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The Complete Tacitus Anthology

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An eandem Romanis in bello virtutem quam in pace lasciviam adesse creditis?
("Do you suppose that the Romans will be as brave in war as they are licentious in peace?")
-Agricola 30:32

Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (56?-117 CE), writer, orator, lawyer, and senator, was one of the greatest historians of antiquity. His Annals and Histories are a panorama of first century Rome, from Tiberius to Domitian. His prose style is in the first tier of Latin writers. Tacitus presents a vivid picture of the high-water point of the Roman empire, and does not gloss over the toxic corruption and brutality of the time.

Little is known about the origins and biography of Tacitus. Although "Tacitus" means silent, ironically he was known for his oratory. He was probably born into an aristocratic family in what is now the south of France. He studied rhetoric in Rome as a young man, and married into the family of the general Agricola. Advancing in the social hierarchy, he entered the Senate at the close of the first century.

We have five surviving works by Tacitus, with some notable large gaps in the two major texts (Annals and Histories). In chronological order these are: De vita Iulii Agricolae (The Life of Julius Agricola) [98 CE]; De origine et situ Germanorum (The Germania) [98 CE]; Dialogus de oratoribus (Dialogue on Oratory) [102 CE]; Historiae (Histories) [105 CE]; and Ab excessu divi Augusti (Annals) [117 CE]. Histories, of which we have the first four books and part of the fifth book, covers the events of the years 69-70 CE. The last fragmentary book of Histories (5:2) has a description of the Jews just prior to the Great Jewish Revolt and subsequent Diaspora. Annals, his final work, comprised 16 books originally, but a large portion of it was lost. It begins at the death of Augustus Caesar, and runs from the ascension of Tiberius up to Nero. The Annals include a notable passage which begins with Nero 'fiddling' while Rome burned (15:39), and then one of the earliest historical records of Christians (15:44), scapgoated by Nero for the catastrophic fire. Germany is one of the longest contemporary ethnographic accounts of the ancient Germans. Agricola is a biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who governed Britain, with interesting bits of information on first century England, including the revolt of Boadicea. Oratory is a short discourse on rhetoric.

Book List: The Histories, The Annals, Germania, Agricola, A Dialogue on Oratory

Download: Complete Tacitus Anthology by Publius Cornelius Tacitus (.epub)

Tags: ClassicalRome, Germania

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