Annals and Histories: Introduction by Robin Lane Fox

A wholly revised and updated translated of the complete historical works of the greatest chronicler of the Roman Empire, presented in a fine hardcover edition.

A brilliant narrator and a master stylist, Cornelius Tacitus served as administrator and senator, a career that gave him an intimate view of the empire at its highest levels, and of the dramatic, violent, and often bloody events of the first century. In the Annals, he writes about Augustus Caesar’s death and observes the inner workings of the courts of the emperors Tiberius and Nero. In the Histories, he describes an empire in tumult, four emperors reigning in one year, each overthrown by the next. The Agricola, a biography of Tacitus’s father-in-law, Julius Agricola—the most celebrated governor of Roman Britain—is the first detailed account of the island that would eventually rule over a quarter of the earth. And in the Germania, the famed warrior-barbarians of ancient Germany come richly to life.

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Everyman’s Library Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

CORNELIUS TACITUS was born c. 55 A.D. and died in 117 A.D.

ELEANOR COWEN is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Sydney.

ROBIN LANE FOX is Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at New College, Oxford.