Battles against Rome have been lost and won before, but hope was never abandoned, since we were always here in reserve. We, the choicest flower of Britain's manhood, were hidden away in her most secret places. Out of sight of subject shores, we kept even our eyes free from the defilement of tyranny. We, the most distant dwellers upon earth, the last of the free, have been shielded till today by our very remoteness and by the obscurity in which it has shrouded our name. Now, the farthest bounds of Britain lie open to our enemies; and what men know nothing about they always assume to be a valuable prize.... A rich enemy excites their cupidity; a poor one, their lust for power. East and West alike have failed to satisfy them. They are the only people on earth to whose covetousness both riches and poverty are equally tempting. To robbery, butchery and rapine, they give the lying name of 'government'; they create a desolation and call it peace...

In 112 or 113 he held the highest civilian governorship that of the Roman province of Asia in Western Anatolia recorded in the inscription found at Mylasa mentioned above. In 77 or 78 he married Julia Agricola daughter of the famous general Agricola although little is known of their home life save that Tacitus loved hunting and the outdoors. He (and his property) survived Domitian's reign of terror (81–96) but the experience left him jaded and perhaps ashamed at his own complicity giving him the hatred of tyranny which is so evident in his works.

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (56 AD – 117 AD) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. Other writings by him discuss oratory (in dialogue format see Dialogus de oratoribus) Germania (in De origine et situ Germanorum) and the life of his father-in-law Agricola the Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain mainly focusing on his campaign in Britannia (De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae).