What is Tacitus?
{{otheruses}} {{Infobox Writer |name = Tacitus |image = Gaius Cornelius Tacitus.jpg |imagesize = 180px |caption = Tacitus |pseudonym = |birth_date = [[Circa]] 56 |birth_place = |death_date = [[Circa]] 117 |death_place = |occupation = [[Senator]], [[Roman consul|consul]], [[Roman governor|governor]], [[historian]] |genre = [[History]] |subject = [[History]], [[biography]], [[oratory]] |movement = [[Classical Latin|Silver Age of Latin]] |website = |signature = |footnotes = }} '''Publius''' (or '''Gaius''') '''Cornelius Tacitus''' (ca. 56 – ca. 117) was a [[senate|senator]] and a [[historian]] of the [[Roman Empire]]. The surviving parts of his two major works—the ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'' and the ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]''—report about the reigns of the [[Roman Emperor]]s [[Tiberius]], [[Claudius]], [[Nero]], [[Galba]], [[Otho]], [[Vitellius]], and [[Vespasian]]. == Works == [[File:Lipsius manuscript.jpg|thumb|right|The title page of [[Justus Lipsius]]'s 1598 edition of the complete works of Tacitus, bearing the stamps of the ''Bibliotheca Comunale'' in [[Empoli]], [[Italy]].]] Experts believe Tacitus wrote these five works that have survived. The dates are approximate: * (98) ''[[De vita Iulii Agricolae]]'' (''The Life of Julius [[Agricola]]'') * (98) ''De origine et situ Germanorum'' (''The [[Germania (book)|Germania]]'') * (102) ''[[Dialogus de oratoribus]]'' (''Dialogue on Oratory'') * (105) ''Historiae'' (''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]'') * (117) ''Ab excessu divi Augusti'' (''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'') == References == * Haynes, Holly. ''The History of Make-Believe: Tacitus on imperial Rome'' (Berkeley, Calif.; London: University of California Press, 2003) {{ISBN|0-520-23650-5}} * Syme, Ronald. ''Tacitus'', Volumes 1 and 2. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958) (reprinted in 1985 by the same publisher, with the {{ISBN|0-19-814327-3}}) is the definitive study of his life and works. * Syme, Ronald. ''Ten Studies in Tacitus''. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970) {{ISBN|0-1