Tacitus (c. 56/57-117)
“What interests and stimulates readers is a geographical description, the changing fortune of battle, the glorious death of a commander. My themes on the other hand concern cruel orders, unremitting accusations, treacherous friendships, innocent men ruined – a conspicuously monotonous glut of downfalls and their monotonous causes.”
- The Annals of Imperial Rome (Book IV, section 33), by Tacitus, translated by Michael Grant (Penguin Classics, 1996).
