**TACITUS,** Cornelius (*Cornelius Tacitus*). — Historian, born c. 55 AD (in Terni?); praetor under Domitian, consul in 97, died in 120 (cf. Tacitus, *Histories*, I, 1; *Annals*, XI, 11; *Agricola*, 45). He was a great friend of Pliny the Younger, who in several of his letters (I, 6, 20; II, 1, 11; IV, 13; VI, 16, 20; VII, 20, 33; VIII, 7; IX, 10, 14) describes his character.
He wrote the *Dialogus de oratoribus*, wrongly denied to him, in which the causes of the decline of Roman eloquence are discussed; *De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae*, about his father-in-law (98 AD), in which he extols the expedition to Britain and the dignity of his character; *De origine et situ Germaniae* (98), which is the primary source of information on the German nation, its character, and its political constitution; *Annales et Historiae*, conceived by Tacitus as a single history in 30 books, from the death of Augustus to that of Domitian. Only parts of the *Historiae* remain, originally covering 14 books, from Galba to Domitian (69–96); and parts of the *Annales*, which extended *ab excessu divi Augusti* to Nero and comprised 16 books, the first four, part of the fifth and sixth, and books 11–16 being incomplete. His intention to extend the narrative to Nerva and Trajan remained unfulfilled (*Agricola*, 3; *Histories*, I, 1; *Annals*, III, 24). His historical work follows the analytical method. A profound psychologist and austere moralist, faced with the evils afflicting his time—evils which seemed even graver when compared to the virtues of the past—his patriotism could not refrain from deploring and adopting a pessimistic view of the future. An impartial and truthful writer, his style is vivid, sometimes obscure due to excessive conciseness, but full of liveliness and pictorial color, certainly the most original in all of Latin literature. Tacitus believed in a divinity that presides over human events, though he considered it indifferent to the good or evil actions of men (*Annals*, IV, 1; XIV, 2; XVI, 33; *Histories*, I, 3). His fortune and fame, dormant during the Middle Ages, revived during Humanism and the Renaissance.
TACITUS AND CHRISTIANITY. — Tacitus’ judgment on Christianity is hostile, as is evident from his account of the fire of Rome on 19 July 64, which devastated the Circus Maximus, the commercial district of the Velabrum, the Forum, and the Carinae. He reports that, according to the historians from whom he draws—without naming them, as was his custom when they agreed (*cf. Annals*, XII, 20, 3)—the fire was accidental or attributed to Nero’s malice (*forte an dolo principis incertum*); and he clearly emphasizes how suspicion fell on Nero, which the emperor diverted by substituting the Christians (*subdidit reos*) in his place. Yet Tacitus demonstrates that he holds a very poor opinion of these people, who were hated by the populace for their crimes (*per flagitia invisi*). He continues by asserting that this abominable superstition, momentarily suppressed, had flared up again not only in its native Judea but also in Rome, *where all that is atrocious and shameful from every quarter of the world* converges. After alluding to the most severe punishments to which they were condemned, he concludes by observing that, although the Christians were guilty and deserving of the harshest penalties, they nevertheless aroused pity because they seemed to be sacrificed not for the public good but for the cruelty of one man.
Though hostile to Christianity, his loyalty as a historian not only prevents him from openly accusing Nero but also implies that the emperor was the true culprit behind the disaster.
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