Tacitus

Tacitus was the greatest historian of imperial Rome, and its most quotable. A senator who rose through the offices under the Flavians, was consul in 97 under Nerva and governed Asia, he wrote with a prosecutor's eye for what one-man rule does to a governing class. The Annals and the Histories covered the emperors from Tiberius to Domitian, though both survive only in part; the shorter Agricola and Germania are complete. Almost nothing personal about him is known, and even his praenomen is uncertain. His account of Nero's court stands behind nearly every character in L'incoronazione di Poppea.