Tacitus

Cornelius Tacitus (c. AD 56–c. 120), probably from southern Gaul or northern Italy, rose through the senatorial career under the Flavian emperors and married the daughter of the general Agricola. He was praetor in 88, consul in 97 and proconsul of Asia around 112. He was also one of the leading orators of his day, and a friend and correspondent of Pliny.

His first works, both from about AD 98, are the Agricola, a life of his father-in-law that contains much of what we know of Roman Britain, and the Germania, an account of the peoples beyond the Rhine. The Dialogus discusses the decline of oratory. His major works are the Histories, which covered AD 69 to 96 and survive only for 69–70, and the Annals, from the death of Augustus in 14 to Nero, which survive in large part, including most of the reign of Tiberius and much of Nero’s. His subject is the loss of freedom under the emperors and the compromises of the men who served them.

Tacitus is the most difficult of the Latin prose authors. He avoids symmetry on purpose, leaves out verbs, uses poetic and archaic words, and packs judgement into insinuation and epigram. Few Latin historians repay close attention so well. He belongs at the end of a reading sequence, after Sallust, whom he took as a model.