What features made Tacitus’s Latin writing style distinctive?

Tacitus was a self-conscious literary stylist whose writing is celebrated for its strength, rhythm, and color. His distinctive Latin style is characterized by several key features:1

• Conciseness and Force: Tacitus avoided artificial smoothness, preferring a concise style that breaks the easy balance of sentences. His writing is noted for its "formidable impact," utilizing word order and syntactical variation to emphasize his points.1
• Epigrammatic Precision: He is particularly famous for his use of sharp, concise epigrams that capture complex political realities in few words, such as his famous description of Roman pacification: "They have made a desert and call it peace".2
• Grand Style: He employed a "grand style" influenced by the solemn and poetic traditions of Roman literature.1
• Focus on Character: Rather than focusing on impersonal historical forces, Tacitus emphasized the character of individuals, particularly emperors. By exploring how innate character is revealed through crises and the possession of absolute power, he became a pioneer of psychohistory.2

While his Dialogus de oratoribus is more Ciceronian, his historical works are defined by this unique, concentrated stylistic force.13