_Agr._ 3, 'quamquam primo statim beatissimi saeculi ortu Nerva Caesar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum ac libertatem, augeatque cottidie felicitatem temporum Nerva Traianus.' 3. _Germania_.--The Vatican MSS. give the title as _de origine et situ_ (another MS. adds _moribus ac populis_) Germanorum. The date of publication, as seen from _Germ._ 37, was A.D. 98. The book is not mentioned in _Agr._ 3 among the proposed works of Tacitus; and it has therefore been supposed that the materials were collected for the _Histories_, and that the work was published separately on account of its length, and also the interest felt in Germany at the time. There is nothing in the theory that the book is a political pamphlet, or that it contains a moral purpose. Tacitus is by no means blind to the faults of the Germans (c. 17 _sqq._, etc.), though he compares them favourably in many respects with the Romans. 4. _Historiae_.--The title is guaranteed by Tertull. _apol._ 16, 'Cornelius Tacitus in quinta historiarum suarum.' The work embraced the time from Galba to Domitian, _i.e._ 69-96 A.D. The first four Books and part of the fifth are extant, and give the history of 69 and most of 70 A.D. In MS. Mediceus II., the only ancient MS. that contains _Ann._ xi.-xvi. and the _Histories_, there is no title, but the Books are numbered continuously as belonging to the same work. Cf. Jerome, _Comm. on Zacharias_, iii. 14, 'Cornelius Tacitus, qui post Augustum usque ad mortem Domitiani vitas Caesarum triginta voluminibus exaravit.' If, therefore, the _Annals_ contained sixteen Books, the _Histories_ must have contained fourteen, supposing Jerome's statement to be correct. Some authorities think the numbers were eighteen and twelve respectively. The work was written under Trajan (cf. _Hist._ i. 1, 'principatum divi Nervae et imperium Traiani'), and was probably brought out in instalments. Pliny's letters (vi. 16; 20; vii. 33), written about A.D. 106-9, contain contributions to it. 5. _Annales_, or rather _Ab excessu divi Augusti_, the title given by MS. Med. I. Tacitus often calls his work _annales_ (as in _Ann._ iv. 32), but uses the word to signify his plan of recording events by their years. Cf. _Ann._ iv. 71, 'Ni mihi destinatum foret suum quaeque in annum referre, avebat animus antire,' etc. He occasionally apologises (as in xii. 40) for departing from this order for the sake of clearness. The Books, the division into which was made by Tacitus himself (cf. vi. 27, 'in prioribus libris'), usually, however, end with some important event.