The Goths and the Heruli, the campaign…

The Goths and the Heruli, the campaign against the Goths having been canceled with the murder of Aurelian, have once more crossed the Black Sea to wreak havoc on Asia Minor, plundering several towns in the Eastern Roman provinces.

Aurelian’s successor Tacitus, accompanied by his reported maternal half brother Marcus Annius Florianus, the Praetorian Prefect, leads the legions into Asia Minor and defeats the barbarians in battle in spring 276, which gains the emperor the title Gothicus Maximus.

He is on his way back west to deal with a Frankish and Alamannic invasion of Gaul when, (according to Aurelius Victor, Eutropius and the Historia Augusta), he dies in Tyana in Cappadocia in July.

It is reported that he began acting strangely, declaring that he would alter the names of the months to honor himself before succumbing to a fever.

In a contrary account, Zosimus claims he was assassinated, after appointing one of his relatives to an important command in Syria.

The Senate and the armies of the West tolerate the seizure, by Florian, of his late half-brother's' imperial position; however he mints coins bearing the "SC" legend, thus showing some bonds to the Senate.

Florian continues the campaign, driving the barbarians to the brink of defeat.