(Cornelius)TACITUS (c.55 - after 122). Roman historian. A senator and the chief orator of his day, he was last heard of as governor of Asia, c.113. His surviving writings are:

1. a life of his father-in-law, Agricola, who was governor of Britain, 78–85;

2. the Germania, an ethnographic work;

3. a dialogue De Oratoribus;

4. large parts of the Histories and

5. of the Annals (written later than the Histories), which recounted events year by year from 69 to 96 and from 14 to 68 respectively.

In his Annals, 15. 44, the earliest non-Christian reference to the Crucifixion, Tacitus describes Nero’s persecution of the Christians at Rome as scapegoats for the fire in the city (AD 64); they were thrown to the dogs, crucified, or burnt alive. Though Tacitus holds them innocent of the charge of arson, he regarded Christianity as a ‘pernicious superstition’ (exitiabilis superstitio) and seems to have shared the popular belief that its adherents were guilty of atrocious crimes, of which his friend *Pliny and the Emp. Trajan exonerated them.

Modern edns. of his works by E. Koestermann (2 vols., Teub., 1936; 3rd edn., 3 vols., 1965–70), H. Heubner and others (2 vols. in 5 parts, ibid., 1978–83) and by K. Wellesley and others (ibid., 1986 ff.); also of Annals and Histories by C. D. Fisher (Oxford, 1906 and 1911 respectively) and of Opera Minora by M. Winterbottom and R. M. Ogilvie (ibid., 1975). Eng. tr. by A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb (3 vols., 1864–9; frequently repr.). Comm. on the Annals by H. Furneaux (2 vols., Oxford, 1884–91; 2nd edn., 1896–1907) and E. Koestermann (4 vols., Heidelberg, 1963–8). R. Syme, Tacitus (2 vols., Oxford, 1958). R. [H.] Martin, Tacitus (London, 1981); R. Mellor, Tacitus (New York and London, 1993).

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