Roman historian who is regarded as one of the finest classical Latin writers. Publius Cornelius Tacitus was an aristocrat from provincial Gaul who rose to prominence as an orator & writer in Rome after the death of Domitian. From a historical perspective his most important works are:

• Histories - 14 book account of the Flavian dynasty (from the death of Nero to the death of Domitian). Only the first four books & part of the fifth are still extant.

• Annals - 16 volume annual chronicle of the Julio-Claudian dynasty from the death of Augustus to the last years of Nero. Books 7-10 & portions of other books have been lost. Among the missing sections are the years 30 CE (the probable year of Jesus' execution) & 66-69 CE (the period of the Jewish revolt).

[Edition used: Loeb Library]

Other resources on line:

• Publius Cornelius Tacitus - David Camden's hyper-bibliography of all e-editions of Tacitus' works [Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum].

• The Works of Tacitus - Church & Bobribb's original edition of the complete Tacitus corpus (1864-1877) with Latin text & English translation in parallel columns [in John Bruno Hare's Sacred Text Archive].

• Cornelius Tacitus - introduction & links posted by Peter Kirby [Early Christian Writings].

• Tacitus - well-researched article in Wikipedia's web.