Carus Numerius
222 – 283 · Generation XIV · Roman emperor (r. AD 282–283) · The Third Century
Carus (AD 222 – AD 283). Roman emperor (r. AD 282–283). Died on campaign beyond the Tigris — struck, the story ran, by lightning. Praetorian prefect to the emperor Probus, he took the throne after Probus was murdered by mutinous soldiers at Sirmium — though Greek sources insist Carus had himself risen in revolt. He never went to Rome as emperor, informing the Senate of his accession by a haughty dispatch, a break with his predecessors’ deference that pointed toward the autocracy Diocletian would build. His single year was spent fighting: a severe defeat of the Quadi and Sarmatians on the Danube earned him the title Germanicus Maximus, and with his son Numerian he then drove into Persia while King Bahram II was tangled in troubles at home — annexing Mesopotamia, pressing to Seleucia and perhaps taking Ctesiphon itself — avenging a generation of Roman defeats and earning the name Persicus Maximus. His conquests, like Trajan’s long before, were given up almost at once.
One of 11 people of The Third Century (159–285) in this archive. Not one house but several short ones, in the fifty years the empire nearly came apart.
Children
- Carinus Numerius (250 – 285)
- Numerian Numerius (253 – 284)