Author Description

Product Description Tacitus, a Roman orator and public official, is considered one of the greatest historians as well as one of the greatest prose stylists of the Latin language. In The Histories, he describes and interprets the period in which he lived, beginning with the political situation that followed Nero's death in 69 and ending with the death of Domitian in 96 and the close of the Flavian dynasty. The five books of the history still extant are part of an original work of twelve to fourteen books.The narrative as it now exists, with its magnificent introduction, is a powerfully sustained piece of writing. Because Tacitus was a conscious literary stylist, both his thought and his manner of expression gave life to his work. He wrote in the grand style, helped by the solemn and poetic usage of the Roman tradition, and he exploited the Latin qualities of strength, rhythm, and color. About the Author TACITUS, or Publius Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (c. 55-120), born in southeastern France, was a Roman historian who studied rhetoric, rose to eminence as a pleader at the Roman bar, and married the daughter of Agricola, the conqueror of Britain. By A.D. 88 he was already praetor and a member of the priestly college that kept the Sibylline Books of prophecy and supervised foreign-cult practice. Tacitus wrote several pieces, and his Histories is his strongest work using material drawn from contemporary experience.