describes that eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which caused the death of old
Pliny, and overwhelmed the cities of Pompeii and of Herculaneum. The
public life of Tacitus began under Vespasian; and, therefore, he must have
witnessed some part of the reign of Nero: and we read in him, too, that he
was alive after the accession of the Emperor Trajan. In the year 77,
Julius Agricola, then Consul, betrothed his daughter to Tacitus; and they
were married in the following year. In 88, Tacitus was Praetor; and at the
Secular Games of Domitian, he was one of the _Quindecimviri_: these were
sad and solemn officers, guardians of the Sibylline Verse; and
intercessors for the Roman People, during their grave centenaries of
praise and worship.

_Quaeque Aventinum tenet Algidumque,
Quindecim Diana preces virorum
Curet; et vobis pueorum amicas
Applicet aures._

From a passage in "The Life of Agricola," we may believe that Tacitus
attended in the Senate; for he accuses himself as one of that frightened
assembly, which was an unwilling participator in the cruelties of
Domitian. In the year 97, when the Consul Virginius Rufus died, Tacitus'
was made _Consul Suffectus_; and he delivered the funeral oration of his
predecessor: Pliny says, that "it completed the good fortune of Rufus, to
have his panegyric spoken by so eloquent a man." From this, and from other
sayings, we learn that Tacitus was a famous advocate; and his "Dialogue
about Illustrious Orators" bears witness to his admirable taste, and to
his practical knowledge of Roman eloquence: of his own orations, however,
not a single fragment has been left. We know not, whether Tacitus had
children; but the Emperor Tacitus, who reigned in 275, traced his
genealogy to the Historian. "If we can prefer personal merit to accidental