Tacitus

Tacitus wrote the Agricola, Germania, Histories and Annals. His historical works cover the Julio-Claudian and Flavian worlds with compressed style, moral severity and close attention to fear, rumour, informers and the psychology of rule.

He belongs in Classical for pages on imperial Rome, Nero, the Year of the Four Emperors, Britain, Germania and senatorial political culture. Many Roman historical novels rely on the darker imperial world he helped define.