This is the OCR-endorsed publication from Bloomsbury for the Latin AS and A-Level (Group 1) prescription of Tacitus' Annals IV, sections 1–4 (... non adversus habebatur), 7–12, and 39–41, and the A-Level (Group 2) prescription of sections 52–54, 57–60, 67–71 and 74–75, giving full Latin text, commentary and vocabulary, with a detailed introduction that also covers the prescribed sections to be read in English for A Level. It is AD 23 and we are in the ninth year of the reign of Rome's second emperor, Tiberius. Increasingly he has come to rely on the assistance of the Praetorian Prefect, Lucius Aelius Sejanus, in the running of Rome. But Sejanus has ambitions beyond being a mere assistant, extending even as far as the imperial throne itself. Tacitus vividly portrays the machinations of Sejanus as he attempts to manoeuvre himself into a position to assume the ultimate authority, characterising the period as one dominated by villainy, betrayal and deceit. Resources are available on the Companion Website.

Tacitus' Annals of Imperial Rome recount the major historical events from the years shortly before the death of Augustus up to the death of Nero in AD 68. With clarity and vivid intensity he describes the reign of terror under the corrupt Tiberius, the great fire of Rome during the time of Nero, and the wars, poisonings, scandals, conspiracies and murders that were part of imperial life. Despite his claim that the Annals were written objectively, Tacitus' account is sharply critical of the emperors' excesses and fearful for the future of Imperial Rome, while also filled with a longing for its past glories.

Tacitus' account of Nero's principate is an extraordinary piece of historical writing. His graphic narrative (including Annals XV) is one of the highlights of the greatest surviving historian of the Roman Empire. It describes how the imperial system survived Nero's flamboyant and hedonistic tenure as emperor, and includes many famous passages, from the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64 to the city-wide party organised by Nero's praetorian prefect, Tigellinus, in Rome. This edition unlocks the difficulties and complexities of this challenging yet popular text for students and instructors alike. It elucidates the historical context of the work and the literary artistry of the author, as well as explaining grammatical difficulties of the Latin for students. It also includes a comprehensive introduction discussing historical, literary and stylistic issues.

In his Bellum Catilinae, C. Sallustius Crispus or Sallust (86-35/34 B.C.) recounts the dramatic events of 63 B.C., when a disgruntled and impoverished nobleman, L. Sergius Catilina, turned to armed revolution after two electoral defeats. Among his followers were a group of heavily indebted young aristocrats, the Roman poor, and a military force in the north of Italy. With his trademark archaizing style, Sallust skillfully captures the drama of the times, including an early morning attempt to assassinate the consul Cicero and two emotionally charged speeches, by Julius Caesar and Cato the Younger, in a senatorial debate over the fate of the arrested conspirators. Sallust wrote while the Roman Republic was being transformed into an empire during the turbulent first century B.C. The Bellum Catilinae is well-suited for second-year or advanced Latin study and provides a fitting introduction to the richness of Latin literature, while also pointing the way to a critical investigation of late-Republican government and historiography. Ramsey's introduction and commentary bring the text to life for Latin students. This new edition (updated since the 2007 printing) includes two maps and two city plans, an updated and now annotated bibliography, a list of divergences from the 1991 Oxford Classical Text of Sallust, and revisions in the introduction and commentary.

This 2000 book examines Tacitus' Annals as an ironic portrayal of Julio-Claudian Rome, through close analysis of passages in which characters engage in interpretation and misreading. By representing the misreading of signifying systems - such as speech, gesture, writing, social structures and natural phenomena - Tacitus obliquely comments upon the perversion of Rome's republican structure in the new principate. Furthermore, this study argues that the distinctively obscure style of the Annals is used by Tacitus to draw his reader into the ambiguities and compromises of the political regime it represents. The strain on language and meaning both portrayed and enacted by the Annals in this way gives voice to a form of political protest to which the reader must respond in the course of interpreting the narrative.

The Annals is a gripping account of the Roman emperors Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero and the brutality that marked their reigns. Tacitus deplores their depravity, proof of the corrupting force of absolute power. J.C. Yardley's vivid and accurate translation is complemented by a thorough introduction and notes.

Described as the "best that Tacitus ever wrote", the fourth book of his Annals covers the years AD 23-28, when Tacitus noted deterioration in the principate of the emperor Tiberius and the increasingly malign influence of his "evil genius" Sejanus.