'History,' yet they have in some respects suffered far more severely, inasmuch as we lose in the later of the author's works many more important scenes and events than were treated of in the earlier. Of the fifth book of the 'Annals' the greater part has perished; the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth no longer exist, and of the eleventh a considerable part is missing. By the imperfect condition of the fifth book we are left to learn from other and inferior writers, many of whom lived long after the time of Tiberius, the real character of Sejanus's conspiracy. By the entire absence of four books we are without such a narrative as Tacitus alone could pen, of the whole of Caligula's reign and of the first five years of that of Claudius. By the mutilation of the sixteenth, we are deprived of the necessary materials for understanding the causes and motives of the revolt which hurled from a throne he had so long abused the last of the Julian Cæsars.
It is impossible to attempt giving a mere abstract of the 'Annals' as they have come down to us. Condensation is seldom satisfactory: an epitome can hardly fail to be more or less obscure. We must be content with dwelling on a few only of the more striking scenes or persons delineated by the historian. The first six books may be regarded as a portrait of Tiberius. He, present or absent from the scenes of action, whether they relate to war or peace, is the pivot on which the machine of government revolves. He was neither, like Claudius, the servant of his own freedmen, nor, like Nero, the companion of singers, dancers, gladiators, and charioteers. History presents few characters so difficult to decipher as that of Tiberius. Even Tacitus's summary of his virtues and vices can
