NUMERIANUS, M. AURELIUS, Roman emperor, accompanied his father, the emperor Cams, on the Persian expedition beyond the Tigris, and along with his absent brother, Carinus, was proclaimed emperor on the death of the former (December 283). Having resolved to abandon the campaign, he was returning towards Europe when he mysteriously died before Chalcedon was reached, eight months afterwards. Arrius Aper, prefect of the pretorians, his father-in-law, suspected of having murdered him, was hastily stabbed by Diocletian, his successor. Numerianus is represented as having been a man of considerable literary attainments, as well as of singular gentleness, amiability, and purity.