Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/30

Rh had a great reputation during his lifetime. On one occasion a Roman knight, who sat by his side in the circus at the celebration of some games, asked him, "Are you from Italy or from the provinces?" His answer was, "You know me from your reading." To which the knight replied, "Are you then Tacitus or Pliny?"

Pliny, as we see clearly from several passages in his letters, had the highest opinion of his friend's ability and worth. He consults him about a school which he thinks of establishing at Comum (Como), his birthplace, and asks him to look out for suitable teachers and professors. And he pays him the high compliment, "I know that your Histories will be immortal, and this makes me the more anxious that my name should appear in them."

The following is a list of Tacitus’s remaining works, arranged in their probable chronological order, which may be approximately inferred from internal evidence:—(1) the Dialogue on Orators, about 76 or 77; (2) the Life of Agricola, 97 or 98; (3) the Germany, 98, published probably in 99; (4) the Histories (Historiæ), completed probably by 115 or 116, the last years of Trajan’s reign (he must have been at work on them for many years); (5) the Annals, his latest work probably, written in part perhaps along with the Histories, and completed subsequently to Trajan’s reign, which he may very well have outlived.

Murphy’s translation (a paraphrase we should call it) is perhaps one of the best known; it was published early in the present century. On this was based the so-called Oxford translation, published by Bohn in a revised edition. The latest translation is that by Messrs Church and Brodribb. There is on the whole a good French translation by Louandre. The editions of Tacitus are very numerous. Among more recent editions, the best and most useful are Orelli’s (1859); Ritter’s (1864); Nipperdey’s (1879); Furneaux’s (Annals, i.-vi.), vol. i., Clarendon Press, 1884.

 TACITUS,, Roman emperor from September 25, 275, to April 276, was a native of Interamna (Terni) in Umbria, and was born about the year 200. In the course of his long life he discharged the duties of various civil offices, including that of consul in 273, with universal respect. Six months after the assassination of Aurelian he was chosen by the senate to succeed him, and the choice was cordially ratified by the army. During his brief reign he set on foot some domestic reforms, and 