Harris dates studies of both to Classical Greece and Classical Rome, specifically, to Herodotus, often called the " father of history " and the Roman historian, Tacitus, who wrote many of our only surviving contemporary accounts of several ancient Celtic and Germanic peoples.

If so, they may have originally comprised residual Celtic elements in central eastern Europe such as the Cotini, who formed a Celtic enclave in the Germanic-speaking zone and are described by Tacitus as iron-ore miners working as tributaries of the powerful Quadi Germanic people.

Tacitus ' statement that they were " German in their way of life and types of dwelling " implies a sedentary bias, but their close relations with the Sarmatians, who were nomadic, may indicate a more nomadic lifestyle, as does the wide geographical range of their attested inhabitation.

According to Tacitus, they drew inspiration from the example of Arminius, the prince of the Cherusci who had driven the Romans out of Germany in AD 9, and their own ancestors who had driven Julius Caesar from Britain.

The ancient historians allege that Messalina was a nymphomaniac who was regularly unfaithful to Claudius — Tacitus states she went so far as to compete with a prostitute to see who could have the most sexual partners in a night — and manipulated his policies in order to amass wealth.

" Fichte located Germanness in the supposed continuity of the German language, and based it on Tacitus, who had hailed German virtues in Germania and celebrated the heroism of Arminius in his Annales.

Tacitus suggests that this was the original way the word " Germani " was used – as the name of a single tribal nation, ancestral to the Tungri ( who lived in the same area as the earlier Germani reported by Caesar ), and not a whole race ( gentis ).

Tacitus in his Agricola wrote that the various groupings of Britons shared physical characteristics with their continental neighbours: the Britons of England were more typically blonde-haired, like the Gauls, in contrast to the Britons of Wales, who were generally dark and curly of hair, like the Spanish, or those of Scotland, stereotypically redheaded.

The Huns were a group of nomadic people who first appeared from east of the Volga River, and were first mentioned as Hunnoi by Tacitus.

We are enabled thus to contrast Tacitus with Josephus, who warped his narrative to do honour to Titus.

Here is also worth noting what Tacitus stated in his work Germania about capital punishment amongst the Germanic folk ; that none could be flogged, imprisoned or executed, not even on order of the warlord, without the consent of the priest ; who was himself required to render his judgement in accordance with the will of the god they believe accompanies them to the field of battle In the same source this god is stated being the chief deity.

There is sketchy evidence of a consort, in German named Zisa: Tacitus mentions one Germanic tribe who worshipped " Isis ", and Jacob Grimm pointed to Cisa / Zisa, the patroness of Augsburg, in this connection.

Tacitus never accused Nero of playing the lyre while Rome burned-that statement came from Cassius Dio, who died in the 3rd century.

Tacitus records that Claudius was the ruler who gave procurators governing power.

Josephus ( as well as Tacitus ), reporting on the conclusion of the Jewish war, claimed that it was Vespasian who was predicted in Jewish scripture to be the messiah.

* Tacitus mentions the Suiones, who will one day be called the Swedes.

Tacitus writes that after Julius Caesar's assassination, a temple in honour of Isis had been decreed ; Augustus suspended this, and tried to turn Romans back to the Roman deities who were closely associated with the state.

For the first century AD, we are quite well informed about the Chatti, mostly thanks to Tacitus, who provides important information about the Chatti's part in the Germanic wars and certain elements of their culture.

According to Tacitus in his book Germania ( chapter 30 ), they were disciplined warriors famed for their infantry, who ( unusually for Germanic tribes ) used trenching tools and carried provisions when at war.

One is Pomponia Graecina, wife of Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, who as Tacitus relates, was accused of following a " foreign superstition ", generally considered to be Christianity.

Tacitus describes her as the " wife of the Plautius who returned from Britain with an ovation ", which led John Lingard ( 1771 – 1851 ) to conclude, in his History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, that she was British ; however, this conclusion is a misinterpretation of what Tacitus wrote.

Another contemporary of Titus was Publius Cornelius Tacitus, who started his public career in 80 or 81 and credits the Flavian dynasty with his elevation.

At Rome, he wrote in Latin a history of the Roman empire from the accession of Nerva ( 96 ) to the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople ( 378 ), in effect writing a continuation of the history of Tacitus.

The main ancient historians Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio all wrote after the last of the Flavians had gone.

Tacitus wrote a narrative for his fellow senators and fitted each of the Emperors into a simple mold of his choosing.

Tacitus wrote this of the Julio-Claudian Emperors and history:

Tacitus wrote that many officers were sacrificed by the Germanic forces as part of their indigenous religious ceremonies, cooked in pots and their bones used for rituals.

In 59 they had reluctantly agreed to Agrippina's murder, and afterward, we are told by Tacitus that Seneca wrote a dishonest exculpation of Nero to the Senate.

Posidonius wrote a geographic treatise on the lands of the Celts which has since been lost, but which is referred to extensively ( both directly and otherwise ) in the works of Diodorus of Sicily, Strabo, Caesar and Tacitus ' Germania.

The Roman Tacitus wrote of the Silures: non atrocitate, non clementia mutabatur – the tribe " was changed neither by cruelty nor by clemency ".

As early as the 1st century, Tacitus wrote that the Suiones had a king, but the order of succession to the later historic kings of Sweden, before King Eric the Victorious ( died 995 ), is only known by what is accounted for in the historically controversial Norse sagas ( see Mythical kings of Sweden and Semi-legendary kings of Sweden ).

J. David Cassel gives several examples: Tacitus wrote that Nero fabricated charges that Christians started the burning of Rome.

Tacitus wrote in AD 98:

" And Tacitus wrote that " Jerusalem is the capital of the Jews.

Manetho, an Egyptian priest and historian of that time, wrote scathingly of the Jews and his themes are repeated in the works of Chaeremon, Lysimachus, Poseidonius, Apollonius Molon, and in Apion and Tacitus.

From an ethnic point of view, Roman authors associated blond and reddish hair with the Gauls and the Germans: e. g., Virgil describes the hair of the Gauls as " golden " ( aurea caesaries ), Tacitus wrote that " the Germans have fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge frames "; in accordance with Ammianus, almost all the Gauls were " of tall stature, fair and ruddy ".

She was evidently long since deceased by the time Tacitus wrote his Germania in AD 98.

Tacitus wrote that they assisted the rebel Tacfarinas and raided Roman coastal settlements.

Tacitus also wrote of Suetonius addressing his legionaries: " Ignore the racket made by these savages.

Tacitus wrote a speech which he attributed to Calgacus, saying that Calgacus gave it in advance of the Battle of Mons Graupius.

He wrote Latin Literature of the Empire ( 2 vols., Prose and Poetry, 1898 – 1899 ), a History of Classical Philology ( 1902 ) and Sources of Plutarchs Life of Cicero ( 1902 ); and edited Tacitus Dialogus de oratoribus ( text with commentary, 1894 and 1898 ) and Agricola ( 1899 ; with Germania, 1900 ), and Sallusts Catiline ( 1903 ).

* Virius Nicomachus Flavianus, who wrote a lost historical work entitled Annals, probably a continuation of Tacitus ' work.