47 TACITUS (c.76; r.275.09-276.06)
Unexpectedly, the armies did not appoint a new emperor from their own ranks this time and after a short interregnum the Senate appointed 44Claudius Tacitus (c.76; fl.273-276), a seventy-five-year-old senator, who promptly named his half-brother Annius (3) Florianus (fl.275-276) praetorian prefect.
At this time there was a major incursion into Asia Minor by the Heruli and other Goths, mustered by Aurelian as his allies for the anticipated wars on Persia, but during the lull they had turned to piracy. The tribes entered Pontus and advanced as far south as Cilicia before Tacitus and Florianus routed them in the spring of 276. For this Tacitus received the title of ‘Gothicus Maximus’, but on his way back to Europe he died (of causes unknown) at Tyana in Cappadocia.
48 FLORIANUS (r.276)
In the summer Florianus received the news of his half-brother’s death and promptly seized the throne. He was accepted in the West, but in the East his accession was disputed by Aurelian’s commander 19Aurelius Probus.
It may have been better for Florianus to consolidate his position in the West before confronting Probus. But Florianus wanted a decision and the two men met near Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia. Florianus’ men, however, were unaccustomed to the Eastern climate. Probus avoided actual battle and manoeuvred Florianus’ hot and exhausted legions into frustration and mutiny. By September the opposition to Probus had crumbled and Florianus was killed by his own men.
49 PROBUS (50; r.276-282)
After Florianus’ death, Probus decided to move back to the West. While crossing Asia Minor he completed the war begun by Tacitus and Florian against the Goths, and when he arrived in Rome the Senate confirmed his position.
During Tacitus’ absence from the West the Alamanni and Franks had attacked the Rhine-Danube frontier on a wide front and captured sixty towns. Probus campaigned successfully in Gaul against the Alamanni and Longiones (=Lugii?), while his generals defeated the Franks: these operations were directed to clearing Gaul of the Germanic invaders.
Probus restored the Rhine frontier, and probably uninitiated both the walling of Gallic cities and the coastal defence system covering the English Channel (known much later as the Litus Saxonicum, the ‘Saxon Shore’).
He then led a successful campaign against Vandals and Burgundians in Raetia, after which he enlisted many of the defeated Germans into the Roman army. In 278-9 he drove the Goths (and perhaps the Getae) from Thracia and Illyria.
Around 280, the tribesmen, Blemmyes, who harassed Egypt province from time to time, captured Coptos and Ptolemais, but the uprising was squashed by Probus’ generals.
In 280 Probus himself marched to the East. After negotiating a peace with Persian king, Bahram II (r.274-293), he returned to Gaul to put down two pretenders, Proculus (who was executed on Probus’ orders) and Bonosus (who hanged himself rather than face capture). A year later 45Julius Saturninus, who had been proclaimed emperor by the troops in Syria, was later killed by his own troops. When Probus announced that in the future the legions would be disbanded as there would be peace in the Empire, the troops in Raetia and Noricum rebelled and proclaimed 20Aurelius Carus (c.62; fl.282-283) emperor. Probus sent a detachment of troops to kill him, but they defected and Probus himself was slain by his own legionaries in 282.
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