# Annals 1–6 narrate Tiberius’s maiestas prosecutions and Sejanus’s rise and fall as an informing machine

Date: 116

## The fact

In the Tiberian Annals Tacitus writes a system of maiestas charges, rewards for accusers, the rise of Aelius Sejanus, the destruction of Agrippina’s branch, and the 31 fall. He did not prosecute under Tiberius. The colour is famously hostile; that is a source limit, not a reason to drop the machine he describes. Archival locator: Perseus — Tacitus, Annals (English) at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078 (Perseus Digital Library / Tufts). Independent locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

## Context

Capri withdrawal and the Senate’s fear are part of the same file. Suetonius and Dio are later rivals, not this instrument. Levick-style modern cautions against villa-gossip are stored as not-unique-proof, not as a delete key. Archival locator: Perseus — Tacitus, Annals (English) at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078 (Perseus Digital Library / Tufts). Independent locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Mixed effects of Annals 1–6 narrate Tiberius’s maiestas prosecutions and Sejanus’s rise and fall as an informing machine are separate paths.

## Evidence and sources

Perseus Annals English of books 1–6 and Latin Library Annals 1 are public. Britannica’s [Tacitus](/people/tacitus) and Tiberius articles independently treat maiestas and Sejanus as his great Tiberian themes. LacusCurtius faces the English. No 31 CE gazette is recovered here. Archival locator: Perseus — Tacitus, Annals (English) at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078 (Perseus Digital Library / Tufts). Independent locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Official or archival record: Perseus — Tacitus, Annals (English) (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078; Perseus Digital Library / Tufts).

## Significance

A school history of treason-informing is a justice path. High confidence on the existence of trials; medium on motives he ascribes. Later ‘Tiberian tyranny’ posters are mixed reception. Archival locator: Perseus — Tacitus, Annals (English) at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078 (Perseus Digital Library / Tufts). Independent locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

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

## What is established and what is not

Established: the Tiberian maiestas-Sejanus narrative as his. Not established: a unique indictment list complete from his pages, or that every innuendo is proven. Conventional Annals date. Not a 17th-century Tacitist pamphlet. Archival locator: Perseus — Tacitus, Annals (English) at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078 (Perseus Digital Library / Tufts). Independent locator: Britannica — Tacitus at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Shared responsibility is part of Annals 1–6 narrate Tiberius’s maiestas prosecutions and Sejanus’s rise and fall as an informing machine. Naming Tacitus does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 0116-01-01 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.

## People

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

## Drivers

- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/tac-sejanus-maiestas