Histories (Tacitus)

First page of the Histories in its first printed edition

Histories (Latin: Historiae) is a Roman historical chronicle by Tacitus. Written c. 100–110, its complete form covered c. 69–96, a period which includes the Year of Four Emperors following the downfall of Nero, as well as the period between the rise of the Flavian dynasty under Vespasian and the death of Domitian.[1] However, the surviving portion of the work only reaches the year 70 and the very beginning of the reign of Vespasian.

Together, the Histories and the Annals amounted to 30 books. Saint Jerome refers to these books explicitly, and about half of them have survived. Although scholars disagree on how to assign the books to each work, traditionally, fourteen are assigned to Histories and sixteen to the Annals. Tacitus' friend Pliny the Younger referred to "your histories" when writing to Tacitus about the earlier work.[2]

By the time Tacitus had completed the Histories, it covered Roman history from AD 69, following Nero's death, to AD 96, the end of Domitian's reign. The Annals deals with the five decades before Nero, from AD 14, the reign of Tiberius, to AD 68, when Nero died.[1]

  1. ^ a b Martin, Ronald H. (1981). Tacitus and the Writing of History. pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-520-04427-4.
  2. ^ Tacitus, Cornelius (12 June 2008). The Annals: The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero. Translated by Yardley, J. C. Oxford. pp. ii–xxvii. ISBN 978-0-19-282421-9.