Cornelius Tacitus - The Annals The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero (Oxford Worlds Classics)

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

THE ANNALS

GAIUS (or Publius: the evidence is ambiguous) CORNELIUS TACITUS is widely regarded as the greatest of all Roman historians. We know relatively little about his life. He was born around AD 56, and is known to have engaged in the standard political career of a young Roman aristocrat, holding the offices of quaestor (in 81 or 82), praetor (in 88), and consul (in 97), along with a variety of other administrative and military posts, including (by 88) membership of the college of priests known as the quindecimviri sacris faciundis. He was governor of Asia (a province of the empire consisting of part of modern Turkey) 11213. In a high-profile trial in 99100 he and his friend Pliny the Younger successfully prosecuted Marius Priscus for corruption while governor of Africa. Tacitus probably lived beyond 117; but his precise date of death is unknown. He was betrothed in 77 to the daughter of Julius Agricola, later governor of Britain, and married her shortly afterwards: her name, however, is unknown.

Tacitus writings include the Agricola and the Germania, both published in 98. The date of a third work, the Dialogue on Orators, is disputed; some have thought it his first work, but it may well postdate both the Agricola and the Germania. All three of these survive complete. His major works were the Histories (published around 109) and the Annals (published some time after 117); only about a third of the former and just over half of the latter survive.

J. C. YARDLEY has translated Livys The Dawn of the Roman Empire (Books 3140) and Hannibals War (Books 2130) for Oxford Worlds Classics, Justin for the American Philological Associations Classical Resources series, and Curtius Rufus for Penguin Classics. He is also the author of Justin and Pompeius Trogus (2003) and (with Waldemar Heckel) Alexander the Great (2004).

Anthony A. Barrett was formerly Professor and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of British Columbia. He is currently studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. His most recent books are Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome (2002) and (as editor and contributor) Lives of the Caesars (2007).

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Translation J. C. Yardley 2008
Introduction, glossaries, select bibliography, explanatory notes Anthony A. Barrett 2008

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First published as an Oxford Worlds Classics paperback 2008

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THE life of ancient Romes greatest historian, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, is known in broad outline, but many of the important details are either missing or contentious. Even his name is uncertain. The only surviving manuscript of the opening books of the