Tacitus, tas'i-tus (about 54-117 A. D.), a Roman historian and orator. His principal works are his Agricola, Germania, and Annals. The first is the life of his father-in-law, an eminent Roman general; the second is an account of the German tribes along the Rhine; the third is a history of his own time. His style is marked by brevity and a brilliant choice of words. He does not deal with cause and effect, nor does he attempt to give both sides. He is intensely partisan. In that respect, at least, there is a resemblance between Tacitus and Macaulay who admired the Roman very much. In a use of happily chosen words some have called attention to a similarity between Tacitus' Annals and Carlyle's Frederick the Great. See LATIN.