Of "The History," only four books have been preserved; and they contain
the events of a single year: a year, it is true, which, saw three civil
wars, and four Emperors destroyed; a year of crime, and accidents, and
prodigies: there are few sentences more powerful, than Tacitus'
enumeration of these calamities, in the opening chapters. The fifth book
is imperfect; it is of more than common interest to some people, because
Tacitus mentions the siege of Jerusalem by Titus; though what he says
about the Chosen People, here and elsewhere, cannot be satisfactory to
them nor gratifying to their admirers. With this fragment, about revolts
in the provinces of Gaul and Syria, "The History" ends. "The Annals" begin
with the death of Augustus, in the year 14; and they were continued until
the death of Nero, in 68. The reign of Tiberius is nearly perfect, though
the fall of Sejanus is missing out of it. The whole of Caligula, the
beginning of Claudius, and the end of Nero, have been destroyed: to those,
who know the style of Tacitus and the lives and genius of Caligula and
Nero, the loss is irreparable; and the admirers of Juvenal must always
regret, that from the hand of Tacitus we have only the closing scene, and
not the golden prime, of Messalina.
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