The letter I have inserted for the reason that many declare that there is a certain decree of Fate
that no Roman emperor may advance beyond Ctesiphon, and that Carus was struck by the
lightning because he desired to pass beyond the bounds which Fate has set up.21 2 But let
cowardice, on which courage should set its heel, keep its devices for itself. 3 For clearly it is
granted to us and will always be granted, as our most venerated Caesar Maximian has
shown,22 to conquer the Persians and advance beyond them, and methinks this will surely
come to pass if only our men fail not to live up to the promised favour of Heaven.
4 That Carus was a good emperor is evident from many of his deeds but especially from this,
that as soon as he received the imperial power he crushed the Sarmatians, who were so
emboldened by Probus' death that they threatened to invade not only Illyricum but Thrace and
Italy as well, and he showed such skill in breaking up the war that in a very few days he made
the provinces of Pannonia free from all fear, having killed sixteen thousand Sarmatians and
captured twenty thousand of both sexes.
p43310 1 Legamen ad paginam Latinam This I believe to be enough about Carus;23 let us
now pass on to Numerian. His history seems to be more closely connected with that of his
father and to have become more noteworthy because of his father-in?law; and although
Carinus was older than he and received the title of Caesar before him, it is necessary,
nevertheless, for us to tell first of Numerian, whose death followed that of his father, and
afterwards of Carinus, whom Diocletian Augustus, a man indispensable to the state, met in
battle and put to death.
John Berger