Annals

Annals
By Publics Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
Published between 70 AD and 120 AD
448 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 3/5


I read most of the Annals, likely 75%, before moving on.


Tacitus is very clear compared to other authors from the same period, but is difficult by modern standards. He is especially difficult to read and understand without a solid knowledge of the historical context of Tacitus.


Its extremely dry reading, and a real snoozefest. One doesn’t read Tacitus for fun, one reads Tacitus to learn history.


I don’t feel like I’ve learned a lot. There are many interesting tidbits, the most interesting being that Tacitus mentions that the Egyptian Empire once included Scythia (modern day Ukraine) and Bactria (modern day India), which seems like a very bold claim. It makes me wonder if there is a lost empire that predates Rome that we cannot see.


Modern historians have doubts about the voracity of Tacitus as most of his work was suddenly rediscovered during the renaissance seemingly out of the blue.