Ibid. ii. 11, 2, ‘Ego et Cornelius Tacitus, adesse provincialibus iussi.’ § 17, ‘Respondit Cornelius Tacitus eloquentissime, et quod eximium orationi eius inest, σεμνῶς.’
In A.D. 77 Tacitus was betrothed to the daughter of Agricola, then consul, and in A.D. 78 he married her.
Agr. 9, ‘Consul egregiae tum spei filiam iuveni mihi despondit ac post consulatum collocavit, et statim Britanniae praepositus est.’
Tacitus gives us a clue to his political career in Hist. i. 1.
‘Dignitatem nostram a Vespasiano incohatam, a Tito auctam, a Domitiano longius provectam non abnuerim.’
This probably means that Vespasian granted him the latus clavus, i.e. a place in the ordo senatorius, which was followed by the vigintiviratus given by the Senate, and a commission in the army as tribunus militum laticlavius; that Titus appointed him quaestor A.D. 80-1; and that Domitian made him tribune or aedile (about 84), and in A.D. 88 praetor. For the last office cf. Ann. xi. 11,
‘Is [Domitianus] edidit ludos saeculares, eisque intentius adfui sacerdotio quindecimvirali praeditus ac tunc praetor.’
That Tacitus was absent from Rome A.D. 90-93 we may infer from what he says of Agricola’s death (A.D. 93).
Agr. 45, ‘Nobis tam longae absentiae condicione ante quadriennium amissus est.’
He must have returned to Rome soon afterwards, for he says in the same chapter: ‘Mox nostrae duxere Helvidium in carcerem manus; nos Maurici Rusticique visus, nos innocenti sanguine Senecio perfudit.’