The Annals of Imperial Rome

Written in the early second century, this Latin history of Rome under the Julio-Claudian emperors survives in incomplete books covering the reign of Tiberius, parts of Claudius, and Nero, after the death of Augustus. Tacitus follows successive principes, the Senate's fear and flattery, treason trials, palace freedmen, and the armies on the Rhine and in the East. Figures include Germanicus, Agrippina, Sejanus, Messalina, and the court around Nero. Speeches, omens, and moral contrast between republic and principate shape the method. The work is a political narrative of imperial power, not a social survey of the whole Roman world, and several years of the original text are lost.

Bound in gilt image blocked brown cloth. Dark brown slipcase.