Carinus in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Carīnus, M. Aurelius - The eldest son of the emperor Carus, who gave him the title of Caesar and the rank of Augustus, together with the government of Italy, Illyricum, Africa, and the West, when he himself was setting out, with his second son Numerianus, to make war against the Persians. Carus, knowing the evil qualities of Carinus, gave him this charge with great reluctance; but he had no alternative, as Numerianus, though superior in every respect to his elder brother, was too young to hold so important a command. As soon as Carinus entered Gaul, which his father had particularly charged him to defend against the barbarians, who menaced an irruption, he gave himself up to the most degrading excesses, discharged the most competent men from public employment, and substituted the vile companions of his debaucheries. On hearing of the death of his father, he indulged in new excesses and new crimes. Still, however, his courage and his victories merit praise. He defeated the barbarians who had begun to attack the Empire, among others the Sarmatae, and he afterwards overthrew Sabinus Inlianus, who had assumed the purple in Venetia. He then marched against Diocletian, who had proclaimed himself emperor after the death of Numerian. The two armies met in Moesia, and several engagements took place, in which success seemed balanced. At last a decisive battle was fought near Margum, and Carinus was on the point of gaining a complete victory, when he was slain by a tribune of his own army, who had received an outrage at his hands. This event took place A.D. 285, so that the reign of Carinus, computing it from his father's death, was a little more than one year. His life was written by Vopiscus.