A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

968 TACIT US. TACITUS.
again urged the fathers to yield to their wishes; vastations across the peninsula to the confines of
and although again met with the same reply, still Cilicia.
persisted in their original solicitation. This ex- But the advanced years and failing strength of
traordinary contest continued for upwards of six Tacitus were unable any longer to support the
months, " an amazing period," says Gibbon, " of cares and toils so suddenly imposed upon him, and
tranquil anarchy, during which the Roman world his anxieties were still farther increased by the
remained without a sovereign, without an usurper, mutinous spirit of the army, which soon ceased to
and without sedition." respect a leader whose bodily and mental energies
Such a state of things could not however long were fast hurrying to decay. After a short struggle,
endure. The barbarians on the frontiers, who he sunk under the attack of a fever, either at
had been quelled and daunted by the skill and Tarsus or at Tyana, about the 9th of April, A. DI.
daring valour of Aurelian, were not slow to take 276; according to Victor, exactly two hundred
advantage of the opportunity presented by this days after his accession. By one account, he fell
strange position of public affairs. The Germans a victim to the anger of the soldiers; but the
had already crossed the Rhine: Persia, Syria, weight of evidence tends to prove that they were
Africa, Illyria and Egypt were in commotion, not the direct instruments, at least, of his dewhen the senate, at lenath convinced that the struction.
soldiers were sincere, joyfully prepared to dis- Our best authority is the biography of Vopiscus,
charge a duty so unexpectedly devolved upon who, if not actually an eyewitness of what he rethem. At a meeting convoked on the 25th of counts, had an opportunity of consulting the rich
September, A. D. 275, by the consul Velius Corni- collection of state papers stored up in the Ulpian
ficius Gordianus, all with one voice declared that Library; and from these he gives several remarkno one could be found so worthy of the throne as able extracts. He refers also to a more complete
M. Claudius Tacitus, an aged consular, a native of life of Tacitus by a certain Suetonius Optatianus,
Interamna (Vopisc. Florian. 2), who claimed de- but of this no fragment remains. See likewise
scent from the great historian whose name he bore, Eutrop. ix. 10; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. xxxvi. Epit.
who was celebrated for his devotion to literature, xxxvi.; Zonar. xii. 28, who says that he was
for his vast wealth, for his pure and upright seventy-five years old, and in Campania, when
character, and who stood first on the roll. The proclaimed emperor. [W. R.]
real or feigned earnestness with which he declined
the proffered honour, on account of his advanced
age and infirmities, was encountered by the re-;..
iterated acclamations of his brethren, who overwhelmed him with arguments and precedents, /1 S
until at length, yielding to their importunate zeal, l[ X
he consented to proceed to the Campus Martius,
and there received the greetings of the people, and o s iO X
the praetorians assembled to do homage to their % o
new ruler. Quitting the city, he repaired to the
great army still quartered in Thrace, by whom, on
their being promised the arrears of pay and the
customary donative, he was favourably received. COIN OF M. CLAUDIUS TACITUS.
One of his first acts was to seek out and put to
death all who had been concerned in the murder TA'CITUS, C. CORNE'LIUTS, the historian.
of his predecessor, whose character he held in high The time and place of the birth of Tacitus are unhonour, commanding statues of gold and silver to known. He was nearly of the same age as the
be erected to his memory in the most frequented younger Plinius (Plin. Ep. vii. 20) who was born
thoroughfares of the metropolis. He likewise di- about A.D. 61 [C. PLINIUS CAECILIUS SECUNDUS],
rected his attention to the improvement of public but a little older. His gentile name is not sufficient
morals by the enactment of various sumptuary evidence that he belonged to the Cornelia Gens;
laws regulating the amusements, luxurious indul- nor is there proof of his having been born at
gences, and dress of the citizens, he himself setting Interamna (Terni), as it is sometimes affirmed.
an example to all around, by the abstemiousness, Some facts relative to his biography may be colsimplicity, and frugality of his own habits. His lected from his pxwn writings and from the letters
great object was to revive the authority of the of his friend, the younger Plinius.
senate, which now for a brief period asserted and Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman eques, is mentioned
maintained a semblance of its ancient dignity, and by Plinius (II. N. vii. 16, note, ed. Hardouin)
the private letters preserved by Vopiscus (Florian. as a procurator in Gallia Belgica. Plinius died
6) exhibit an amusing picture of the sacrifices and A. ID. 79, and the procurator cannot have been the
banquets by which the senators manifested their historian; but he may have been his father. In
exultation at the prospect opening up before them an inscription of doubtful authority he is named
of a complete restoration of their ancient privileges. Cornelius Verus Tacitus. Tacitus was first proThe only military achievement of this reign was moted by the emperor Vespasian (Hist. i. 1), and
the defeat and expulsion from Asia Minor of a he received other favours from his sons Titus and
party of Goths, natives of the shores of the sea of Domitian. C. Julius Agricola, who was consul
Asof, who having been invited by Aurelian to co- A. D. 77, betrothed his daughter to Tacitus in that
operate in his meditated invasion of the East, and year, but the marriage did not take place until the
having been disappointed of their promised reward following year. In the reign of Domitian, and in
by the death of that prince, had turned their arms A. nD. 88, Tacitus was praetor, and he assisted as
against the peaceful provinces on the southern one of the quindecemviri at the solemnity of the
coasts of the Euxine, and had carried their de- Ludi Seculares which were celebrated in that year,