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Ancient writers on Roman history during the Republic

Annalists (from Latin annus, year; hence annales, sc. libri, annual records), were a class of writers on Roman history, the period of whose literary activity lasted from the time of the Second Punic War to that of Sulla. They wrote the history of Rome from the earliest times (in most cases) down to their own days, the events of which were treated in much greater detail. Annalists were different from historians, in that an annalist was more likely to just record events for reference purposes, rather than offering their own opinions of events. There is, however, some overlap between the two categories and sometimes annalist is used to refer to both styles of writing from the Roman era.

For the earlier period, the authorities of annalists were to record state and family records—above all, the annales maximi (or annales pontificum), the official chronicle of Rome, in which the notable occurrences of each year from the foundation of the city were set down by the Pontifex Maximus. Although these annals were no doubt destroyed at the time of the burning of Rome by the Gauls, they were restored as far as possible and continued until the pontificate of P. Mucius Scaevola, by whom they were finally published in eighty books. This distinction between "annalists" and "historians", which has been influenced by Cicero's views, have been criticized by some modern scholars. Hans Beck notes that "a glance at the surviving fragments makes it plain that the conceptual assumptions of this model (lack of style, a mere compilation of people, places and prodigies) are not accurate." According to John Marincola, much of the discussion "centers around who should be considered a 'historian' and who an 'annalist'. Nonetheless, it remains questionable whether this approach too has any validity. First, such a distinction cannot be found in the ancient authors, where "scriptor annalium" or the like serve as a designation for all writers of history. Second, the Latin word annales means both history (in the aggregate and objective sense) and a particular history (the literary representation of events). Third, citations of Roman historians refer indiscriminately to annales and historia, which suggests not only that the writers themselves did not assign any such title as Annales to their works, but also that there cannot have been a recognized sub genre of annales."