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Ancient and modern

Tacitus knew how to handle stories from ‘insiders’ and ‘sources’

14 September 2019

9:00 AM

14 September 2019

9:00 AM

We read much about ‘fake news’ these days and of efforts to rid the internet of it. But what of media that report dodgy stories derived from ‘insiders’ and ‘government sources’ and ‘contacts’? The great Roman historian Tacitus knew what to make of such sources.

The first Roman emperor Augustus died in ad 14.

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