by the
_vigintiviratus_ given by the Senate, and a commission in the army as
_tribunus militum laticlavius_; that Titus appointed him quaestor A.D.
80-1; and that Domitian made him tribune or aedile (about 84), and in
A.D. 88 praetor. For the last office cf. _Ann._ xi. 11,

'Is [Domitianus] edidit ludos saeculares, eisque intentius adfui
sacerdotio quindecimvirali praeditus ac tunc praetor.'

That Tacitus was absent from Rome A.D. 90-93 we may infer from what he
says of Agricola's death (A.D. 93).

_Agr._ 45, 'Nobis tam longae absentiae condicione ante quadriennium
amissus est.'

He must have returned to Rome soon afterwards, for he says in the same
chapter: 'Mox nostrae duxere Helvidium in carcerem manus; nos Maurici
Rusticique visus, nos innocenti sanguine Senecio perfudit.'

Tacitus was appointed consul suffectus under Trajan A.D. 98 (see
Pliny, _Ep._ ii. 1, 6, above quoted).

An inscription found at Mylasa in Caria shows that Tacitus was
proconsul of Asia about 112-116 A.D.[111]

Tacitus probably died soon after the publication of the _Annals_ (A.D.
115-7), as he did not live to write his contemplated works on the
Augustan age and the reigns of Nerva and Trajan.

_Hist._ i. 1, 'Quod si vita suppeditet, principatum divi Nervae et
imperium Traiani ... senectuti seposui.'

_Ann._ iii. 24, 'Cetera illius aetatis [Augusti] memorabo, si effectis
in quae tetendi, plures ad curas vitam produxero.'

Tacitus was on intimate terms with Pliny, eleven of whose letters are
addressed to him. From vii. 20 and viii. 7 we see that they were in
the habit of "exchanging proof-sheets." To the same circle belonged
Fabius Iustus, to whom the _Dialogus_ is dedicated, and Asinius Rufus.

Pliny, _Ep._ iv. 15, 1, 'Asinium Rufum singulariter amo. ... Idem
Cornelium Tacitum arta familiaritate complexus est.'

(2) WORKS.

1. _Dialogus de Oratoribus_, an inquiry into the causes of the decay
of eloquence--'cur nostra potissimum aetas deserta et laude
eloquentiae orbata vix nomen ipsum oratoris retineat' (_Dial._ 1).
Some critics have supposed that Tacitus meant this work to be an
_apologia pro vita sua_, a justification of his preference for a
literary to a rhetorical career, but this cannot be proved. That
Tacitus is the author is clear from Pliny, _Ep._ ix. 10, 2, 'Itaque
poemata quiescunt, quae tu inter nemora et lucos commodissime perfici
putas'--a reference to _Dial._ 9, 'poetis ... in nemora et lucos, id
est in solitudinem