writer's Treatise on Archaic or Obsolete Words, where explaining
"Elogium" to mean "hereditary disease," he continues, "as
Cornelius Tacitus says in his book of Facetiae; 'therefore pained
in the cutting off of children who had hereditary disease left to
them'": "Elogium est haereditas in malo; sicut Cornelius Tacitus
ait in libro Facetiarum: 'caesis itaque motum elogio in filiis
derelicto.'" (De Vocibus Antiquis. p. 151. Basle ed. 1549).
Justus Lipsius doubts whether the Discourse on the Causes of the
Corruption of Latin Eloquence proceeded from Tacitus, or the other
Roman to whom many impute it, Quintilian, for he says in his
Preface to that Dialogue: "What will it matter whether we
attribute it to Tacitus, or, as I once thought, to Marcus Fabius
Quinctilianus? ... Though the age of Quinctilianus seems to have
been a little too old for this Discourse to be by that young man.
Therefore, I have my doubts." "Incommodi quid erit, sive Tacito
tribuamus; sive M. Fabio Quinctiliano, ut mihi olim visim? ...
Aetas tamen Quinctiliani paullo grandior fuisse videtur, quam ut
hic sermo illo juvene. Itaque ambigo." (p. 470. Antwerp ed. 1607.)
Enough will be said in the course of this discussion to carry
conviction to the minds of those who can be convinced by facts and
arguments that Tacitus did not write the Annals.

Chronology, in the first place, prevents our regarding him as the
author. Though we know as little of his life as of his writings--
and though no ancient mentions the date or place of his birth, or
the time of his death,--we can form a conjecture when he
flourished by comparing his age with that of his friend, Pliny the
Younger. Pliny died in the year 13 of the second century at the
age of 52, so that Pliny was born A.D. 61. Tacitus was by several
years his senior. Otherwise Pliny would not have spoken of himself