Editing Carus (section)

== Legacy ==
Like the conquests of [[Trajan]], 160 years before, Carus' gains were immediately relinquished by his successor. His son [[Numerian]], naturally of an unwarlike disposition, was forced by the army to retreat back over the [[Tigris]].<ref>Gibbon, p. 296</ref> The report of the lightning strike was evidently widely accepted in the camp, and the superstitious awe of the troops inclined them to ascribe Carus' death to the wrath of the Gods. Rumors had been spread of dark oracles, affixing the limits of the Empire on the Tigris, and threatening destruction against the Roman who should presume beyond the river in arms. [[Persia]] was abandoned to its rightful owners, and not till Diocletian, a decade later, was the Persian contest decided in Rome's favor, by that emperor's [[Galerius' Sasanian Campaigns|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 (emperor)|Tacitus]] and [[Probus (emperor)|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.<ref>Gibbon, ch. XIII., pp. 328–33.</ref>

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 (emperor)|Julian]] conspicuously placed him among the tyrants of [[Rome]], in his catalogue of ''The Caesars''.<ref>Gibbon, ch. XII., p. 293 and note.</ref>