Histories () is a Roman historical chronicle by Tacitus. Written c. 100–110, its complete form covered c. 69–96, a period which includes the Year of Four Emperors following the downfall of Nero, as well as the period between the rise of the Flavian dynasty under Vespasian and the death of Domitian. However, the surviving portion of the work only reaches the year 70 and the very beginning of the reign of Vespasian. Together, the Histories and the Annals amounted to 30 books. Saint Jerome refers to these books explicitly, and about half of them have survived. Although scholars disagree on how to assign the books to each work, traditionally, fourteen are assigned to Histories and sixteen to the Annals. Tacitus' friend Pliny the Younger referred to "your histories" when writing to Tacitus about the earlier work. By the time Tacitus had completed the Histories, it covered Roman history from AD 69, following Nero's death, to AD 96, the end of Domitian's reign. The Annals deals with the five decades before Nero, from AD 14, the reign of Tiberius, to AD 68, when Nero died. Subject matter In one of the first chapters of the Agricola, Tacitus states that he wishes to speak about the years of Domitian, of Nerva, and of Trajan. In the Histories, the project has been modified: in the introduction, Tacitus says that he will deal with the age of Nerva and Trajan at a later time. Instead, he covers the period that started with the civil wars of the Year of Four Emperors and ended with the despotism of the Flavians. Only the first four books and the first 26 chapters of the fifth book have survived, covering the year 69 and the first part of 70. The work is believed to have continued up to Domitian's death on September 18, 96. The fifth book contains—as a prelude to the account of Titus' victory in the First Jewish–Roman War—a short ethnographic survey of the ancient Jews—and is an invaluable record of the educated Romans' attitude towards that people. Tacitus wrote the Histories 30 years later, not long after Nerva's seizure of power, which bore similarities to the events of the year 69, when four emperors — Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian — each took power in quick succession. The mode of their accession showed that because imperial power was based on the support of the legions,