TACITUS, Cornelius (Cornelius Tacitus). - Historian, b. around 55 A.D. (at Terni?); praetor under Domitian, consul in 97, d. in 120 (cf. Tacitus, Histor., I, 1; Annal., XI, 11; Agric., 45). He was a great friend of Pliny the Younger, who describes his character in several of his letters (I, 6, 20; II, 1, 11; IV, 13; VI, 16, 20; VII, 20, 33; VIII, 7; IX, 10, 14).
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, on his father-in-law (98 A.D.), whose expedition in Britain and dignity of character he extols; De origine et situ Germaniae (98), which is the primary source of information on the German nation, on its character, on its political constitution; Annales and Historiae, conceived by T. as a single history in 30 books, from the death of Augustus to that of Domitian. There remain to us of the Historiae, which unfolded in 14 books, the first 4 and half of the 5th, from Galba to Domitian (69-96); and of the Annales, which went ab excessu divi Augusti up to Nero and comprised 16 books, the first 4, part of the 5th, of the 6th, and lacunose books 11-16. His intention of carrying the narrative down to Nerva and Trajan remained unfulfilled (Agr., 3; Hist., I, 1; Ann., III, 24). His historical work proceeds according to the annalistic method. A profound psychologist and austere moralist, in the face of the evils afflicting his time and which seem to him even graver when he compares them to the virtues of the past, his patriotism cannot refrain from deploration and from a pessimistic vision of the future. An impartial and truthful writer, he has a vibrant style, at times obscure through excessive concision, but full of liveliness and pictorial color, certainly the most original of all Latin literature. T. believes in the divinity that presides over human events, though considering it indifferent toward the good or evil actions of men (Ann., IV, 1; XIV, 2; XVI, 33; Hist., I, 3). His fortune and his fame, dormant during the Middle Ages, revived during Humanism and the Renaissance.
TACITUS AND CHRISTIANITY
T.'s judgment on Christianity is hostile, as is evident from the description of the burning of Rome on 19 July 64, which devastated the Circus Maximus, the commercial quarter of the Velabrum, the Forum and the Carinae. He reports that according to the opinion of the historians from whom he draws, without naming them, according to his rule when they are in agreement (cf. Ann., XII, 20, 3), the fire was accidental or was attributed to the perfidy of Nero (forte an dolo principis incertum); and he clearly emphasizes how suspicions weighed on Nero among the citizenry, to divert which the Emperor substituted in his place (subdidit reos) that of the Christians. But he shows that he had a very poor opinion of these people, hated by the populace for their crimes (per flagitia invisus). And he goes on to affirm that this detestable superstition, checked for a moment, had blazed up again not only in Judaea, its homeland, but also in Rome "where everything atrocious and infamous in the world flows together." And after mentioning the most severe tortures to which they were condemned, he concludes by observing that although the Christians were guilty and deserving of the utmost severity, they nonetheless moved one to compassion because they seemed to be sacrificed not to the general interest, but to the cruelty of one man alone.
Although he was hostile to Christianity, his loyalty as a historian not only prevents him from clearly accusing them, but lets it be understood that the true culprit of the disaster was Nero.