in full Publius Cornelius Tacitus
born AD 56
died с 120
Roman orator, public official, and historian.
After studying rhetoric, he began his career with a minor magistracy, eventually advancing to the proconsulate of Asia, the top provincial governorship (112–113). In 98 he wrote De vita Julii Agricolae, a biographical account of his father-in-law, governor of Britain; and De origine et situ Germanorum (known as the Germania ), describing the people of the Roman frontier on the Rhine. His works on Roman history are the Histories , concerning the empire from AD 69 to 96, and the later Annals , dealing with the empire from AD 14 to 68; the latter effectively diagnoses the decline of Roman political freedom he had described in the Histories . Only parts of each are extant. Tacitus is regarded as perhaps the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists to write in Latin.