Histories (Tacitus)
Roman historical chronicle covering the Year of Four Emperors.
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Histories originally covered the period from AD 69, following the death of Nero, through AD 96, the end of Domitian's reign, including the Year of Four Emperors and the rise of the Flavian dynasty. Only the first four books and part of the fifth survive, reaching the year 70 and the beginning of Vespasian's reign.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Tacitus
- Original coverage
- c. 69–96
- Surviving coverage
- 69–70
- Genre
- Historical chronicle
- Language
- Latin
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The Histories and the Annals together amounted to 30 books, as noted by Saint Jerome, though scholars disagree on how to assign the books to each work; traditionally, fourteen are assigned to the Histories and sixteen to the Annals. Tacitus' friend Pliny the Younger referred to 'your histories' when writing to Tacitus about the earlier work. The surviving portion of the Histories covers the year 69 and the first part of 70, including the civil wars of the Year of Four Emperors—Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian—and the beginning of Vespasian's reign. The fifth book contains a short ethnographic survey of the ancient Jews as a prelude to the account of Titus' victory in the First Jewish–Roman War.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Histories (Tacitus) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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