The Probert Encyclopaedia of General Information

ANNALS

Annals are a history of events in chronological order, each event being recorded under the year in which it occurred. The name is derived from the first annual records of the Romans, which were called annales pontificum or annales maximi, drawn up by the pontifex maximus (chief pontiff). The practice of keeping such annals was afterwards adopted also by various private individuals, as by Fabius Pictor, Calpurnius Piso, and others. The name hence came to be applied in later times to historical works in which the matter was treated with special reference to chronological arrangement, as to the Annals of Tacitus.
Research Annals