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Tacitus writes that under Domitian’s last years senators, including himself, survived by silence after Agricola’s death

Agricola 2–3 and 45 state that under Domitian books were burned, speech and hearing were policed, and ‘we’ — Tacitus’s generation — were survivors of our own silence, some even with hands in Helvidius’s imprisonment. Conventional attachment is 93, Agricola’s death year, as the moral climax. In the causal graph this event strengthens Institutional Corruption, a driver that strengthens Political corruption index — a worsening welfare path.

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Agricola 2–3 and 45 state that under Domitian books were burned, speech and hearing were policed, and ‘we’ — Tacitus’s generation — were survivors of our own silence, some even with hands in Helvidius’s imprisonment. Conventional attachment is 93, Agricola’s death year, as the moral climax. 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

After Agricola’s death (93) and before Nerva (96), the senatorial opposition was hit. Tacitus was already praetor and priest; he was not a back-bench nobody. Corruption here is institutional: a Senate that watches. It is not proven that he denounced named victims.

Shared responsibility is part of Tacitus writes that under Domitian’s last years senators, including himself, survived by silence after Agricola’s death. Naming Tacitus does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 0093-01-01 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.

Why it matters

High confidence on the text; the degree of personal participation remains his rhetoric, not a police file. Later anti-Domitian pamphlets are reception.

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 names his generation’s silence as a document of servitude. Domitian’s court, informers, and the Senate share the terror. Complex: allegation of complicity is his own moral claim, not a modern indictment spreadsheet.

What changed

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

    1. FactTacitus writes that under Domitian’s last years senators, including himself, survived by silence after Agricola’s death
    2. strengthensDriverInstitutional Corruption
    3. strengthensIndicators (3)Political corruption index
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.45 · Effect from 1 January 93 · verified

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 2–3 and 45 is the public Latin of silence, book-burning, and ‘our hands’. Britannica independently describes his observation of Domitian’s last years and the atmosphere of fear. Perseus English carries the same. No acta of a delation by Tacitus is cited.

Established: the silence chapters as his; Agricola dead in 93 as the book dates it. Not established: a unique list of his votes in terror, or that he authored a death. Conventional 93. Not 1933.

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

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

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Keep this as allegation-plus-self-portrait, not as a signed death-warrant he issued. Mixed effects of Tacitus writes that under Domitian’s last years senators, including himself, survived by silence after Agricola’s death are separate paths.

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

Causal path

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

  1. ActorTacitus
  2. contributed toFactTacitus writes that under Domitian’s last years senators, including himself, survived by silence after Agricola’s death
  3. strengthensDriverInstitutional Corruption
  4. strengthensIndicatorPolitical corruption index

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Tacitus writes that under Domitian’s last years senators, including himself, survived by silence after Agricola’s death. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/tac-domitian-silence

https://factrail.ai/facts/tac-domitian-silence

Accessed 16 October 2026.

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

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