The Roman emperor Tacitus (Tacitus), full name markus claudius, Tacitus, defended uz · felix for vic figure, augustus (MacusClaudiusTacitusPiusFelixInvictusAugustus), won a "great gothic conqueror" Title .

The Senate of Cicero's time

AD 200 years Born in Interramna, Italy (now Terni A famous and ancient noble family (the Claudians). With the former emperor Aurelian In contrast, Tacitus, an aristocrat, had a smooth career: he inherited the family business at an early age Grand old man ; Roughly in Valerian At the time, Tacitus was first elected pretor Become the leader among the elders; In 273 he was elected consul for a second time with Julius Plasidianus. By the end of Aurelian's reign, Tacitus had become chief Senator, thanks to his family connections and his own efforts, as well as the glory of being elected consul twice, and it could be said that even if Tacitus had not become emperor, his record would have been more than enough.

View of Terni today

Tacitus himself was pleased with his position. As a man in his seventies, Tacitus had seen everything The Severus Dynasty to Thirty tyrants The chaos of The Times, experienced a number of Kings sage and disdain, life experience is quite rich. He realized that he was already in a position of minister which the Emperor could easily suspect, so when rumours spread in Rome that Tacitus was a suitable successor to the Emperor, he decided to retire from Rome and returned to Campanabaia for two months (August or September 275 AD).

At the time of Tacitus's seclusion, the Roman emperor Aurelian Led an army to the east Persia But soon word got out that the emperor was in Byzantium Murdered nearby. The Senate was not surprised by Aurelian's death; in fact, many of the senators were unhappy with the emperor's policy of attacking the nobility in favor of the common people, and they privately rejoiced in Aurelian's assassination. After the assassination of the emperor, the army did not have any ideas, so they stopped further military action and asked the Senate by letter to elect a new emperor, and the senators unanimously recommended Tacitus as emperor. Thus, in November 275, after a period of interregnum in the Roman Empire, Tacitus, at the age of 75, accepted the advice to take the throne, which was the last time the Senate exercised its power to elect an emperor. The later Augusta overstates the gap between Aurelian's death and Tacitus's appointment as six months, and says that the army and the Senate were very polite, giving in to each other's choice of a new emperor, and there is even a claim that Aurelian's widow, Ulpia Sevina, ruled alone for a period of time, which was only a few weeks. Except that the army and the Senate had indeed given in to each other, it was all a myth.

The new emperor rushed to Rome immediately after receiving the recommendation, and his first order after taking office was to call up the Praetorian guard and announce that he would give the soldiers a large sum of money according to the custom when the new emperor succeeded to the throne. This order made the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard happy, thus temporarily resolving the unrest of the Praetorian guard during the vacancy period and consolidating Tacitus' position. At the same time he declared the former emperor Aurelian to be a god, and summoned painters and sculptors to make pictures and sculptures of the former emperor. He built a statue of Aurelian in gold and two statues in silver, and placed the gold statues in front of the temple of Capitoline; Two silver statues were placed in front of the Senate and the Temple of the Sun, and he also ordered the arrest and trial of the murderers of Aurelian, the secretary who had stirred up the trouble, Eros, and some of the low-level personnel involved in the plot were sentenced to death, but the senior military personnel who had participated in the murder of the emperor were not greatly punished, and some even attended Aurelian's funeral as if nothing had happened. It is clear from this incident that Tacitus had much less control over his army than Aurelian.

After successfully suppressing the instability of the transitional state, Tacitus began to implement his own policy: he issued orders to confiscate the property of criminals, confiscate it, and then melt it down and mint it to cover the huge financial expenses; He attacked the status of slaves and freed slaves, stipulating that slaves should not rebel against or betray their masters, even if the masters were suspected of crimes; In order to reform the atmosphere, he banned the wearing of luxurious silk products and closed all luxurious bathing centers and amusement facilities in the Empire, declaring that they would not be reopened until Rome's glory had been restored. He also elected and promoted competent officials of good reputation to maintain order in the internal affairs; He claimed to be descended from Tacitus, the great ancient writer of the same name, and ordered his scribes to collect and transcribe the works of his great ancestor. He is said to have ordered them to place ten transcribed copies in the library each year; In religion, he abandoned Aurelian's policy of honoring the Sun God religion and treated all religions in the Empire equally, which actually helped the spread of Christianity.

Florian's coin

But Tacitus's most memorable policy is his restoration of senatorial politics. Tacitus, who was once the chief senator and was elected emperor by the senators, naturally fought for the interests of the senators. He had always been grateful to the Senate, and believed that the parliament of the country was the legislator of the law, and individuals must obey the law. In his study of ancient historical records, he came to the conclusion that only by restoring the old senatorial politics could Rome effectively control the army and internal problems and restructure the system that had been destroyed. Therefore, he took measures to fully restore senatorial politics: First, to give the elders the power to recommend and elect their successors, and to make some of them commanders of the army and high officials of the provinces, which had been held by the elders only a few decades ago, but the continuous wars had greatly elevated the status of the military, and now many high-valued officials were promoted by the military. Tacitus hoped that by elevating the status of the elders, he would suppress the overbearing soldiers; Second, the ability of the senators to exercise their powers freely, they could decide the consuls without even the emperor interfering, it is said that Tacitus's half-brother Florian had wanted the consuls, but the Senate refused his request on the ground that there was no vacancy for the office, Tacitus greatly appreciated; Third, it was declared that the Senate had supervision over other branches of government and jurisdiction over cases, and that even imperial edicts had to be made by the Senate in order to be effective. These measures gave the Senate, in effect, judicial power and some executive power, with the ultimate aim of restoring the Senate to its former privileged position. It cannot be said that Tacitus's measures to restore the former status of the senators were not worthwhile at all, his starting point was to restore the imperial order and restore the glory of Rome, and he thought that by restoring the senatorial politics, he could restore the past. But as time passed, he forgot one thing: he was in a position where his support came not from the effeminate aristocrats who were idle, but from the army he had temporarily cozied up to. Without the support of the army, all the decrees could not be issued and carried out, and this point determined the inevitable failure of Tacitus's policy.

At the same time that Tacitus carried out the policy of restoring the patriarchy in Rome, the eastern and western parts of the Empire were once again in danger of foreign invasion. As early as Aurelian In preparation for the expedition, the Romans contacted the barbarian tribes of the steppes of southern Russia (mainly aranese and The Sarmatians Hoping to attract them to join the expedition against Persia by paying them some commission, these barbarian tribes were very pleased and came one after another Asia Minor Rendezvous with the Romans, ready for a share in the war against Persia. However, the assassination of Aurelian immediately changed this plan, and the officials in charge of receiving the barbarians had no autonomy and dared not answer. This made the barbarian leaders angry, believing that the Romans were irresponsible. In retaliation, the barbarians began to plunder the small Subregion on a large scale and quickly invaded Pontus , Galatia , Cappadocia and Chirichia Destroying local villages and small cities, and finally razing them to the ground. At the same time, the Franks and Alemanni in the west also invaded the Rhine line, which strained the Roman frontier.

The Aran cavalry rock carving

Tacitus reacted quickly to the warning, and although he was over 70 years old, the emperor still insisted on taking the battle personally. In early 276 Tacitus arrived Thrace Organizing a counterattack, he appointed his brother Florian commander of the Praetorian Guard to accompany him. The emperor's strategy was very clever: he first made a promise to the barbarians that Aurelian's agreement with them, though void, would mean that they would be spared from sending troops, and Tacitus promised to compensate them for his broken promise; At the same time, he has put his army on alert against hard-core elements who refuse to give in. His policy calmed down most of the barbarians and withdrew to their lands, and his army fought against the recalcitrant barbarians who were unwilling to settle peacefully Caucasian The destruction of the enemy near the foothills earned Tacitus the title of "the Great Gothic conqueror" (Gothicus maximus). However, this was only the final glory of Tacitus's life, and after only six months of his reign, in June AD276, he was in Asia Minor Taiana died at the age of 76. The most popular account of his death is that he appointed as governor of Syria a relative, Maximinus, who was so brutal and corrupt that he was soon assassinated. The officers who assassinated him, fearing punishment, also killed Tacitus; Another school of scholars believes that Tacitus died of illness at his advanced age after his anxiety about military excesses shortened his life. But in any case, as Gibbon says, the arrogance of the army was the main cause of Tacitus's death. With his death, all his measures for the restoration of the senatorial rule were abolished, and all the bright visions of the Senate which had suddenly opened up were destroyed after only a few months, like the light of the dying patient.

The route of the Alans during the Great Migration

Although Tacitus's efforts to reform the state failed, he himself was of a very high moral character: he was simple by nature, did not like to wear extravagant clothes, and his ordinary clothes were not different from those of a common man. He rarely drank alcohol, even at parties. He is not particular about eating and drinking, but he loves eating lettuce, and has spent a lot of money on eating lettuce. He did not often bathe, but he liked to hunt, and he always spent a lot of time in reading and writing, and never wasted a night. In contrast to his personal simplicity, his actions towards the state were generous; he donated to the state a sum of 280 million Sesterces to pay his soldiers, and he preserved great writers Tacitus We can still read the writings of this great writer, whose brief reign did not have a significant effect on the political situation of Rome, but he was still a great emperor who made efforts to reform the country, at least in terms of personal character, he is not inferior to the most famous monarchs of antiquity.

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