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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Orange Julius, post: 4404300, member: 77226&quot;]Excerpt from:</p><p>The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire,</p><p>Edward Gibbon</p><p><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm</a></p><p><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink122HCH0003" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink122HCH0003" rel="nofollow">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink122HCH0003</a></p><p><br /></p><p><i>&quot;To sustain with temper this rapid elevation, an uncommon share of virtue and prudence was requisite; and Carinus, the elder of the brothers, was more than commonly deficient in those qualities. In the Gallic war he discovered some degree of personal courage; </i><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-80" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-80" rel="nofollow"><i>80</i></a><i> but from the moment of his arrival at Rome, he abandoned himself to the luxury of the capital, and to the abuse of his fortune. He was soft, yet cruel; devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste; and though exquisitely susceptible of vanity, indifferent to the public esteem. In the course of a few months, he successively married and divorced nine wives, most of whom he left pregnant; and notwithstanding this legal inconstancy, found time to indulge such a variety of irregular appetites, as brought dishonor on himself and on the noblest houses of Rome. He beheld with inveterate hatred all those who might remember his former obscurity, or censure his present conduct. He banished, or put to death, the friends and counsellors whom his father had placed about him, to guide his inexperienced youth; and he persecuted with the meanest revenge his school-fellows and companions who had not sufficiently respected the latent majesty of the emperor.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>With the senators, Carinus affected a lofty and regal demeanor, frequently declaring, that he designed to distribute their estates among the populace of Rome. From the dregs of that populace he selected his favorites, and even his ministers. The palace, and even the Imperial table, were filled with singers, dancers, prostitutes, and all the various retinue of vice and folly. One of his doorkeepers <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-81" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-81" rel="nofollow">81</a> he intrusted with the government of the city. In the room of the Prætorian præfect, 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 favor, was invested with the consulship. A confidential secretary, who had acquired uncommon skill in the art of forgery, delivered the indolent emperor, with his own consent from the irksome duty of signing his name.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>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 satisfying the republic by a severe act of justice, and of adopting, 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 the 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. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-82" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-82" rel="nofollow">82</a></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><b>The only merit of the administration of Carinus that history could record, or poetry celebrate, was the uncommon splendor 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 Diocletian represented to their frugal sovereign the fame and popularity of his munificent predecessor, he acknowledged that the reign of Carinus had indeed been a reign of pleasure.</b> <b><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-83" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-83" rel="nofollow">83</a> But this vain prodigality, which the prudence of Diocletian might justly despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport by the Roman people. The oldest of the citizens, recollecting the spectacles of former days, the triumphal pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and the secular games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were all surpassed by the superior magnificence of Carinus. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-84" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-84" rel="nofollow">84</a></b></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best illustrated by the observation of some particulars, which history has condescended to relate concerning those of his predecessors. If we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts, however we may censure the vanity of the design or the cruelty of the execution, we are obliged to confess that neither before nor since the time of the Romans so much art and expense have ever been lavished for the amusement of the people. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-85" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-85" rel="nofollow">85</a> By the order of Probus, a great quantity of large trees, torn up by the roots, were transplanted into the midst of the circus. The spacious and shady forest was immediately filled with a thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, a thousand fallow deer, and a thousand wild boars; and all this variety of game was abandoned to the riotous impetuosity of the multitude. The tragedy of the succeeding day consisted in the massacre of a hundred lions, an equal number of lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three hundred bears. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-86" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-86" rel="nofollow">86</a> The collection prepared by the younger Gordian for his triumph, and which his successor exhibited in the secular games, was less remarkable by the number than by the singularity of the animals. Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty to the eyes of the Roman people. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-87" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-87" rel="nofollow">87</a> Ten elks, and as many camelopards, the loftiest and most harmless creatures that wander over the plains of Sarmatia and Æthiopia, were contrasted with thirty African hyænas and ten Indian tigers, the most implacable savages of the torrid zone. The unoffending strength with which Nature has endowed the greater quadrupeds was admired in the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus of the Nile, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-88" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-88" rel="nofollow">88</a> and a majestic troop of thirty-two elephants. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-89" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-89" rel="nofollow">89</a> While the populace gazed with stupid wonder on the splendid show, the naturalist might indeed observe the figure and properties of so many different species, transported from every part of the ancient world into the amphitheatre of Rome. But this accidental benefit, which science might derive from folly, is surely insufficient to justify such a wanton abuse of the public riches. There occurs, however, a single instance in the first Punic war, in which the senate wisely connected this amusement of the multitude with the interest of the state. A considerable number of elephants, taken in the defeat of the Carthaginian army, were driven through the circus by a few slaves, armed only with blunt javelins. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-90" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-90" rel="nofollow">90</a> The useful spectacle served to impress the Roman soldier with a just contempt for those unwieldy animals; and he no longer dreaded to encounter them in the ranks of war.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>The hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was conducted with a magnificence suitable to a people who styled themselves the masters of the world; nor was the edifice appropriated to that entertainment less expressive of Roman greatness. Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the amphitheatre of Titus, which so well deserved the epithet of Colossal. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-91" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-91" rel="nofollow">91</a> It was a building of an elliptic figure, five hundred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and sixty-seven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty feet. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-92" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-92" rel="nofollow">92</a> The outside of the edifice was encrusted with marble, and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats of marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease about fourscore thousand spectators. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-93" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-93" rel="nofollow">93</a> Sixty-four vomitories (for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth the immense multitude; and the entrances, passages, and staircases were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or confusion. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-94" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-94" rel="nofollow">94</a> Nothing was omitted, which, in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continally refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of aromatics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain, might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-95" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-95" rel="nofollow">95</a> In the decoration of these scenes, the Roman emperors displayed their wealth and liberality; and we read on various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-96" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-96" rel="nofollow">96</a> The poet who describes the games of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd, attracted 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 porticos were gilded; and that the belt or circle which divided the several ranks of spectators from each other was studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful stones. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-97" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-97" rel="nofollow">97</a></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus, secure of his fortune, enjoyed the acclamations 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. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-98" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#Alink12note-98" rel="nofollow">98</a> 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.&quot;</i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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