The Roman City-State under the Emperors duringtheiryearofoffice,whocommandedthetwomainRomanarmies;
inotherwordsitwastheywhoexpanded,orfailedtoexpand,theimperium
oftheRomanpeople.Butinspiteofthis,evenintheRepublicitself,theidea
of writing ‘‘annalistic,’’ year-by-year history could seem inadequate, mere
chroniclingwithoutproperanalysisofintentionsandreasons.Preciselythis
viewhadbeenexpressedbySemproniusAselliointheprefacetotheresgestae
which hewrote in the second half of the second century..Butwecan
encounterhiswordsnowonlybecausetheywerequotedbyAulusGellius,
writinginthemiddleofthesecondcentury..^2 —andthusonlyafewde-
cadesafterTacitushadfinishedhisAnnales.Inshort,ahighlyeducatedsena-
torialorator,likeTacitus,writingintheearliersecondcentury,musthave
knownthatitmightseemoddlyold-fashionedtowrite‘‘annalistic’’history.
So,tocalltheworkAnnaleswasadeliberatechoice,andaveryparadoxi-
calone.Fortheconsulsoftheimperialperioddidnotleadarmies,butheld
office in Rome, and usually not even for the whole year. One thing they
diddowastopresideintheSenate.Astowhatelsetheydid,theevidence
nowavailableshows,forinstance,thattheygavejurisdictionanddealtwith
contractsforpublicrevenuesandexpenditures.Butiftheywereever,like
DomitiusCorbuloorIuliusAgricola,togetthechancetocommandarmies,
itwasaftertheirconsulship,sometimeslongafter,andonlywhenappointed
byanemperor.Theircampaignswhenintheirprovincescouldextendover
severalyears.
SochoosingtowriteAnnaleswasacontroversialdecisionforasenatorof
the early second century, and onewhich, asTacitus himself found, caused
variousdifficulties:insomeyears,ashecomplains,nothingmuchhappened
inRome;^3 inotherperiodscampaignsonthefrontiersdidnotreallymake
senseifdividedupyear-by-year.^4 ThesearesomeofthereasonswhyIhave
always found it hard to discern what the purpose and subject of Tacitus’
Annalesreallyis.Butoneaspectofhowtheworkisconstructedisclear,and
hasbecomeincomparablyclearerasaresultofdramaticrecentdiscoveries
of new evidence.That is that, to a quite extraordinary extent, the narra-
. AulusGellius,Noct.Att.,.
. See, e.g.,Ann. , , : ‘‘In theyear in which Nerowas consul for the second and
L.Pisoforthefirsttimefewthingsworthrecordingoccurred,unlessitpleasesonetofill
volumes with the praise of the foundations and beams of the huge amphitheatrewhich
CaesarconstructedontheCampusMartius;forithasbeenjudgedfittingthedignitasofthe
RomanpeoplethatillustriousdeedsshouldbeassignedtoAnnales,whereastheaforemen-
tionedeventstothedailyjournalofthecity.’’
. See,e.g.,Ann.,,.