Tacitus

by Rhiannon Ash

This series of short incisive books introduces major figures of the ancient world to the modern general reader, including the essentials of each subject's life, works, and significance for later western civilisation. Tacitus is arguably the most significant writer of the Roman imperial period. His biting creativity is best known to us through his historical narratives. The Histories ruthlessly depicts the disastrous civil wars which exploded in AD 68-9, while the Annals chillingly documents the murky principates of the Julio-Claudian emperors from Tiberius to Nero. Tacitus is driven throughout by a desire to reveal escalating corruption and selfish ambitions and to demonstrate how and why such a debased world evolved after the death of Augustus. This book sets Tacitus clearly in context, surveying all his works and clarifying the traditions of ancient writing that informed and shaped his narratives. It also traces how his works have been used and abused in subsequent eras.

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2006

About the author

Dr. Rhiannon Ash is Fellow and Tutor in Classics and Merton College, Oxford University. She has published widely on Tacitus' Histories (including a monograph, Ordering Anarchy: Armies and Leaders in Tacitus' Histories (1999) and a commentary on the Latin text of Tacitus Histories Book 2 (2007). She is interested in all Latin prose literature of the imperial period, including Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger.