Tacitus (ca. AD 55-120) is an essential historian of the early Roman empire. Agricola narrates its subject's career in Britain. Germania is a description of German tribes as known to the Romans. Dialogus concerns the decline of oratory and education.
"Dialogue on Oratory" is a lively conversation of three friends--a lawyer, a poet, and a connoisseur of oratory--about declining standards in the art of public speaking (a question that also troubled Quintilian). The discussion, relaxed and urbane, is concerned with eloquence in both political and lawcourt speeches. This work by Tacitus has a distinctly Ciceronian air.
