Tácito como fuente literaria para el conocimiento jurídico

Abstract

Publius Cornelius Tacitus is one of the greatest Roman historians. However, his role as a literary source of legal knowledge has been less studied. In this article, it seems pertinent to approach, from the field of Ancient History and not from the field of Roman Law, to the mentions that appear in his works to legal issues of various kinds. We begin this task with the attempt to present our historian as an invaluable literary source of legal knowledge, not only because he alludes almost 400 times to this subject, but because of his political and professional career -as a magistrate and, in our thought, as a practicing lawyer- made him a true expert in the Roman legislative and judicial process of his time. That is why, although we cannot defend that Tacitus was a jurisprudent or a jurist, we can consider his solid competence in these matters, so much so that he must be considered —in our opinion— a source of legal knowledge.