Tacitus, the great historian and the most innovative of Latin letters, "captures" with his dense and distinctive style a dialogue that took place among the leading intellectuals of his time, which is not limited only to rhetoric as an art and profession, but extends to pedagogy and poetry. With a critical spirit and unparalleled acumen, he seeks the reasons why Roman rhetoric (and eloquence in general) experiences a deep decline in his days. In this fascinating dialogue, the passion of the interlocutors abounds, who win us over with their arguments and humor, but what governs the whole work is Tacitus' attitude as a manager of foreign speeches, who writes sine ira et studio, that is, without anger and bias, a modern poetic of rhetoric.