Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/M. Claudius Tacitus

TACITUS, M. Claudius, Roman emperor from September 25, 275, to April 276, was a native of Interamna (Terni) in Umbria, and was born about the year 200. In the course of his long life he discharged the duties of various civil offices, including that of consul in 273, with universal respect. Six months after the assassination of Aurelian he was chosen by the senate to succeed him, and the choice was cordially ratified by the army. During his brief reign he set on foot some domestic reforms, and sought to revive the authority of the senate, but, after a victory over the Alani near the Palus Mæotis, he succumbed to the hardships and fatigues of his new duties at Tyana in Cappadocia. Tacitus, besides being a man of immense wealth (which he bequeathed to the state), had considerable literary culture, and was proud to claim descent from the historian, whose works he caused to be transcribed at the public expense and placed in the public libraries.