The histories of Roman senator Cornelius <strong>Tacitus</strong> constitute the mostinfluential examination of tyranny political behavior and public morality f... » 

The histories of Roman senator Cornelius Tacitus constitute the mostinfluential examination of tyranny political behavior and public morality fromthe classical age. For centuries these portraits of courageous martyrs tofreedom of paranoid tyrants and of sycophantic flatteres and informers shapedmodern political attitudes. Ronald Mellor provides a compelling analysis of theideas of the greatest historian of evil in the western intellectual tradition.In Tacitus Ronald Mellor passionately argues for reclaiming this ironic geniuswhose cynical world view is particularly wellsuited to an analysis of thetyranny and brutality in our own century.Tacitus is presented as a moralist psychologist political analyst andliterary artist. Tacitus greatest impact has never been on historians. Ratherhis political vision and dramatic images left their mark on painters poets andthinkers. «