Tacitus

===History of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus===
The ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'' and the ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]'', published separately, were meant to form a single edition of thirty books.<ref>[[Jerome]]'s commentary on the [[Book of Zechariah]] (14.1, 2; quoted in Mendell, 1957, p. 228) says that Tacitus's history was extant ''triginta voluminibus'', "in thirty volumes".</ref>
Although Tacitus wrote the ''Histories'' before the ''Annals'', the events in the ''Annals'' precede the ''Histories''; together they form a continuous narrative from the death of [[Augustus]] (14) to the death of [[Domitian]] (96). Though most has been lost, what remains is an invaluable record of the era. The first half of the ''Annals'' survived in a single manuscript from [[Princely Abbey of Corvey|Corvey Abbey]] in Germany, and the second half in a single manuscript from [[Monte Cassino]] in Italy; it is remarkable that they survived at all.

====The ''Histories''====
{{Main|Histories (Tacitus)}}
In an early chapter of the ''Agricola'', Tacitus asserts that he wishes to speak about the years of Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In the ''Histories'' the scope has changed; Tacitus says that he will deal with the age of Nerva and Trajan at a later time. Instead, he will cover the period from the civil wars of the [[Year of the Four Emperors]] and end with the despotism of the [[Flavian dynasty|Flavians]]. Only the first four books and twenty-six chapters of the fifth book survive, covering the year 69 and the first part of 70. The work is believed to have continued up to the death of Domitian on September 18, 96. The fifth book contains—as a prelude to the account of Titus's suppression of the [[First Jewish–Roman War]]—a short [[ethnography|ethnographic]] survey of the ancient [[Jews]], and it is an invaluable record of Roman attitudes towards them.

====The ''Annals''====
{{Main|Annals (Tacitus)}}
The ''Annals'', Tacitus's final work, covers the period from the death of [[Augustus]] in AD&nbsp;14. He wrote at least sixteen books, but books&nbsp;7–10 and parts of books&nbsp;5, 6, 11, and 16 are missing. Book&nbsp;6 ends with the death of [[Tiberius]], and books 7–12 presumably covered the reigns of [[Caligula]] and [[Claudius]]. The remaining books cover the reign of Nero, perhaps until his death in June 68 or until the end of that year to connect with the ''Histories''. The second half of book&nbsp;16 is missing, ending with the events of 66. It is not known whether Tacitus completed the work; he died before he could complete his planned histories of Nerva and Trajan, and no record survives of the work on Augustus and the beginnings of the [[Roman Empire]], with which he had planned to finish his work. The ''Annals'' is one of the earliest secular historical records to mention [[Jesus|Christ]], which Tacitus does in connection with [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire#Neronian persecution|Nero's persecution of the Christians]].
[[File:MII.png|thumb|''Annals'' 15.44, in the second Medicean manuscript]]