Tacitus

1. Tacitus Ancient Author

2. Publius Cornelius Tacitus • Tacitus lived from AD 56 – AD 117 and was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. • Tacitus is considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians. • He lived in what has been called the Silver Age of Latin literature.

3. His Life • Details about his personal life are scarce. • Tacitus was born in 56 or 57 to an equestrian family; he was from the provinces, probably in northern Italy or Gallia Narbonensis.

4. Early Life • The claim that he descended from a freedman derives from a speech in his writings that asserts that many senators and knights were descended from freedmen (Ann. 13.27), but this is generally disputed. • His father may have been the Cornelius Tacitus who was procurator of Belgica and Germania.

5. Public Life and Marriage • As a young man, Tacitus studied rhetoric in Rome to prepare for a career in law and politics. • In 77 or 78 he married Julia Agricola, daughter of the famous general Agricola. • In 81 or 82, under Titus, Tacitus entered his political life as quaestor. • He gained acclaim as a lawyer and an orator.

6. Continued • He served in the provinces from ca. 89 to ca. 93 either in command of a legion or in a civilian post. • A lengthy absence from politics and law followed while he wrote the Histories and the Annals. • It is unknown whether he had any children.

7. Works • This is the title page of Justus Lipsius’s 1598 edition of the complete works of Tacitus, bearing the stamps of the Bibliotheca Comunale in Empoli, Italy. • Five works ascribed to Tacitus are known to have survived.

8. Continued • The dates are approximate: • (98) De vita IuliiAgricolae (The Life of Agricola) • (98) De origine et situ Germanorum (Germania) • (102) Dialogus de oratoribus (Dialogue on Oratory) • (105) Historiae (Histories) • (117) AbexcessudiviAugusti (Annals)

9. The Histories • In the Histories, Tacitus says he will cover the period from the civil wars of the Year of Four Emperors and end with the despotism of the Flavians. Only the first four books and twenty-six chapters of the fifth book survive. The work is believed to have continued up to the death of Domitian. The fifth book contains a short ethnographic survey of the ancient Jews.

10. The Annals • The Annals is Tacitus' final work. He wrote at least sixteen books, but books 7–10 and parts of books 5, 6, 11 and 16 are missing. The remaining books cover the reign of Nero to connect with the Histories. The Annals is among the first-known secular-historic records to mention Christ. Annals 15.44, in the second Medicean manuscript

11. Germania • The Germania is an ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. • The Germania fits within a classical ethnographic tradition. • The book begins with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the various tribes. • Later chapters focus on descriptions of particular tribes. Tacitus had written a similar, albeit shorter, piece in his Agricola.

12. Agricola • The Agricola recounts the life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola; it also covers, briefly, the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain. • As in the Germania, Tacitus favorably contrasts the liberty of the native Britons with the tyranny and corruption of the Empire.

13. Dialogus • There is uncertainty about when Tacitus wrote Dialogus de oratoribus. Many characteristics set it apart from the other works of Tacitus, so that its authenticity has been questioned. It may however be an early work. Its style may be explained by the fact it deals with rhetoric. The style of the Dialogus follows Cicero's models for Latin rhetoric.

14. De vita IuliiAgricolae(The Life of Agricola) [1] Clarorumvirorumfactamoresqueposteristradere, antiquitususitatum, ne nostrisquidemtemporibusquamquamincuriosasuorumaetasomisit, quotiens magna aliqua ac nobilisvirtusvicit ac supergressaestvitiumparvismagnisquecivitatibus commune, ignorantiamrecti et invidiam. Sedapudprioresutageredignamemoratupronummagisque in apertoerat, itaceleberrimusquisqueingenio ad prodendamvirtutis memoriam sine gratia autambitionebonaetantumconscientiaepretioducebantur. 1. To bequeath to posterity a record of the deeds and characters of distinguished men is an ancient practice which even the present age, careless as it is of its own sons, has not abandoned whenever some great and conspicuous excellence has conquered and risen superior to that failing, common to petty and to great states, blindness and hostility to goodness. But in days gone by, as there was a greater inclination and a more open path to the achievement of memorable actions, so the man of highest genius was led by the simple reward of a good conscience to hand on without partiality or self-seeking the remembrance of greatness.

16. From Pliny the Younger's 7th Letter to Tacitus • Augurornec me fallitaugurium, historiastuasimmortalesfuturas. • I predict, and my predictions do not fail me, that your histories will be immortal.

17. Is Tacitus a Forgery? • There are quite a number of misleading statements about this subject circulating, including the curious idea that Tacitus was forged in the 15th century by Poggio Bracciolini. • According to Mendell, since 1775 there have been at least 6 attempts to discredit the works of Tacitus as either forgeries or fiction. • The allegation originated with Voltaire, however the position was only taken seriously with Napoleon. The French Revolutionaries had found “tremendous comfort in Tacitus’ republicanism. The modern successor to the Caesars” had therefore a strong political motive to discredit him. But these efforts ceased with the collapse of the First Empire.John Wilson ROSS anonymously published a book entitled Tacitus and Bracciolini:: the Annals forged in the XVth century, London (1878) intended to prove that Poggio had forged the works of Tacitus.

18. ? ? Continued • In 1890 P. HOCHART (De l’Authenticite des Annales et des Histoires de Tacite) maintained the same idea. Apparently neither Ross nor Hochart were able to convince scholarly opinion at the time. In 1920, Leo WIENER (Tacitus’ Germania and other forgeries) “attempted in vain to prove by a bewildering display of linguistic fireworks that the Germania and, by implication, other works of Tacitus were forgeries made after Arabic influence had extended into Europe”. After Gaston Boissier’s book (Tacite, 1903) had roused new enthusiasm for the historian, Eugene Bacha (Le Genie de Tacite, 1906) attempted to prove Tacitus was a master of Romantic fiction. T.S.Jerome (Aspects of the Study of History, 1923) presented Tacitus as “a consistent liar by nature and deliberate choice”.

19. Continued • Mendell also gives an extensive list of people who mention Tacitus or any of his works from the 1st century onwards. From this we can see that Tacitus is mentioned or quoted in every century down to and including the Sixth. The Seventh and Eighth centuries are the only ones that have left no trace of knowledge of our author.