The Histories

Content Warning: This section includes descriptions of warfare and mentions sexual violence and suicide.

Tacitus (c. 56-120 CE) was a Roman historian and politician who wrote The Histories. His other works include The Annals (history from 14-68 CE), Germania (an ethnographic work of German tribes), Agricola (a biography of Tacitus’s father-in-law), and Dialogus (a discussion of the art of rhetoric).

Tacitus was likely born in France or northern Italy to an aristocratic family. As a young man, he received training in oratory and gained his first professional successes during the reign of Vespasian. He presumably continued to steadily climb the cursus honorum (the sequence of public offices held by aspiring Romans), and in 77 CE, he married the daughter of Agricola. During Domitian’s reign, he reached the prestigious posts of Tribune of the Plebs and Praetor and held a senior priesthood for some time. Hints in his writing suggest that he may have been personally complicit in some of Domitian’s tyrannical acts. After Domitian’s assassination, Tacitus continued to increase his public rank in the reign of Nerva until he reached the height of his fame through delivering a funeral oration for a veteran soldier.