Silvered Antoninianus, A.D. 276, Lugdunum, 22.6mm, 3.82g, 0°, RIC V 57.
Obv: IMP CL TACITVS AVG. Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: SALVS AVG. Salus standing right, feeding snake in hand from patera; C and * in field.
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Marcus Claudius Tacitus Augustus, was Roman Emperor from 275 to 276. After the assassination of Aurelian, Tacitus was chosen by the Senate to succeed him, and the choice was ratified by the army. This was the last time the Senate elected a Roman Emperor. It is known that there was an gap in the rule between Aurelian and Tacitus, and there is substantial evidence that Aurelian's wife Ulpia Severina ruled in her own right before Tacitus' election. At any rate Tacitus was situated at Campania when he heard the news of his election, and quickly rushed to Rome. He decided to re-involve the Senate in some consultative manner in the mechanisms of government, and asked the Senate to deify Aurelian, before he arrested and executed Aurelian's murderers.

His first major action as emperor was to move against the barbarian mercenaries that had been gathered by Aurelian to supplement Roman forces for his Eastern campaign. These mercenaries had plundered several towns in the Eastern Roman provinces after Aurelian had been murdered and the campaign cancelled. His half-brother, the Praetorian Prefect Florianus, and Tacitus himself won a victory against these tribes, which gained the emperor the title Gothicus Maximus.

Tacitus was on his way back west to deal with a Frankish and Alamannic invasion of Gaul when he died of fever at Tyana in Cappadocia in June 276. It was 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.