Tacitus (c. 55-c. 120 CE), renowned for concision and psychology, is paramount as a historian of the early Roman empire. What survives of Histories covers the dramatic years 69-70. What survives of Annals tells an often-terrible tale. The surviving portions of his two major works the Annals and the Histories examine the reigns of the emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors (69 AD). These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus (14 AD) to the death of Domitian (96 AD), although there are substantial missing parts in the surviving texts.

Volume I: Agricola. Germania. Dialogus. Volume II: Histories, Books 1-3. Volume III: Histories, Books 4-5 and Annals, Books 1-3. Volume IV: Annals, Books 4-6, 11-12.