reader to bear in mind that three things have now been shown:--
first, that, from the chronological point of view, Tacitus could
barely have written the Annals; secondly, that, from the silence
preserved about that book by all writers for upwards of 1300 years
from the death of Tacitus, there is cause for supposing it was not
in existence from his time, that is, the second century to the
fifteenth and sixteenth (the commencement of the fifteenth century
being the time of the forgery of the last six books, and the
commencement of the sixteenth the time of the publication of the
forged first six books);--and thirdly, that there is nothing to
contradict this theory of mine in the age of any of the known MSS.
containing a part, or the whole of the Annals; but, on the
contrary, to verify it, from the age of the oldest being limited
to the fifteenth century; and that if there be, or ever have been
others older, it is singular, and puzzling to account for, that
one of two things should have occurred; either that they are lost,
or else that their age cannot be determined,--both which latter
things are actually the case with respect to the two MSS. from
which the Annals was originally printed,--that which supplied the
concluding books being lost, and that which contains the whole of
it being of an age that nobody up till now has been able to
determine.




CHAPTER II.

A FEW REASONS FOR BELIEVING THE ANNALS TO BE A FORGERY.