(born &AD; 56—died &circa; 120) Roman orator, public official, and historian. After studying rhetoric, he began his career with a minor magistracy, eventually advancing to the proconsulate of Asia, the top provincial governorship (112–113).
In 98 he wrote De vita Julii Agricolae, a biographical account of his father-in-law, governor of Britain; and De origine et situ Germanorum (known as the Germania), describing the people of the Roman frontier on the Rhine. His works on Roman history are the Histories, concerning the empire from &AD; 69 to 96, and the later Annals, dealing with the empire from &AD; 14 to 68; the latter effectively diagnoses the decline of Roman political freedom he had described in the Histories. Only parts of each are extant. Tacitus is regarded as perhaps the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists to write in Latin.
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