Tacitus Proclaimed: Rome's Instability Deepens

The Roman Senate reclaimed the rare authority to choose an emperor by proclaiming the elderly senator Marcus Claudius Tacitus after a two-month interregnum following Aurelian's assassination. His brief reign of less than a year ended with his own suspicious death, proving that senatorial emperors remained easy targets in an age of military strongmen. The interregnum of 275 AD was remarkable in itself. After Aurelian's assassination by officers who feared a purge, the army and the Senate engaged in an unprecedented exchange of deference, each insisting the other should name the successor. For two months, the Roman Empire effectively had no ruler. When the Senate finally chose Tacitus, a wealthy and respected senator in his seventies, it appeared that civilian authority might reassert itself over the military. Tacitus marched east to deal with Gothic incursions in Asia Minor, demonstrating more energy than his age suggested. He defeated the raiders and attempted to restore discipline among frontier armies that had grown accustomed to making and unmaking emperors at will. His death in June 276 remains murky. Some sources say he was killed by mutinous soldiers. Others suggest illness. His half-brother Florianus briefly seized power before being overthrown by Probus, another military commander, within weeks. The entire episode demonstrated that the Roman Senate, while still capable of producing capable administrators, lacked the military backing to protect its choices from ambitious generals who considered the purple their birthright.