c. 56-120

Roman historian and official whose works include Germania (A.D. 98), one of the few contemporary accounts of the Germans and Britons. Also important were his Histories (c. 109) and Annals (c. 116), which together comprise a chronicle of the empire during the 82 years from the death of Augustus (63 B.C.-A.D. 14) to the assassination of Domitian (r. 81-96). Though Tacitus is often regarded as the greatest of Roman historians, he sometimes let his conclusions guide his narrative, and is admired more as a commentator on morals than as a recorder of historical fact.