an emperor would
never proceed victoriously beyond Ctesiphon, Carus was not convinced,
but he fell sick, and his projects were delayed; he was still in his
camp near Ctesiphon, when a terrible thunderstorm broke over the ground
occupied by the Roman army. A weird darkness was spread around, amid
which flash followed flash at brief intervals, and peal upon peal
terrified the superstitious soldiery. Suddenly, after the most violent
clap of all, the cry arose that the Emperor was dead. Some said that his
tent had been struck by lightning, and that his death was owing to this
cause; others believed that he had simply happened to succumb to his
malady at the exact moment of the last thunder-clap; a third theory
was that his attendants had taken advantage of the general confusion to
assassinate him, and that he merely added another to the long list of
Roman emperors murdered by those who hoped to profit by their removal.
It is not likely that the problem of what really caused the death of
Carus will ever be solved. That he died very late in A.D. 283, or within
the first fortnight of A.D. 284, is certain; and it is no less certain
that his death was most fortunate for Persia, since it brought the war
to an end when it had reached a point at which any further reverses
would have been disastrous, and gave the Persians a breathing-space
during which they might, at least partially, recover from their
prostration.

Upon the death of Carus, the Romans at once determined on retreat.
It was generally believed that the imperial tent had been struck by
lightning; and it was concluded that the decision of the gods against
the further advance of the invading army had been thereby unmistakably
declared. The army considered that it had done enough, and was anxious
to return home; the feeble successor of Carus, his son Numerian, if
he possessed the will, was at any rate without the power to resist the
wishes of the troops; and the result was that the legions quitted the
East without further fighting, and without securing, by the conclusion
of formal terms of peace, any permanent advantage from their victories.

A pause of two years now occurred, during which Varahran had the
opportunity of strengthening his position while Rome was occupied by
civil wars and distracted between the claims of pretenders. No great use
seems, however, to have been made of this interval. When, in A.D. 286,
the celebrated Diocletian determined to resume the war wi