Tacitus's Preface: Writing Without Fear or Favor

Tacitus begins his Histories with a statement of his method. He lived through the reign of Domitian, a tyrant who executed senators for speaking freely. When he finally wrote history under the safer rule of Trajan, he was determined to tell the truth - not to flatter, not to condemn from spite, but to record what happened and why. His famous statement "I must speak of no man either with hatred or affection" became a model for historians. He also previews the horrors to come: four emperors killed, civil wars, foreign disasters, and moral collapse.