Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (c. 56–c. 120) was a Roman senator and the greatest historian of imperial Rome. Probably born in southern Gaul, he rose to the consulship in 97 and governed the province of Asia around 112. His earliest works, both from about 98, are the Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law, the governor of Britain, and the Germania, an account of the peoples beyond the Rhine. The Histories covered the civil wars of 69; the Annals, his masterpiece, the reigns from Tiberius to Nero. His terse, bitter style and his analysis of how liberty died under the emperors have made him a touchstone for every later writer on tyranny.