Start of Tacitus’ account of AD 63 | Dickinson College Commentaries

Tacitus /

edited by Mathew Owen and Ingo Gildenhard

The birth and death of Nero’s daughter by Sabina Poppaea, Claudia Augusta

Tacitus’ account of the year AD 63 comprises Annals 15.23–32. The set text only includes the initial paragraph (23) and then vaults forward to the start of AD 64 at 15.33. The stretch left out primarily covers – in spectacularly telling contrast – military developments in the Near East. In the meantime, we have a royal birth! A daughter! A dead duck.