autumn of 81.

Had his appointment to the aedileship taken place on the last day
of the reign of Titus, he would then be but 29 years old; and
though in the time of the Emperors, after the year 9 of our aera,
there might be a remission of one or more years by the Lex Julia
or the Lex Pappia Poppaea, those laws enacted rewards and
privileges to encourage marriage and the begetting of children;
the remission could, therefore, be in favour only of married men,
especially those who had children; so that any such indulgence in
the competition for the place of honours could not have been
granted to Tacitus, he not being, as will be immediately seen, yet
married. In order, then, that he should have been aedile under
Titus,--even admitting that he could boast, like Cicero, of having
obtained all his honours in the prescribed years--"omnes honores
anno suo"--and been aedile the moment he was qualified by age for
the office,--he must have been born, at least, as far back as the
year 44.

This will be reconcilable with all that Pliny says, as well as
with his being married when "young"; for he would then be 32 or
33, and his bride 22 or 23; for the daughter of Agricola was born
when her father was quaestor in Asia--"sors quaesturae provinciam
Asiam dedit ... auctus est ibi filia." (Agr. 9). Nor let it be
supposed that a Roman would not have used the epithet "young" to a
man of 32 or 33, seeing that the Romans applied the term to men in
their best years, from 20 to 40, or a little under or over. Hence
Livy terms Alexander the Great at the time of his death, when he
was 31, "a young man," "egregium ducem fuisse Alexandrum ...
adolescens ... decessit" (ix. 17): so Cicero styles Lucius Crassus