Excerpt from The Life Of Agricola And Germany Ublius' cornelius tacitus, the greatest of the Roman historians, fiourished in the reign of the Emperor Trajan (a.d. 98 There is no positive evidence as to the place of his birth, or its date, or the time of his death. A tradition of no great value makes him a native of Interamna. This was the birthplace of the Emperor Tacitus, who claimed kinship with the historian. As to the year of his birth, we know only that he was somewhat older than his intimate friend, the younger Pliny, who was born a.d. 61 or 62. Pliny himself says (epp. Vii. Zo) that they were propemaa'um aequales but adds adulescentzzlus, cum jam tu fama glarz'aque floreres, fe segui. Ancupz'scaeam. These expressions may point to a difference in age of four or five, possibly even eight or ten, years: we can not well place the birth of Tacitus earlier than 5 I or later than 56. The best authorities are generally agreed upon a.d. 54. Two or three considerations tell in favor of an earlier date. In the Life of Agricola (chap. III.) he appears to reckon himself among those who, being juvenes at the accession of Domitian, had arrived ad senectutem under the rule of that tyrant. Now forty-five was the age of senatus according to Roman law; and as Domitian died in 96, Tacitus can hardly have been born much later than 5 1. Again, the narration of. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.