TACITIIS, Cmtrs CORNELIUS, the historian. Of his parentae, or of the time and place of his birth, we can only conjecture that his father was probably Cornelius Taeitus, a Roman eques, who is mentioned as a procurator in Gallia Belgiea, and who died in 79. From the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian he received promotion and other marks of favor; and in 78 he married the daughter of Caius Julius Agricola. In 88, when Domitian was emperor and Tacitus prwtor, he assisted as one of the quindecemviri at the celebration of the Ludi seculares. Agricola died in Rome in 83, while Tacitus and his wife were absent; and nothing further is known of the historian till 97, when, in the reign of Nerva, he was appointed consulsuffectus, succeeding Taeitus Virginius Rufus, whose funeral oration he delivered. Tacitus had already attained distinction as an •orator when the younger Pliny was entering upon public life; and both of them were appointed, in Nerva's reign in 09, to conduct the prosecution of Marius, then proconsul of Africa. Tacitus became one of the most intimate friends of Pliny, of whose letters 11 are addressed to him. The time of Tacitus's death is unknown, but he most proba bly survived Trajan, who died in 117. His extant works are: (1) Vita Agricola, written after the death of Domitian in 90, and universally admired as a masterpiece of noble sentiment and pregnant epigram. (2) Higorice, written after Nerva's death in 98, and
before the Annales, and embracing the period from the second consulship of Galba in 68 to the death of Domitian in 96. Only the first four books have reached us in a per fect state, but there must have been many more. (3) Annales, commencing with the death of Augustus in 14, and closing with the death of Nero in 68. These also have reached us only iu an imperfect state. (4) De Moribus et Populis Germania. This treatise is trustworthy only as regards those Germans who were best known to the Romans from their proximity to the Rhine. For the provinces beyond that river it has no value, whether geographical or political. (5) Dialogus de Oratoribus, if the work of Tacitus at all, must be his earliest. Tacitus is one of the greatest of historians. In love of truth and integrity of purpose he is equalled by few; in conciseness of phrase and power of saying much and implying more in one or two strokes of expression he is rivalled by none. The best editions are those of Orelli and Halm.