# Tacitus holds the praetorship in 88 CE and takes part as quindecimvir in Domitian’s Secular Games

Date: 88

## The fact

[Tacitus](/people/tacitus) records, and standard lives repeat, that he was praetor in 88 and a quindecimvir sacris faciundis at Domitian’s Secular Games. He did not invent the saeculum. The games are cohesion as imperial rite, not a modern festival grant. Archival locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent locator: Livius — Tacitus at https://www.livius.org/sources/content/tacitus/ (Livius.org).

## Context

Quindecimviri guarded the Sibylline books and public cult. A praetorship under Domitian is also a career step inside a later-hated court — the silence row stores that cost. Shared staging with the emperor and the college is ordinary. Later Christian readings of ‘pagan games’ are not 88. Archival locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent locator: Livius — Tacitus at https://www.livius.org/sources/content/tacitus/ (Livius.org).

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

## Evidence and sources

Britannica’s biography places the praetorship in 88 under Domitian. Livius independently treats the quindecimvirate and the Secular Games as his self-located offices. No ticket stub survives. Archival locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent locator: Livius — Tacitus at https://www.livius.org/sources/content/tacitus/ (Livius.org).

Official or archival record: Britannica — Tacitus (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian; Encyclopaedia Britannica).

## Significance

Priestly-magisterial participation in a century rite is a cohesion path: a public calendar of belonging. Medium-high confidence on the offices; the moral colour of serving Domitian is the neighbouring worsening row. Modest weight. Archival locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent locator: Livius — Tacitus at https://www.livius.org/sources/content/tacitus/ (Livius.org).

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Domitian’s later damnatio is not this 88 rite. Mixed effects of Tacitus holds the praetorship in 88 CE and takes part as quindecimvir in Domitian’s Secular Games are separate paths.

## What is established and what is not

Established as received: praetor 88; quindecimvir at the Secular Games. Not established: a unique programme of the games from his hand, or that he authored the ritual. Conventional year. Not a 17th-century edition. Archival locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent locator: Livius — Tacitus at https://www.livius.org/sources/content/tacitus/ (Livius.org).

Shared responsibility is part of Tacitus holds the praetorship in 88 CE and takes part as quindecimvir in Domitian’s Secular Games. Naming Tacitus does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 0088-01-01 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.

The attached driver is [social-cohesion](/drivers/social-cohesion). The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

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

## People

- Tacitus: https://factrail.ai/people/tacitus

## Drivers

- Social Cohesion: https://factrail.ai/drivers/social-cohesion

## Sources

- https://www.livius.org/sources/content/tacitus/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/tac-praetor-88-ludi