Florianus also known as Florian, was Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 for a few months in 276.

Biography

Florian was reportedly a maternal half-brother to the Emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus

Marcus Claudius Tacitus

Tacitus , was Roman Emperor from 275 to 276. During his short reign he campaigned against the Goths and the Heruli, for which he received the title Gothicus Maximus.-Biography:Tacitus was born in Interamna , in Italia...

. Appointed Praetorian Prefect

Praetorian prefect

Praetorian prefect was the title of a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides...

 in Tacitus's army in his campaign against the Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

, according to the available sources, he was chosen by the army in the West to succeed Tacitus in 276, without the Roman Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

 consensus. However he minted coins bearing the "SC

Senatus consultum

A senatus consultum is a text emanating from the senate in Ancient Rome. It is used in the modern phrase senatus consultum ultimum...

" legend, thus showing some bonds to the Senate.

He was fighting against the Heruli

Heruli

The Heruli were an East Germanic tribe who are famous for their naval exploits. Migrating from Northern Europe to the Black Sea in the third century They were part of the...

 when the army in the East elected Probus. He had the support of Italia

Italia (Roman province)

Italia was the name of the Italian peninsula of the Roman Empire.-Under the Republic and Augustan organization:During the Republic and the first centuries of the empire, Italia was not a province, but rather the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status: for example, military...

, Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

, Hispania

Hispania

Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....

, Britain, Africa, and Mauretania. The two rival emperors met in battle in Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...

. Florianus had the larger army, but Probus was a more experienced general, and avoided a direct clash. Florian's western army was unused to the dry and hot eastern climate and Probus likely secured a small victory, and Florian was assassinated by his own troops near Tarsus

Tarsus, Mersin

Tarsus is a historic city in south-central Turkey, 20 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of 2.75 million...

 once their confidence was lost. Florianus died in September 276, having been emperor for only eighty-eight days.

Primary sources

• Aurelius Victor
  Aurelius Victor
  Sextus Aurelius Victor was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire.Aurelius Victor was the author of a History of Rome from Augustus to Julian , published ca. 361. Julian honoured him and appointed him prefect of Pannonia Secunda...
  
  , "Epitome de Caesaribus", English version of Epitome de Caesaribus
• Historia Augusta, Vita Taciti, English version of Historia Augusta
• Eutropius, Breviarium ab urbe condita, ix. 16, English version of Breviarium ab Urbe Condita
• Joannes Zonaras
  Joannes Zonaras
  Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his...
  
  , Compendium of History extract: Zonaras: Alexander Severus to Diocletian: 222–284
• Zosimus
  Zosimus
  Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
  
  , "Historia Nova", Historia Nova

Secondary sources

• Mc Mahon, Robin, "Florian (276.D.)", De Imperatoribus Romanis, (2000)
• Jones, A.H.M., Martindale, J.R. The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I: AD260-395, Cambridge University Press, 1971
• Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, Routledge, 2001
• Gibbon. Edward Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (1888)

External links