the empire. Velleius Paterculus,
an excellent historian descended from a patrician family, was born about
B.C. 19. He was the friend and flatterer of Tiberius, and rose, in
consequence, to several high offices. He was Quaestor in perhaps A.D. 7,
and Praetor in A.D. 15. His _Historicae Romanae_, two books of which
remain, is an abridgment of the history of the world, written in a clear
and pleasing style, and is, in general, trustworthy. He flatters his
benefactors, Augustus and Tiberius, but his fine tribute to the memory
of Cicero shows that he felt a strong sympathy with that chief of the
Republicans.

Valerius Maximus, who also lived under Tiberius, wrote a considerable
work, composed of remarkable examples of virtue, and other anecdotes,
collected from Roman or foreign history. He had plainly a just
conception of moral purity, although he dedicates his book to Tiberius.
His style is inflated and tasteless, but the work is not without
interest.

Next after Valerius arose Tacitus, the chief of the imperial prose
writers. Tacitus, a plebeian by birth, was born at Interamna. The year
of his birth is not known, but must have lain between A.D. 47 and A.D.
61. Tacitus served in the army under Vespasian and Titus. He rose to
many honors in the state, but in A.D. 89 left Rome, together with his
wife, the daughter of the excellent Agricola. He returned thither in
A.D. 97, and was made Consul by the Emperor Nerva. His death took place,
no doubt, after A.D. 117. So few are the particulars that remain of the
life of this eminent man; but the disposition and sentiments of Tacitus
may be plainly discovered in his writings. He was honest, candid, a
sincere lover of virtue. He lamented incessantly the fall of the old
republic, and does not spare Augustus or Tiberius, whom he believed to
be its destroyers. Like Juvenal, whom he resembled in the severity of
his censure as well as the greatness of his powers, Tacitus wrote in a
sad, desponding temper of mind, as if he foresaw the swift decline of
his country.

His style is wholly his own--concise, obscure, strong, forever arousing
the attention. He could never have attained the easy elegance of Livy,
and he never tells a story with the grace of that unequaled narrator,
but he has more vigor in his descriptions, more reality in his
characters.

The life of his father-in-law Agricola is one of the most delightful of
biographies. His account of the Germans was a silent satire upon t