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Tacitus publishes the Agricola, a filial biography of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, in 98 CE

Archival locator: The Latin Library — Tacitus, Agricola at https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tacitus/tac.agri.shtml (The Latin Library). Independent locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica). In the causal graph this event strengthens Digital Learning Access, a driver that weakens Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries) — an improving welfare path.

Read the full account

In 98, under Trajan’s first year as received, Tacitus wrote De vita Iulii Agricolae: birth, Massilia education, British commands, death in 93, and a closing consolation. He did not command the fleet around Britain. The book is pietas and a document of Domitianic silence, not a modern CV. Archival locator: The Latin Library — Tacitus, Agricola at https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tacitus/tac.agri.shtml (opens in a new tab) (The Latin Library). Independent locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (opens in a new tab) (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Context

Biography of a relative is an old Roman form; Tacitus says he needed pardon even to write it. Education here is a public life used later as the main connected account of Flavian Britain. The conquest and Calgacus rows store the imperial harm without cloning this title. Nerva/Trajan ‘libertas’ in the preface is the thaw.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Mixed effects of Tacitus publishes the Agricola, a filial biography of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, in 98 CE are separate paths.

Why it matters

A finished public life after a terror is an education path: names, campaigns, and a theory of greatness under bad emperors. High confidence on the work; the Britain ethnography inside it is mixed and split onto the conquest row.

That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Tacitus

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.4 · verified

    He wrote the Latin biography. Agricola is the subject; Julia Agricola the link. Complex; Britain’s conquered are another path.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.The Latin Library — Tacitus, AgricolaThe Latin Library · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Britannica — TacitusEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Latin Library Agricola is the public Latin. Britannica independently dates the Agricola (and Germania) to 98. Loeb Volume I is a later bilingual. Perseus English is another carrier. No autograph colophon survives; 98 is received from the preface’s political moment.

Established: Agricola as his 98 book. Not established: a printer’s day, or that every British toponym is surveyed. Conventional year. Not a 1970 Loeb revision as the act.

Shared responsibility is part of Tacitus publishes the Agricola, a filial biography of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, in 98 CE. Naming Tacitus does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 0098-01-01 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorTacitus
  2. contributed toFactTacitus publishes the Agricola, a filial biography of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, in 98 CE
  3. strengthensDriverDigital Learning Access
  4. weakensIndicatorLearning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Tacitus publishes the Agricola, a filial biography of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, in 98 CE. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/tac-agricola-biography

https://factrail.ai/facts/tac-agricola-biography

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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