Tacitus
Born
c. 56 AD
Died
c. 117 AD (aged c. 61)
Occupation
Senator, consul, governor, historian
Genre
History, Silver Age of Latin
Subject
History, biography, oratory
Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (/ˈtæsɨtəs/; Classical Latin: [ˈtakɪtʊs]; c. AD 56 – after 117) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69). These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus in AD 14 to the years of the First Jewish–Roman War in AD 70. There are substantial lacunae in the surviving texts, including a gap in the Annals that is four books long.
Tacitus' other writings discuss oratory (in dialogue format, see Dialogus de oratoribus), Germania (in De origine et situ Germanorum), and the life of his father-in-law, Agricola, the Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain, mainly focusing on his campaign in Britannia (De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae).
Tacitus is considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians.[1][2] He lived in what has been called the Silver Age of Latin literature. He is known for the brevity and compactness of his Latin prose, as well as for his penetrating insights into the psychology of power politics.
Life
Tacitus was born in 56 or 57 to an equestrian family;[4] like many Latin authors of both the Golden and Silver Ages, he was from the provinces, probably northern Italy or Gallia Narbonensis. The exact place and date of his birth are not known, and his praenomen (first name) is also unknown; in the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris his name is Gaius, but in the major surviving manuscript of his work his name is given as Publius.
sourceI'll take dictionaries, bible prophecies and fulfillments, historians for proof any day, over what has emerged as the counter argument.
There is a modern statue representing Tacitus outside the Austrian Parliament Building