gibbon, ch. XII., p. 293
  25. ^ Historia Augusta, "Vita Cari", 7:1
  26. ^ Gibbon, p. 294. Enemy casualties are given at over 36,000.
  27. ^ a b Leadbetter, www.roman-emperors.org/carus.htm
  28. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  29. ^ Southern, pg. 133
  30. ^ William Leadbetter, Carus (282-283 A.D.)
  31. ^ Gibbon, p. 296
  32. ^ Gibbon, ch. XIII., pp. 328–33.
  33. ^ Gibbon, ch. XII., p. 293 and note.

Further reading

  • Altmayer, Klaus (2014). Die Herrschaft des Carus, Numerianus und Carinus als Vorläufer der Tetrarchie. Historia Einzelschriften. Vol. 230. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. .
Regnal titles
Preceded by Roman emperor
282–283
With: Carinus (283)
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Probus,
Victorinus
Roman consul
283
with Carinus
Succeeded by
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