Tacitus
Topic: The Roman Empire · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "An Empire Across Three Continents"
Meaning
Tacitus was a famous Roman historian of the early empire. Like most surviving Roman historians, he wrote from the senators' point of view. His writings are a key source on Roman society and politics. They include his picture of the social ladder of the early empire.
Example
Tacitus ranked early imperial society as senators, then equites (knights), then respectable people attached to great houses, then the plebs sordida (the unkempt poor who loved the circus and theatre), and finally slaves. He also recorded what happened when the City Prefect Pedanius Secundus was murdered by a slave. Custom demanded that all of his slaves be executed. Crowds rioted to save them, and Nero had to line the route of the execution with troops.
Don't confuse with
- Pliny the Elder: an author of natural history and farm practices. Tacitus wrote history and politics.