Uncover The Annals Of Tacitus: Translated Into English, With Notes And Maps (Classic Reprint) Drafted By Tacitus Available In Physical Edition
on The Annals of Tacitus: Translated Into English, with Notes and Maps (Classic Reprint)
very thorough and detailed account of the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero, Meticulously researched and drawing on information from the imperial archives, Tacitus creates and vivid and rich narrative of the period, That being said, I would not recommend for those who don't already have a relatively firm footing in the subject already, as I can see the density of the work making it difficult for beginners to grasp fully.
There is nothing quite like the terse and clean prose of Tacitusthe leanness of which is apparently found in the Latin source as well as the English renderingand the way it provides the reader with such a comfortable passage through his Annals.
The coverage of the reign of Tiberius is liberal and thoroughly vituperative the reluctant Caesarhe of the moving anecdote of pursuing the exwife he truly loved across a Roman marketplace whilst sobbing bitterly at the cruel fate which forced him to share the matrimonial bed with Augustus' lascivious daughter, Juliais presented in a severely unfavorable light.
From the opening moments of his reign shown to be a dissembling fool and butt of some gentlebutsearing mockery from the Senators, the Tiberius of Tacitus' tale is an inwardly brooding and rancorous monarchalternately under the thumb of his overweening mother and his ambitious and cunning Praetorian Prefect, Sejanuswhose behavior was somewhat restrained by the moderating maternal influence when she passed on, all the black passions and lusts of his twisted soul were given their free reign.
Although later histories have presented the Imperial administration of Tiberius as one of general competence and peace the only real danger lay in being either a member of the Imperial family or that of the capital city's aristocracy, none possess the august flavor of the Annals, and his portrait of Tiberius is always the one uppermost in my mind when I think on Augustus' successor.
Unfortunately, his coverage of the reign of the disturbed Caligula is missing in its entirety, and we are left with fragments of the rule of the aged Claudius and the megalomaniac Nero, both of which prove, in many ways, more the story of the women and mistresses in their lives, both in how these monarch's favors were manipulated and bribed, and in how their murderous impulses were aroused when these same women, inevitably, pushed them too far.
If these histories lack the gravitas found in that of the much more sober and capable Tiberiuswho, in some ways, served as an early exemplar of the despotic tyranny that Tacitus so deplored in the reign of Diocletianthey still fascinate with glimpses of the pleasures and perils attending the position of being master of the Roman World.
For my money, the concluding passage of Book VI, which is a summing up of the long life and reign of Tiberius, is a marvelous example of Tacitus' unique style of presentation and judgement:
And so died Tiberius, in the seventy eighth year of his age.
Nero was his father, and he was on both sides descended from the Claudian house, though his mother passed by adoption, first into the Livian, then into the Julian family.
From earliest infancy, perilous vicissitudes were his lot, Himself an exile, he was the companion of a proscribed father, and on being admitted as a stepson into the house of Augustus, he had to struggle with many rivals, so long as Marcellus and Agrippa and, subsequently, Caius and Lucius Caesar were in their glory.
Again his brother Drusus enjoyed in a greater degree the affection of the citizens, But he was more than ever on dangerous ground after his marriage with Julia, whether he tolerated or escaped from his wife's profligacy, On his return from Rhodes he ruled the emperor's now heirless house for twelve years, and the Roman world, with absolute sway, for about twentythree.
His character too had its distinct periods, It was a bright time in his life and reputation, while under Augustus he was a private citizen or held high offices a time of reserve and crafty assumption of virtue, as long as Germanicus and Drusus were alive.
Again, while his mother lived, he was a compound of good and evil he was infamous for his cruelty, though he veiled his debaucheries, while he loved or feared Sejanus.
Finally, he plunged into every wickedness and disgrace, when fear and shame being cast off, he simply indulged his own inclinations,
Astar rating is not enough for this book, How I could possibly give credit to this book in a review is beyond me but I feel like I should get some thoughts out.
In my opinion this
is the greatest work of history from Antiquity sorry Thucydides, The Annals covers not just one war or one political event but spans ayear period in immense detail, At first, it is easy to get bogged down in the Annalistic style of the work, Contrary to the stereotypes of Annalistic histories that I had previously developed, Tacitus is quite different. Its not simply a x happened at this time during y and z's consulship, Instead, he closely looks at events in order to prove his points, Yes, he just describes what happened during a certain year but he times his discussions in order to stress certain ideas, This leads to what I believe to be the most brilliant aspect of Tacitus: his lawyers flair of putting ideas into your head, Tacitus has a very clear message in his work: the issues of absolute power, Within this, he also deals with individual aspects of the emperors, From Tiberius' dissembling character to Claudius' weaknesses and finally Nero's bloodshed and vices, every moment, indeed every phrase, is carefully weighed to deliver the message that Tacitus wants.
Tacitus also has a flair for preparing the reader for future events, Tiberius' dislike of Germanicus is slowly built until his death, making the reader question whether or not Tiberius had a hand in his death.
The murder of Claudius is anticipated by the scheming of Agrippina and set in motion by the drunken ramblings of the emperor and an oracle.
Finally, the exceptional characters of Corbulo and Suetonius and the focus on resistance and bravely facing death in the latter half of Nero's reign precipitates his assassination and the rise of Vespasian.
I could go on and on about what I appreciate about this work but what can I say that can fully reflect what I feel for Tacitus I have studied and written papers on many parts of this book and each time I have come back to it I have always gained a greater appreciation for the genius of Tacitus.
If you only ever read one book from a Roman historian make it this one,
The oxford edition of the Annals had amazing footnotes, To be honest it had some of the best I've ever seen in a oxford world classic
oh what I would give for the missing books of the Annals.
. . Trying to construct the history of Imperial Rome from Tacitus is like trying to construct today's history using a few sparsely and randomly preserved copies of The Daily Mail.
It almost defies belief that people do take him so seriously, He blatantly makes things up, he disclaims any interest in taking sides while transparently doing so, and he holds his nose over the misbehaviour of the emperors, condemning it while describing it in salacious and sensational detail.
Moreover, the Annals only survive through two incomplete and disjoint manuscripts dating from well over a millennium after they were actually written.
Who knows how much they may have been corrupted in between, Since most people do think of Tacitus as a historian, I feel obliged to give him a low rating, because read as history, that is how much he is worth: his narrative mostly fits in around archaeologically verifiable facts, but the details are dubious to the point of being without value.
And yet, what is it that makes him so compelling
I will start with his Latin, His style is daunting to newcomers, and quite untranslatably brilliant, Here is a taster: he makes frequent use of longwinded indirect speech, often resorting to that very Latin phenomenon, oratio obliqua, or subordinated clauses within indirect speech.
If you're not keeping up with the technical terms, here is an explanation:
Direct speech: He said, 'I am studying Latin, '
Indirect speech: He said that he was studying Latin,
Subordinate clause within direct speech: He said, 'I am studying Latin, which will enable me to show off on the internet, '
Subordinate clause within indirect speech: He said that he was studying Latin, which would enable him to show off on the internet.
Thus, XIV., pagefrom the translation I have:
Besides, he Nero loved Poppaea more every day, While Agrippina lived, Poppaea saw no hope of his divorcing Octavia and marrying her, So she nagged and mocked him constantly, He was under his guardian's thumb, she said master neither of the empire nor of himself, 'Otherwise,' she said, 'why these postponements of our marriage I suppose my looks and victorious ancestors are not good enough, Or do you distrust my capacity to bear children Or the sincerity of my love No! I think you are afraid that, if we were married, I might tell you frankly how the senate is downtrodden and the public enraged by your mother's arrogance and greed.
If Agrippina can only tolerate daughtersinlaw who hate her son, let me be Otho's wife again! I will go anywhere in the world where I need only hear of the emperor's humiliations rather than see them and see you in danger, like myself!'
Which could be more literally rendered:
Besides, he loved Poppaea more very day, who, seeing no hope, while Agrippina lived, of his divorcing Octavia and marrying her, nagged and mocked him constantly that he was under his guardian's thumb, saying he was master neither of the empire nor of himself, otherwise why these postponements of their marriage, or were her looks and victorious ancestors not good enough, or did he distrust her capacity to bear children, or the sincerity of her love, that, no, she thought he was afraid that, if they were married, she might tell him frankly how the senate was downtrodden and the public enraged by his mother's arrogance and greed, that if Agrippina could only tolerate daughtersinlaw who hated her son, let her be Otho's wife again, and she would go anywhere in the world where she need only hear of the emperor's humiliations rather than see them and him in danger like herself.
Yes, that is all one sentence, Even editions of the Latin break it up with judicious punctuation marks but punctuation marks had not been invented in Tacitus' day, or even spaces between words, so they miss the immediacy and winding, rolling flow of Tacitus' prose.
What is the point of all this Only that the reason we read Tacitus is that he is a brilliant writer, After all, when you think of Tiberius, do you think of the practical and competent, if surly, monarch of history, or the depraved dictator of the Annals Tacitus has stolen the real man from the pages and made him his own living and breathing character, just as, one day, Shakespeare would do with Henry V.
Moreover his wit is palpable, and his sarcasm is delicious, His finest moment the murder of Agrippina is literary genius, tension gently stoked and relieved, careful irony and rhetorical flair,
My conclusion: as a historian, Tacitus is laughable, As a writer of historical fiction, he is a master of his genre, Augustus might have established the Principate, but it was up to his successors to continue it and prevent Rome from once against descending into civil war.
Tacitus in The Annals of Imperial Rome, the reigns of the Caesars from Tiberius to the death of Nero which would lead to the events in the writers The Histories.
The work begins with Tacitus reviewing the reign of Augustus and how Tiberius became his successor, over his more popular nephew Germanicus whose side of the family would eventual rule.
Tiberius shrewdly attempts to be modest in claiming the Imperial title, but this hides his dark nature that he developed during his selfimposed exile before becoming Augustus heir.
Under Tiberius is when the show trials and political persecutions of leading men that would begin that would become notorious under later Emperors, The middle and the very end of Tiberius reign, all of Gaius Caligulas reign, and the first half of Claudius reign have been lost.
Tacitus work picks up with how Claudius wife Messalina was brought down and his niece Agrippina shrewdly manipulating her way into marriage with her uncle so as to get her son, the future Nero, to become Emperor.
Though the show trials and political persecutions continue, Claudius doesnt instigate them and attempts to be lenient for those being wrongly convicted, Yet once Nero becomes an adult and Claudius son Britannicus still a child, Claudius days are numbered, Once his greatuncle and adoptive father is dead, Nero assumes the leadership and begins consolidating power including poisoning Britannicus at dinner one night, Though his mother Agrippina attempts to influence him, Nero humors her while attempting to get rid of her and finally succeeding, Though taught and tutored by the renowned Seneca, Nero has learned to rule in the guise of Tiberius yet with the ruthlessness of Gaius and soon anyone that offended him or could have been a threat to him or perceived to be by his hangers on.
Though the end of Neros reign is missing, the trials and murders of senators were increasing in number to the point that later as mentioned in The Histories they decided to turn on Nero and proclaim Galba.
The unfortunate incompleteness of Tacitus work does not diminish the great historical account that it presents of early Imperial history as well as his critique of the Roman aristocracy during the reigns of Augustus JulioClaudian successors.
Though we know his opinions of Tiberius and Nero the best since their reigns survived the best, Tacitus critiques of those family members that did not rule were highly invaluable especially all those who in the writers opinion might have been more fitting successors to Augustus if not for political intrigue or bad luck.
If there is a complaint with this book it is with a decision by translator Michael Grant decision to use modern military terminology in reference to Romans military was it, but his decision to use Roman numerals to help identify different historical actors who had the same namea very common Roman practicewithout a doubt help keep things straight.
The biggest complaint that I had with Tacitus other works, which I had from Oxford World Classics, were nonexistent with Penguin Classics and thus I encourage others towards that particular publisher.
The Annals of Imperial Rome is Tacitus finest work, showing the corruption of absolute power and how many choose to allow it overcome them instead of standing up to it.
Although probably at least onethird of the work is missing, the portions we have covers how a politically stable Rome begins to slowly unravel through ever increasing fear of the most powerful man in the Empire.
The end result of this is chronicles in Tacitus previous work, .