Welcome to Tacitus!

This site exists as an archive of political and historical topics, mostly related to governance and nation-states. It is run by Tacitus, a scholar who wishes to remain anonymous.

One of this site’s most famous attractions is our political dictionary, which contains definitions for widely used political words and phrases such as republic and democracy. You may also be interested in our archive of legal documents from totalitarian states.

Who Was Tacitus?

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 - 118) was a Roman historian who is widely considered to have been one of the greatest Roman scholars. He was born around AD 56, during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, to a prosperous family in the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul (now modern-day northern Italy). Receiving an elite education, he studied both law and rhetoric; among his curriculum was the noted Roman orator Cicero.

He had a long career in Rome’s government institutions, serving as tribune of the plebs, one of the two yearly consuls, and proconsul for the Asian provinces. In writing, he is most famous for Histories and Annals, historical texts documenting the history of the empire from the time of the Julio-Claudians to the reign of Domitian.

From a religious perspective, Tacitus is famous among Christians for providing a contemporary account of the death of Jesus, and the persecution of his followers throughout the Roman Empire.