The Annals & The Histories

Cornelius Tacitus brilliantly chronicles the moral decline and rampant civil unrest in the Roman Empire in a period when the earliest foundations of modern Europe were being laid. The Annals commence in a.d. 14 at the death of Augustus recounting the reigns of Tiberius Gaius (Caligula) Claudius and Nero and conclude in a.d. 68 the year of Neros suicide. The Histories document the tumultuous year a.d. 69 when Emperors Galba Otho and Vitellius all perished in quick succession ushering in Vespasians ten-year reign. According to historian Will Durant [We must] rank Tacitus among the greatest. . . . The portraits he draws stand out more clearly stride the stage more livingly than any others in historical literature. This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes newly commissioned endnotes.