ANNALIST

any of the Roman historians prior to Livy (1st century BC1st century AD) who drew up the conventional history of Rome from the foundation of the city. For their sources early Roman historians relied for the most part on the annual tabulae pontificum, or annales, which after 300 BC contained regular records of magistrates' names and public events of religious significance. The early Roman writer Quintus Ennius (239169 BC) drew the title of his epic poem from the annales. The first Roman historians, among whom were Quintus Fabius Pictor, Cincius Alimentus, Postumius Albinus, and C. Acilius, wrote in the early 2nd century BC in Greek. They were followed by Marcus Porcius Cato (234149 BC), whose Origines was the first history of Rome written in Latin. Under his influence, Lucius Cassius Hemina and L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi undertook more systematic reconstructions of Roman history, and about 123 BC P. Mucius Scaevola published in 80 books his Annales maximi, a systematic, year-by-year account of events in the Roman state that remained the model for subsequent annalistic accounts. The annalistic tradition was enshrined by Livy in his national history of Rome and influenced Tacitus in the composition of his Annals.