Year276 (CCLXXVI) was aleap year starting on Saturday of theJulian calendar. At the time, it was known as theYear of the Consulship of Tacitus and Aemilianus (or, less frequently,year 1029Ab urbe condita). The denomination 276 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when theAnno Dominicalendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
EmperorTacitus doubles thesilver content of theaurelianianus, and halves its tariffing to 2.5 d.c. They carry the value marks X.I.
Tacitus campaigns successfully against theGoths who have invadedAsia Minor, and his half-brother, the praetorian prefectMarcus Annius Florianus, continues the campaign.
Tacitus' cousin Maximinus administers Syria in a harsh manner, and is assassinated by local men of power, who are joined in the conspiracy by the faction responsible for having assassinatedAurelian in the previous year.
Tacitus dies inTyana,Cappadocia. He either dies of illness, or is murdered by the faction responsible for having assassinated Aurelian and Maximinus.
Florianus holds power for some weeks and fights indecisively against Probus inCilicia, but his soldiers, many of whom are from the colder Rhine and Danube frontiers, suffer from heat and disease. He is overthrown and thenassassinated by his own troops nearTarsus (Turkey), in collusion with Probus. Probus, age 44, is proclaimed new Emperor ofRome.
Probus returns the aurelianianus to the tariffing ofAurelian.
Probus invites the faction responsible for the murders of Aurelian and Tacitus to a banquet, only to massacre them. He then arrests a surviving conspirator and has him burned alive.
