Tacitus meaning
Instead, he will cover the period from the civil wars of the Year of the Four Emperors and end with the despotism of the Flavians. Only the first four books and twenty-six chapters of the fifth book survive, covering the year 69 and the first part of The work is believed to have continued up to the death of Domitian on September 18, The fifth book contains—as a prelude to the account of Titus's suppression of the First Jewish—Roman War —a short ethnographic survey of the ancient Jews , and it is an invaluable record of Roman attitudes towards them.
He wrote at least sixteen books, but books 7—10 and parts of books 5, 6, 11, and 16 are missing. Book 6 ends with the death of Tiberius , and books 7—12 presumably covered the reigns of Caligula and Claudius. The remaining books cover the reign of Nero, perhaps until his death in June 68 or until the end of that year to connect with the Histories.
The second half of book 16 is missing, ending with the events of It is not known whether Tacitus completed the work; he died before he could complete his planned histories of Nerva and Trajan, and no record survives of the work on Augustus and the beginnings of the Roman Empire , with which he had planned to finish his work.
The Annals is one of the earliest secular historical records to mention Jesus of Nazareth , which Tacitus does in connection with Nero's persecution of the Christians. Tacitus wrote three works with a more limited scope: Agricola , a biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola; the Germania , a monograph on the lands and tribes of barbarian Germania; and the Dialogus , a dialogue on the art of rhetoric.
The Germania fits within a classical ethnographic tradition which includes authors such as Herodotus and Julius Caesar. The book begins chapters 1—27 with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the various tribes. Later chapters focus on descriptions of particular tribes, beginning with those who lived closest to the Roman empire, and ending with a description of those who lived on the shores of the Baltic Sea , such as the Fenni.
The Agricola written c. As in the Germania , Tacitus favorably contrasts the liberty of the native Britons with the tyranny and corruption of the Empire; the book also contains eloquent polemics against the greed of Rome, one of which, that Tacitus claims is from a speech by Calgacus , ends by asserting, Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
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 at various times been questioned.
Publius cornelius tacitus biography of william james: Tacitus (born ad 56—died c. ) was a Roman orator and public official, probably the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists who wrote in the Latin language.
It is likely to be early work, indebted to the author's rhetorical training, since its style imitates that of the foremost Roman orator Cicero. It lacks for example the incongruities that are typical of his mature historical works. Tacitus's writings are known for their dense prose that seldom glosses the facts, in contrast to the style of some of his contemporaries, such as Plutarch.
When he writes about a near defeat of the Roman army in Annals I,63, he does so with brevity of description rather than embellishment.
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In most of his writings, he keeps to a chronological narrative order, only seldom outlining the bigger picture, leaving the readers to construct that picture for themselves. Nonetheless, where he does use broad strokes, for example, in the opening paragraphs of the Annals , he uses a few condensed phrases which take the reader to the heart of the story.
Tacitus's historical style owes some debt to Sallust. His historiography offers penetrating—often pessimistic—insights into the psychology of power politics, blending straightforward descriptions of events, moral lessons, and tightly focused dramatic accounts. Tacitus's own declaration regarding his approach to history Annals I,1 is well known:.
There has been much scholarly discussion about Tacitus's "neutrality". Throughout his writing, he is preoccupied with the balance of power between the Senate and the emperors , and the increasing corruption of the governing classes of Rome as they adjusted to the ever-growing wealth and power of the empire. In Tacitus's view, senators squandered their cultural inheritance—that of free speech —to placate their rarely benign emperor.
Tacitus noted the increasing dependence of the emperor on the goodwill of his armies. The Julio-Claudians eventually gave way to generals, who followed Julius Caesar and Sulla and Pompey in recognizing that military might could secure them the political power in Rome. Welcome as the death of Nero had been in the first burst of joy, yet it had not only roused various emotions in Rome, among the Senators, the people, or the soldiery of the capital, it had also excited all the legions and their generals; for now had been divulged that secret of the empire, that emperors could be made elsewhere than at Rome.
Tacitus's political career was largely lived out under the emperor Domitian. His experience of the tyranny, corruption, and decadence of that era 81—96 may explain the bitterness and irony of his political analysis. He draws our attention to the dangers of power without accountability, love of power untempered by principle, and the apathy and corruption engendered by the concentration of wealth generated through trade and conquest by the empire.
Nonetheless, the image he builds of Tiberius throughout the first six books of the Annals is neither exclusively bleak nor approving: most scholars view the image of Tiberius as predominantly positive in the first books, and predominantly negative after the intrigues of Sejanus. The entrance of Tiberius in the first chapters of the first book is dominated by the hypocrisy of the new emperor and his courtiers.
In the later books, some respect is evident for the cleverness of the old emperor in securing his position. In general, Tacitus does not fear to praise and to criticize the same person, often noting what he takes to be their more admirable and less admirable properties. One of Tacitus's hallmarks is refraining from conclusively taking sides for or against persons he describes, which has led some to interpret his works as both supporting and rejecting the imperial system see Tacitean studies , Black vs.
Red Tacitists. His Latin style is highly praised. The style has been both derided as "harsh, unpleasant, and thorny" and praised as "grave, concise, and pithily eloquent". A passage of Annals 1.
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Tiberius's, Gaius's and Claudius's as well as Nero's acts while flourishing themselves—out of fear—counterfeited, after they came to fall—resulting from new-found hate—related are. Compared to the Ciceronian period , where sentences were usually the length of a paragraph and artfully constructed with nested pairs of carefully matched sonorous phrases, this is short and to the point.
But it is also very individual. Note the three different ways of saying and in the first line -que , et , ac , and especially the matched second and third lines. They are parallel in sense but not in sound; the pairs of words ending " -entibus … -is " are crossed over in a way that deliberately breaks the Ciceronian conventions—which one would, however, need to be acquainted with to see the novelty of Tacitus's style.
Some readers, then and now, find this teasing of their expectations merely irritating. Others find the deliberate discord, playing against the evident parallelism of the two lines, stimulating and intriguing. His historical works focus on the motives of the characters, often with penetrating insight—though it is questionable how much of his insight is correct, and how much is convincing only because of his rhetorical skill.
Elsewhere Annals 4. Although this kind of insight has earned him praise, he has also been criticized for ignoring the larger context. Tacitus owes most, both in language and in method, to Sallust, and Ammianus Marcellinus is the later historian whose work most closely approaches him in style. Tacitus makes use of the official sources of the Roman state: the Acta Senatus the minutes of the sessions of the Senate and the Acta Diurna a collection of the acts of the government and news of the court and capital.
He also read collections of emperors' speeches, such as those of Tiberius and Claudius. He is generally seen [ by whom? Tacitus cites some of his sources directly, among them Cluvius Rufus , Fabius Rusticus and Pliny the Elder, who had written Bella Germaniae and a historical work which was the continuation of that of Aufidius Bassus. Tacitus also uses collections of letters epistolarium.
He also took information from exitus illustrium virorum.
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These roles not only provided him with a wealth of administrative experience but also exposed him to the inner workings of the Roman state. His tenure as consul in AD 97, under Emperor Nerva, marked the pinnacle of his political career and allowed him to observe the transition from the Flavian dynasty to the more stable rule of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty.
These texts not only document significant events but also reflect his analytical prowess and narrative skill. This work contrasts the perceived simplicity and virtue of the Germanic peoples with the decadence and moral decline of Rome. Tacitus provides a detailed account of the political chaos, civil wars, and the eventual establishment of the Flavian dynasty.
His narrative is marked by a critical examination of the ambitions and failures of the key figures involved. This text is a meticulous year-by-year account of the political, military, and social developments of the period. His portrayal of these rulers is often unflattering, emphasizing their despotism, moral failings, and the corrosive effects of absolute power.
His use of succinct, pointed sentences allows him to deliver powerful critiques and vivid descriptions without superfluous detail. This economy of language is paired with a sophisticated vocabulary, which lends his prose a certain gravitas and authority.
Tacitus often juxtaposes contrasting images or ideas to underscore the moral and ethical dimensions of the events he describes, a technique that heightens the dramatic tension in his narratives. The opposite, in fact: the strongest piece of evidence is in Book 9, Letter 23, which reports how Tacitus was asked if he were Italian or provincial, and upon giving an unclear answer, was further asked if he were Tacitus or Pliny.
Since Pliny was from Italy, Tacitus must have been from the further provinces, and Gallia Narbonensis is the most likely candidate. He advanced steadily through the cursus honorum, becoming praetor in 88 and holding a position among the quindecemviri sacris faciundis, members of a priestly college in charge of the Sibylline Books and the Secular Games.
He served in the provinces from ca. During his tenure he reached the height of his fame as an orator when he delivered the funeral oration for the famous old soldier Verginius Rufus. In , he, along with his friend Pliny the Younger, prosecuted Marius Priscus proconsul of Africa for corruption. Priscus was found guilty and sent into exile; Pliny wrote a few days later that Tacitus had spoken "with all the majesty which characterizes his usual style of oratory".
He held the highest civilian governorship, that of the Roman province of Asia in Western Anatolia, in or , as evidenced by the inscription found at Mylasa mentioned above. A passage in the Annals fixes as the terminus post quem of his death, which may have been as late as Years are approximate, and the last two his "major" works , took probably more than a few years to write.
This inverted the chronological order in which they were written, but formed a continuous narrative of the era from the death of Augustus 14 to the death of Domitian Though parts have been lost, what remains is an invaluable record of the era. The Histories In one of the first chapters of the Agricola, Tacitus said that he wished to speak about the years of Domitian, of Nerva, and of Trajan.
In the Historiae the project has been modified: in the introduction, Tacitus says that he will deal with the age of Nerva and Trajan at a later time. Instead, he will cover the period that started with the civil wars of the Year of Four Emperors and ended with the despotism of the Flavians. Only the first four books and twenty-six chapters of the fifth book have survived, covering the year 69 and the first part of The work is believed to have continued up to the death of Domitian on September 18, He wrote at least sixteen books, but books and parts of books 5, 6, 11 and 16 are missing.
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Book 6 ends with the death of Tiberius and books presumably covered the reigns of Caligula and Claudius. The remaining books cover the reign of Nero, perhaps until his death in June 68 or until the end of that year, to connect with the Histories. The second half of book 16 is missing ending with the events of the year We do not know whether Tacitus completed the work or whether he finished the other works that he had planned to write; he died before he could complete his planned histories of Nerva and Trajan, and no record survives of the work on Augustus Caesar and the beginnings of the Empire with which he had planned to finish his work as a historian.
Minor works Tacitus also wrote three minor works on various subjects: the Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola; the Germania, a monograph on the lands and tribes of barbarian Germania; and the Dialogus, a dialogue on the art of rhetoric. Ethnography had a long and distinguished heritage in classical literature, and the Germania fits squarely within the tradition established by authors from Herodotus to Julius Caesar.
As in the Germania, Tacitus favorably contrasted the liberty of the native Britons to the corruption and tyranny of the Empire; the book also contains eloquent and vicious polemics against the rapacity and greed of Rome. Dialogus When the Dialogus de oratoribus was written remains uncertain, but it was probably written after the Agricola and the Germania.
Many characteristics set it apart from the other works of Tacitus, so much so that its authenticity may be questioned, even if it is always grouped with the Agricola and the Germania in the manuscript tradition. The way of speaking in the Dialogus seems closer to Cicero's proceedings, refined but not prolix, which inspired the teaching of Quintilian; it lacks the incongruities that are typical of Tacitus's major historical works.
It may have been written when Tacitus was young; its dedication to Fabius Iustus would thus give the date of publication, but not the date of writing. More probably, the unusually classical style may be explained by the fact that the Dialogus is a work dealing with rhetoric. For works in the rhetoric genre, the structure, the language, and the style of Cicero were the usual models.
The sources of Tacitus Tacitus was able to consult the official sources of the Roman state: the acta senatus the minutes of the session of the Senate and the acta diurna populi Romani a collection of the acts of the government and news of the court and capital. Author Index: Ta. Publius Cornelius Tacitus c.
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