Annals

Blurb

The Annals by Roman historian and senator Tacitus is a history of the Roman Empire from the reign of Tiberius to that of Nero, the years AD 14–68. The Annals are an important source to modern understanding of the history of the Roman Empire during the first century. The Annals is Tacitus' final work, and modern historians generally consider it his greatest writing. Historian Ronald Mellor considers it "Tacitus's crowning achievement" which represents the "pinnacle of Roman historical writing".
Tacitus' Histories and Annals together amounted to thirty books; although some scholars disagree about which work to assign some books to, traditionally fourteen are assigned to Histories and sixteen to Annals. Of the 30 books referred to by Jerome about half have survived.
Modern scholars believe that as a Roman senator, Tacitus had access to Acta Senatus—the Roman senate's records—thus providing a solid basis for his work. Although Tacitus refers to part of his work as "my annals", the title of the work Annals used today was not assigned by Tacitus himself, but derives from its year-by-year structure.