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Frustratingly for modern scholars, almost nothing is known of the life of Marcus Aurelius Carus before his ascension to the purple in the summer/autumn of AD 282. The only historical source which speaks of his life [and indeed reign] in any meaningful detail is the notoriously imprecise Historia Augusta, which, as is generally recognized, tends to favour scandalous hearsay over hard fact. Before being proclaimed Augustus, the Historia maintains that Carus served as a senator [Vita Cari, V.4], before being elevated to the role of Praetorian Prefect under the auspices of his predecessor, Probus. The future emperor Julian, in his catalogue of tyrants [The Caesars], declares that Carus was complicit in Probus' death in 282, as Gibbon observes [History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. XII, p. 293]; though other accounts, including that of the Historia, rebuff this claim, pointing to Carus' swift execution of the genuine perpetrators [ibid. p. 292].
Nevertheless, one must assume that Carus was stationed in Sirmium when mutinous troops assassinated Probus there in the summer of 282, and was in the vicinity some months later, as he was compelled to command a manoeuvre against the raiding Sarmatian and Quadi forces who had become heartened by the news of Probus' demise. Before embarking on this counter-offensive, however, Carus first elevated his two sons, Numerian and Carinus, to the rank of Caesar; undoubtedly with a Carian dynasty in mind. Carinus, the elder brother, was tasked with administering the Western Empire while Numerian joined his father on the Danube.
Together, Carus and Numerian enjoyed great success, with their army inflicting multiple and ever-more decisive defeats on the invaders. By the end of 292, an estimated 36,000 Sarmatian and Quadi tribesmen had been slaughtered [Gibbon p. 294], and all survivors had been repelled from the frontier. This outstanding aureus was struck in Siscia around that time to commemorate the various victories on the Danube border. Its striking reverse displays Victory holding a wreath with a shield in the left field, traditional attributes of the goddess and reflecting the successful campaign.
Emboldened by his success on the Danube, and safe in the knowledge that his two sons might be able to establish a veritable dynasty in the event of his death, Carus and Numerian next advanced further East, where they were able to quell revolts in Thrace and Asia Minor and annex vast parts of Mesopotamia [Zonaras, XII.30]. Yet more victories then followed, this time against the Sassanid army commanded by Bahram II. Eutropius relates that the army captured and sacked the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon [IX.14.1] before Carus [perhaps aged 61 at this stage] mysteriously died while still in Sassanid territory in either July or August of 293. Immediately, rumours began to circulate among his superstitious troops that his tent had been struck by a particularly violent bolt of lightning; a divine indication, according to them, that the campaign had ventured too far East.
Any hopes of a burgeoning dynasty were then utterly dashed by the similarly suspicious death of Numerian in 284 [perhaps masterminded by the Praetorian Prefect Lucius Flavius Aper] and Diocletian's resounding defeat of Carinus at the Battle of Margus in 285. VICTORIAE AVGG FEL - Victoriae Augustorum Felicitas: To The Victory Of The Emperors [Augusti], Good Fortune.
Nevertheless, one must assume that Carus was stationed in Sirmium when mutinous troops assassinated Probus there in the summer of 282, and was in the vicinity some months later, as he was compelled to command a manoeuvre against the raiding Sarmatian and Quadi forces who had become heartened by the news of Probus' demise. Before embarking on this counter-offensive, however, Carus first elevated his two sons, Numerian and Carinus, to the rank of Caesar; undoubtedly with a Carian dynasty in mind. Carinus, the elder brother, was tasked with administering the Western Empire while Numerian joined his father on the Danube.
Together, Carus and Numerian enjoyed great success, with their army inflicting multiple and ever-more decisive defeats on the invaders. By the end of 292, an estimated 36,000 Sarmatian and Quadi tribesmen had been slaughtered [Gibbon p. 294], and all survivors had been repelled from the frontier. This outstanding aureus was struck in Siscia around that time to commemorate the various victories on the Danube border. Its striking reverse displays Victory holding a wreath with a shield in the left field, traditional attributes of the goddess and reflecting the successful campaign.
Emboldened by his success on the Danube, and safe in the knowledge that his two sons might be able to establish a veritable dynasty in the event of his death, Carus and Numerian next advanced further East, where they were able to quell revolts in Thrace and Asia Minor and annex vast parts of Mesopotamia [Zonaras, XII.30]. Yet more victories then followed, this time against the Sassanid army commanded by Bahram II. Eutropius relates that the army captured and sacked the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon [IX.14.1] before Carus [perhaps aged 61 at this stage] mysteriously died while still in Sassanid territory in either July or August of 293. Immediately, rumours began to circulate among his superstitious troops that his tent had been struck by a particularly violent bolt of lightning; a divine indication, according to them, that the campaign had ventured too far East.
Any hopes of a burgeoning dynasty were then utterly dashed by the similarly suspicious death of Numerian in 284 [perhaps masterminded by the Praetorian Prefect Lucius Flavius Aper] and Diocletian's resounding defeat of Carinus at the Battle of Margus in 285. VICTORIAE AVGG FEL - Victoriae Augustorum Felicitas: To The Victory Of The Emperors [Augusti], Good Fortune.