Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.

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).