PROBUS, MARCUS AURELIUS

died 282 Roman emperor from AD 276 to 282. The son of a Balkan military officer, Probus served with distinction in the army and apparently was eastern praetorian prefect when his troops proclaimed him emperor in opposition to Florian, who was soon killed by his own men. Probus' reign was spent in continual frontier warfare against hostile tribes on the Rhine and Danube, complicated by insurrections in Britain, Gaul, and the East. His policy of allowing outside tribes to settle within the empire proved dangerous. Fourth-century writers attest to his intense interest in agriculture. He encouraged the planting of vineyards in Gaul, Spain, and Britain and was evidently killed by troops who resented his strict discipline and their being detailed to agricultural reclamation work in the Balkans.