Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
Frisians

Frisians

The Roman historian Tacitus, in his Germania, mentioned the Frisians among people he grouped together as the Ingvaeones. Two different types, or classes are mentioned by Tacitus, the maioribus frisii and the minoribus frisii. Divided by the soil of their farmlands, the maioribus frisii or Clay Frisians populated fertile clay soil increasing the size of their harvests, lifestock and even their posture. The small and relatively unhealthy minoribus frisii (Sand Frisians) farmed on sand lands and subsequently their crops lacked size or number compared to those of the maioribus frisii. According to Tacitus even the armies of the maioribus were larger and better equipped. They were probably a people of seafarers, the North Sea spanning from Bretagne to Eastern Denmark, was referred to as the Mare Frisia at that time. Small groups of Frisians settled the surrounding lands and their settlements have been traced to England, Scotland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France and obviously to The Netherlands. Their territory followed the coast of the North Sea from the mouth of the Rhine river up to that of the Ems, their eastern border according to Ptolemy's Geographica. Pliny the Elder states in Belgica that they were conquered by the Roman general Drusus in 12 BC, after that several uprisings have been mentioned by Tacitus. The most noted of these is their partake in the Batavii Rebellion. Thereafter the Frisians largely sank into historical obscurity, until coming into contact with the expanding Merovingian and Carolingian empires. In the 5th Century, during this period of historical silence, many of them no doubt joined the migration of the Anglo-Saxons who went through Frisian territory to invade Britain, while those who stayed on the continent expanded into the newly-emptied lands previously occupied by the Anglo-Saxons. By the end of the sixth century the Frisians occupied the coast all the way to the mouth of the Weser and spread farther still in the seventh century, southward down to Dorestad and even Bruges. This farthest extent of Frisian territory is known as Frisia Magna. The empire that came in to being after the fall of the Western Roman Empire was governed by a king or a duke. The earliest document referring to a independ state ruled by a king is dated 678. Early attempts of to Christianize Frisia were unable to convert the fierce pagan Frisians and various monks were murdered or banished, with the legendary example of the murder of Bonifatius in Dokkum. King Radbod was even ably to beat the mighty Charles Martel in 714 to preserve independence. Twenty years later Charles Martel got his revenge and effectively subjecated the entire Frisian empire. Christianity was also enforced by the christian Franks and in Utrecht a Bishop was installed to see to christian affairs in Frisia. Not until the early 800's did they fully reclaim their independence from the Frankish grip. Christianity had however taken root and had been adopted by most Frisians.

Dukes of Friesland


- Sibbelt ???-???
- Ritzard ???-???
- Aldegisel ???-680
- Radbod 680-719
- Poppo 719-734
- Radbod ???-???

Friesland in the middle-ages

Modern Frisians

The modern remnants of Frisia Magna are small and scattered. Most of it became dominated by its expanding neighbors: the Saxons (who were moving north and west) and the Franks (who were pushing north and east). Western and Middle Frisia are solidly within the modern state of the Netherlands, which now includes the "heartland" of the Frisians from the North Sea coast from Alkmaar in the modern province of Noord-Holland, along the coasts of the modern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, and up to the mouth of the Ems. Culturally, it has shrunk down to the province of Friesland alone. The Frisian language is now spoken only there and in parts of only the Wadden Sea islands of Terschelling and Schiermonnikoog. East and North Frisia have been absorbed into the northern states of Germany, with only the marshes of Saterland, well inland from the coast, still retaining any cultural identity. There are also descendants of Frisians living on the coast of the Jutland peninsula and nearby islands. It is unclear when they arrived there, or even whether they lived first on the islands and then spread to the mainland, or vice-versa. What remains of their language is under heavy pressure from Low German, standard German, and Danish, and is generally expected to become extinct.

See also


- Frisia Category:Ancient Roman enemies Category:Germanic peoples Category:Ethnic groups of Europe Category:Netherlands

Tacitus

Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56–ca. 117), Roman orator, lawyer, and senator, is considered one of antiquity's greatest historians. His major works—the Annals and the Histories—took for their subject the history of the Roman Empire's first century, from the ascension of the emperor Tiberius to the death of Domitian.

Biography

Tacitus's works contain a wealth of information about his day and age, but details on his own life are lacking. Even his praenomen (first name) is uncertain. What little we know comes from scattered hints throughout the corpus of his work, the letters of his friend and admirer Pliny the Younger, an inscription found at Mylasa in Caria, and educated guesswork. Tacitus was born in 56 or 57 to an equestrian family; like many other Latin authors of the Golden and Silver Ages, he was from the provinces, probably northern Italy, Gallia Narbonensis, or Hispania. The exact place and date of his birth are nowhere made explicit. Nor is his praenomen: in some letters of Sidonius Apollinaris and in some old and unimportant writings his name is Gaius, but in the major surviving manuscript of his work his name is given as Publius. (One scholar's suggestion of Sextus has gained no traction).

Descent and place of birth

His scorn for the social climber has led to the supposition that his family was from an unknown branch of the patrician gens Cornelia, but no Cornelii had ever borne the cognomen Tacitus, the older aristocratic families had largely been destroyed in the chaos surrounding the end of the Republic, and Tacitus himself is clear that he owes his rank to the Flavian emperors (Hist. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Hist.+1.1 1.1]). The supposition that he descended from a freedman finds no support apart from his statement, in an invented speech, that many senators and knights were descended from freedmen (Ann. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ann.+13.27 13.27]), and is easily dismissed. His father was probably the Cornelius Tacitus who was procurator of Belgica and Germania. A son of this Cornelius Tacitus is cited by Pliny the Elder as an example of abnormally rapid growth and aging (N.H. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/7
- .html 7.76]), implying an early death. This means that this son was not the historian, but his brother or cousin—the senior Cornelius Tacitus may have been an uncle. From this connection, and from the well-attested friendship between the younger Pliny and the younger Tacitus, scholars draw the conclusion that the two families were of similar class, means, and background: equestrians, of significant wealth, from provincial families. younger Pliny The exact province of his origin is unknown. His marriage to the daughter of the Narbonensian senator Gnaeus Julius Agricola may indicate that he, too, came from Gallia Narbonensis. The possibly-Spanish origin of the Fabius Iustus to whom Tacitus dedicates the Dialogus suggests a (family?) connection to Hispania. His friendship with Pliny points to northern Italy as his home. None of this evidence is conclusive. Gnaeus Julius Agricola could have known Tacitus from elsewhere. Martial dedicates a poem to Pliny ([http://thelatinlibrary.com/martial/mart10.shtml 10.20]), but not to the more distinguished Tacitus—which, had Tacitus been Spanish, might be unusual, were Martial's light and often scurrilous style not antithetical to Tacitus's grave and serious manner. No evidence exists that Pliny's friends from northern Italy knew Tacitus, nor do Pliny's letters ever hint that the two men shared a common home province. 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. His ancestry, his skill in oratory, and his occasional sympathy for barbarians who resisted Roman rule (e.g., Ann. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ann.+2.9 2.9]), have led some to suggest that he was of Celtic stock: the Celts had occupied Gaul before the Romans, the Celts were famous for their skill in oratory, and the Celts had been subjugated by Rome.

Public life, marriage, and literary career

As a young man he studied rhetoric in Rome as preparation for a career in law and politics; like Pliny, he may have studied under Quintilian. In 77 or 78 he married Julia Agricola, daughter of the famous general Agricola; we know nothing of their marriage or their home life, save that Tacitus loved hunting and the outdoors. He owed the start of his career (probably meaning the latus clavus, mark of the senator) to Vespasian, as he tells us in the Histories ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Hist.+1.1 1.1]), but it was under Titus that he entered political life as quaestor, in 81 or 82. 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 gained acclaim as a lawyer and orator; his skill in public speaking gave a marked irony to his cognomen Tacitus ('silent'). He served in the provinces from ca. 89 to ca. 93, perhaps in command of a legion, perhaps in a civilian post. His person and property survived Domitian's reign of terror (93–96), but the experience left him jaded and grim, perhaps ashamed at his own complicity, and gave him the hatred of tyranny so evident throughout his works. From his seat in the Senate he became suffect consul in 97 during the reign of Nerva, being the first of his family to do so. 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 the following year he wrote and published his Agricola and Germania, announcing the beginnings of the literary endeavors that would occupy him until his death. Afterwards he disappears from the public scene, to which he returns during Trajan's reign. In 100, 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". A lengthy absence from politics and law followed, during which time he wrote his two major works: first the Histories, then the Annals. He held the highest civilian governorship, that of the Roman province of Asia in Western Anatolia, in 112 or 113, as evidenced by the inscription found at Mylasa (mentioned above). A passage in the Annals fixes 116 as the terminus post quem of his death, which may have been as late as 125. It is unknown whether he was survived by any children, though the Augustan History reports that the emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus claimed him as an ancestor and provided for the preservation of his works—but like so much of the Augustan History, this story is probably fraudulent.

Works

Marcus Claudius Tacitus edition of the complete works of Tacitus, bearing the stamps of the Bibliotheca Comunale in Empoli, Italy.]] Five works ascribed to Tacitus have survived (or at least: large parts thereof). Years are approximate, and the last two (his "major" works), took probably more than a few years to write.
- (98) De vita Iulii Agricolae (The Life of Julius Agricola)
- (98) De origine et situ Germanorum (The Germania)
- (102) Dialogus de oratoribus (Dialogue on Oratory)
- (105) Historiae (Histories)
- (117) Ab excessu divi Augusti (Annals)

Major works

The two major works, originally published separately, were meant to form a single edition of thirty books, with the Annals preceding the Histories. 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 (96). 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 70. The work is believed to have continued up to the death of Domitian on September 18, 96. The fifth book contains—as a prelude to the account of Titus's suppression of the Great Jewish Revolt—a short ethnographic survey of the ancient Jews and is an invaluable record of the educated Romans' attitude towards that people.

The Annals

The Annals was Tacitus's final work, covering the period from the death of Augustus Caesar in the year 14. 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 the year 66). 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 an 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.

Germania

The Germania (Latin title: De Origine et situ Germanorum) is an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. 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. Tacitus himself had already written a similar, albeit shorter, piece in his Agricola (chapters 10–13). The book begins with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the Germans (chapters 1–27); it then segues into descriptions of individual tribes, beginning with those dwelling closest to Roman lands and ending on the uttermost shores of the Baltic Sea, with a description of the primitive and savage Fenni and the unknown tribes beyond them.

Agricola (De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae)

The Agricola (written ca. 98) recounts the life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general and Tacitus's father-in-law; it also covers, briefly, the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain. 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

Briton 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). He could read the collections of speeches by some emperors, such as Tiberius and Claudius. Generally, Tacitus was a scrupulous historian who paid careful attention to his historical works. The minor inacurracies occurring in the Annals might be due to the fact that Tacitus died before completely finishing (and supposedly final proofreading) of this work. He used a great variety of historical and literary sources as well; he used them with freedom and he chose from varied sources of varied tendency. Tacitus cites some of his sources directly, among them Pliny the Elder, who had written Bella Germaniae and an historical work which was the continuation of that of Aufidius Bassus. Tacitus could use some collections of letters (epistolarium) and various notes. He also took some information from the works of the historical genre named exitus illustrium virorum. These were a collection of books on and by those who opposed the emperors. They tell of the sacrifice of the martyr to freedom, especially the men who committed suicide, following the theory of the Stoics. Tacitus used these materials to give a dramatic tone to his stories, while he placed no value on the theory of the suicides. These suicides seem, to him, ostentatious and politically useless, while, on the other hand he is sometimes over the hill about the "swansong" speeches of some of those about to commit suicide, for example Cremutius Cordus' speech in Ann. IV, 34-35.

Literary style

Tacitus's writings are known for their instantly deep-cutting and dense prose, seldom glossy, in contrast with the more placable style of some of his contemporaries, like Plutarch. When he describes a near-to-defeat of the Roman army in Ann. I, 63 this is one of the rare occasions where he applies some kind of gloss, but then still rather by the brevity with which he describes the end of the hostilities, than by embellishing phrases. In most of his writings he keeps to a strictly chronological ordering of his narration, with only seldom an outline of the bigger picture, as if he leaves it to the reader to construct that "bigger picture" for himself. Nonetheless, when he sketches the bigger picture, for example in the opening paragraphs of the Annals, summarizing the situation at the end of the reign of Augustus, he needs no more than a few condensed phrases to take the reader to the heart of the story.

Approach to history

Tacitus's historical style combines various approaches to history into a method of his own (owing some debt to Sallust): seamlessly blending straightforward descriptions of events, pointed moral lessons, and tightly-focused dramatic accounts, his history writing contains deep, and often pessimistic, insights into the workings of the human mind and the nature of power. Tacitus's own declaration regarding his approach to history is famous (Ann. I,1): : Although this is probably as close as one can get to a neutral point of view intention in antiquity, there has been much scholarly discussion about Tacitus's alleged "neutrality" (or "partiality" to others, which would make the quote above no more than a figure of speech). Throughout his writings, Tacitus appears primarily concerned with the balance of power between the Roman Senate and the Roman Emperors. His writings are filled with tales of corruption and tyranny in the governing class of Rome as they failed to adjust to the new imperial régime; they squandered their cherished cultural traditions of free speech and self-respect as they fell over themselves to please the often bemused (and rarely benign) emperor. Another important recurring theme is the role of having the sympathy of the army in the coming to power (and staying there) of an Emperor: throughout the period Tacitus is describing, the leading role in that respect sways between (some of) the legions defending the outer borders of the Empire, and the troops residing in the city of Rome, most prominently the Praetorian Guard. Tacitus's political career was largely spent under the emperor Domitian; his experience of the tyranny, corruption, and decadence prevalent in the era (81–96) may explain his bitter and ironic political analysis. He warned against the dangers of unaccountable power, against the love of power untempered by principle, and against the popular apathy and corruption, engendered by the wealth of the empire, which allowed such evils to flourish. The experience of Domitian's tyrannical reign is generally also seen as the cause of the sometimes unfairly bitter and ironic cast to his portrayal of the Julio-Claudian emperors. Nonetheless the image he builds of Tiberius throughout the first six books of the Annals is neither exclusively bleak nor approving: most scholars analyse the image of Tiberius as predominantly positive in the first books, becoming predominantly negative in the following books relating the intrigues of Sejanus. Even then, the entrance of Tiberius in the first chapters of the first book is a crimson tale dominated by hypocrisy by and around the new emperor coming to power; and in the later books some kind of respect for the wisdom and cleverness of the old emperor, keeping out of Rome to secure his position, is often transparent. In general Tacitus does not fear to give words of praise and words of rejection to the same person, often explaining openly which he thinks the commendable and which the despicable properties. Not conclusively taking sides for or against the persons he describes is his hallmark, and led thinkers in later times to interpret his works as well as a defense of an imperial system, as as a rejection of the same (see Tacitean studies, Black vs. Red Tacitists). A better illustration of Tacitus's "sine ira et studio" is scarcely imaginable.

Prose style

Tacitus's skill with written Latin is unsurpassed; no other author is considered his equal, except perhaps for Cicero. His style differs both from the prevalent style of the Silver Age and from that of the Golden Age; though it has a calculated grandeur and eloquence (largely thanks to Tacitus's education in rhetoric), it is extremely concise, even epigrammatic—the sentences are rarely flowing or beautiful, but their point is always clear. The same style has been both derided as "harsh, unpleasant, and thorny" and praised as "grave, concise, and pithily eloquent". His historical works focus on the psyches and inner motivations 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. He is at his best when exposing hypocrisy and dissimulation; for example, he follows a narrative recounting Tiberius' refusal of the title pater patriae by recalling the institution of a law forbidding any "treasonous" speech or writings—and the frivolous prosecutions which resulted (Annals, 1.72). Elsewhere (Annals 4.64–66) he compares Tiberius' public distribution of fire relief to his failure to stop the perversions and abuses of justice which he had begun. Though this kind of insight has earned him praise, he has also been criticized for ignoring the larger context of the events which he describes. Tacitus owes the most, both in language and in method, to Sallust; Ammianus Marcellinus is the later historian whose work most closely approaches him in style.

Studies and reception history

From Pliny the Younger's [http://thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep7.html 7th Letter (to Tacitus)], §33: : Tacitus is remembered first and foremost as Rome's greatest historian, the equal—if not the superior—of Thucydides, the ancient Greeks' foremost historian; the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica opined that he "ranks beyond dispute in the highest place among men of letters of all ages". His influence extends far beyond the field of history. His work has been read for its moral instruction, its gripping and dramatic narrative, and its inimitable prose style; it is as a political theorist, though, that he has been (and still is) most influential outside the field of history. The political lessons taken from his work fall roughly into two camps (as identified by Giuseppe Toffanin): the "red Tacitists", who used him to support republican ideals, and the "black Tacitists", those who read him as a lesson in Machiavellian realpolitik. Though his work is the most reliable source for the history of his era, its factual accuracy is occasionally questioned: the Annals are based in part on secondary sources of unknown reliability, and there are some obvious minor mistakes (for instance confusing the two daughters of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, both named Antonia). The Histories, written from primary documents and intimate knowledge of the Flavian period, is thought to be more accurate, though Tacitus's hatred of Domitian seemingly colored its tone and interpretations.

Notes

# OGIS 487, first brought to light in Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, 1890, pp. 621–623. # Since he was appointed to the quaestorship during Titus's short rule (see note below), and twenty-five was the minimum age for the position, the date of his birth can be fixed with some accuracy. # See Oliver, 1951, for an analysis of the manuscript from which we take the name Publius; see also Oliver, 1977, which examines the evidence for each suggested praenomen (the well-known Gaius and Publius, the lesser-known suggestions of Sextus and Quintus) before settling on Publius as the most likely. # Oliver, 1977, cites an article by Harold Mattingly in Rivista storica dell'Antichità, 2 (1972) 169–185. # Syme, 1958, pp. 612–613; Gordon, 1936, pp. 145–146 # Syme, 1958, p. 60, 613; Gordon, 1936, p. 149; Martin, 1981, p. 26 # Syme, 1958, p. 63 # Syme, 1958, pp. 614–616 # Syme, 1958, pp. 616–619 # Syme, 1958, p. 619; Gordon, 1936, p. 145 # Gordon, 1936, pp. 150–151; Syme, 1958, pp. 621–624 # That he studied rhetoric and law we know from the Dialogus, ch. 2; see also Martin, 1981, p. 26; Syme, 1958, pp. 114–115 # Agricola, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+9 9] # Pliny, Letters 1.6, 9.10; Benario, 1975, pp. 15, 17; Syme, 1958, pp. 541–542 # Syme, 1958, p. 63; Martin, 1981, pp. 26–27 # From the Histories ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Hist.+1.1 1.1]) we learn of his debt to Titus; since Titus's rule was short, these are the only years possible. # In the Annals ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ann.+11.11 11.11]) he mentions that he, as praetor, assisted in the Secular Games held by Domitian, which are dated precisely to 88. See Syme, 1958, p. 65; Martin, 1981, p. 27 # The Agricola ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+45 45.5]) indicates that Tacitus and his wife were absent at the time of Julius Agricola's death in 93. For his occupation during this time see Syme, 1958, p. 68; Benario, 1975, p. 13; Dudley, 1968, pp. 15–16; Martin, 1981, p. 28; Mellor, 1993, p. 8 # Agricola, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+44 44]–[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+45 45]: "[Agricola] was spared those later years during which Domitian, leaving now no interval or breathing space of time, but, as it were, with one continuous blow, drained the life-blood of the Commonwealth. [. . .] It was not long before our hands dragged Helvidius to prison, before we gazed on the dying looks of Manricus and Rusticus, before we were steeped in Senecio's innocent blood. Even Nero turned his eyes away, and did not gaze upon the atrocities which he ordered; with Domitian it was the chief part of our miseries to see and to be seen, to know that our sighs were being recorded[. . .] ." For the effects on Tacitus's ideology see Dudley, 1968, p. 14; Mellor, 1993, pp. 8–9 # Pliny, Letters, [http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/Pliny/Pliny02-01-L.html 2.1] [http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/Pliny/Pliny02-01-E.html (English)] # In the Agricola ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+3 3]) he announces what must be the beginning of his first great project: the Histories. See Dudley, 1968, p. 16 # Pliny, Letters [http://thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep2.html 2.11] # Annals, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ann.+2.61 2.61], says that the Roman Empire "now extends to the Red Sea". If by "mare rubrum" he means the Persian Gulf, as is possible, then the passage must have been written after Trajan's eastern conquests in 116, but before Hadrian abandoned the new territories in 117. This may indicate only the date of publication for the first books of the Annals; Tacitus himself could have lived well into Hadrian's reign, and there is no reason to suppose that he did not. See Dudley, 1968, p. 17; Mellor, 1993, p. 9; Mendell, 1957, p. 7; Syme, 1958, p. 473 # Augustan History, [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Tacitus
- .html Tacitus X]. Scholarly opinion on this story is divided as to whether it is "a confused and worthless rumor" (Mendell, 1957, p. 4) or "pure fiction" (Syme, 1958, p. 796). Sidonius Apollinaris reports (Letters, 4.14; cited in Syme, 1958, p. 796) that Polemius, a 5th-century Gallo-Roman aristocrat, descended from Tacitus—but this too, says Syme (ibid.) is of little use. # Jerome's commentary on the Book of Zechariah (14.1, 2; quoted in Mendell, 1957, p. 228) says that Tacitus's history was extant triginta voluminibus, 'in thirty volumes'. # Mellor, 1995, p. xvii # Burke, 1969, pp. 162–163

References


- Adams, James N. "The language of the later books of Tacitus' Annals". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 22 (1972), pp. 350–373.
- Adams, James N. "The vocabulary of the speeches in Tacitus' historical works". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Vol. 20 (1973), pp. 120–144.
- Adams, James N. "Were the later books of Tacitus' Annals revised?" Rheinisches Museum, Vol. 117 (1974), pp. 323–333.
- Ash, Rhiannon. Ordering Anarchy: Armies and Leaders in Tacitus' Histories (London: Duckworth, 1999) ISBN 0715628003
- Barnes, T.D. "The Fragments of Tacitus' Histories". Classical Philology, Vol. 72 (1977), pp. 224–231.
- Barnes, T.D. "The Significance of Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 90 (1986), pp. 225–244.
- Barnes, T.D. "Tacitus and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre". Phoenix, Vol. 52 (1998), pp. 125–148.
- Baron, Hans. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance. (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966)
- Benario, Herbert W. An Introduction to Tacitus. (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1975) ISBN 0820303615
- Birley, Antony R. "The Life and Death of Cornelius Tacitus". Historia, Vol. 49 (2000), pp. 230–247.
- Bosworth, A.B. "Mountain and molehill? Cornelius Tacitus and Curtius Rufus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 54 (2004), pp. 551–567.
- Brink, C.O. "Can Tacitus' Dialogus Be Dated? Evidence and Historical Conclusions". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 96 (1994), pp. 251–280.
- Brink, C.O. "Justus Lipsius and the text of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 41 (1951), pp. 32–51.
- Burke, P. "Tacitism" in Dorey, T.A., 1969, pp. 149–171
- Clarke, Katherine. "An Island Nation: Re-Reading Tacitus' Agricola". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 91 (2001), pp. 94–112.
- Daitz, S.G. "Tacitus’ technique of character portrayal". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 81 (1960), pp. 30–52.
- Damon, Cynthia. "The Trial of Cn. Piso in Tacitus’ Annals and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 120, No. 1 (1999), pp. 143–162.
- Dorey, T.A. (ed.). Tacitus (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) ISBN 0710064322
- Dudley, Donald R. The World of Tacitus (London: Secker and Warburg, 1968) ISBN 0436139006
- Eck, Werner. "Cheating the Public, or: Tacitus Vindicated". Scripta Classica Israelica, Vol. 21 (2002), pp. 149–164.
- Fletcher, G.B.A. "Assonances or plays on words in Tacitus". The Classical Review, Vol. 54 (1940), pp. 184–187.
- Gill, C. "Character-development in Plutarch and Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 33 (1983), pp. 469–487.
- Ginsburg, Judith. Tradition and theme in the Annals of Tacitus (New York: Arno Press, 1981)
- Goodyear, F.R.D. "Development of language and style in the Annals of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 58 (1968), pp. 22–31.
- Goodyear, F.R.D. "The readings of the Leiden manuscript of Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 15 (1965), pp. 299–322.
- Goodyear, F.R.D. Tacitus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), Greece & Rome New Surveys in Classics No. 4. Good survey of scholarship up to 1960s.
- Gordon, Mary L. "The Patria of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 26, Part 2 (1936), pp. 145–151.
- Griffin, Miriam T. "Claudius in Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 40 (1990), pp. 482–501.
- Griffin, Miriam T. "The Lyons tablet and Tacitean hindsight". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 32 (1982), pp. 404–418.
- Griffin, Miriam T. "Tacitus and Pliny". Scripta Classica Israelica, Vol. 18 (1999), pp. 139–158.
- Griffin, Miriam T. "Tacitus, Tiberius and the Principate", in I. Malkin and Z. Rubihnson (eds.), Leaders and Masses in the Roman World: Studies in Honour of Zvi Yavetz (Leiden: Brill, 1995), pp. 33–57.
- Haverfield, F. "Tacitus during the Late Roman Period and the Middle Ages". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 6. (1916), pp. 196–201.
- Haynes, Holly. The History of Make-Believe: Tacitus on imperial Rome (Berkeley, Calif.; London: University of California Press, 2003) ISBN 0520236505
- Löfstedt, Einar. "The Style of Tacitus", in Idem, Roman Literary Portraits, transl. by P.M. Fraser (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), pp.157–180.
- Luce, T.J., and Woodman, Antony J. (eds.) Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993) ISBN 0691069883
- Marsh, Frank Burr. "Tacitus and aristocratic tradition". Classical Philology, Vol. 21 (1926), pp. 289–310.
- Martin, Ronald. "The Leiden manuscript of Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 14 (1964), pp. 109–119.
- Martin, Ronald. Tacitus (London: Batsford, 1981)
- Martin, Ronald. "Tacitus and the Death of Augustus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 5 (1955), pp. 123–128.
- Mattingly, H.B. "Tacitus’ praenomen: the politics of a moderate". Rivista storica dell’antichità, Vol. 2 (1972), pp. 169–185.
- Mellor, Ronald. Tacitus (London: Routledge, 1993) ISBN 0415906652
- Mellor, Ronald (ed.). Tacitus: The Classical Heritage (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995) ISBN 0815309333
- Mendell, Clarence. Tacitus: The Man and His Work. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957) ISBN 0208008187
- Miller, Norma P. "The Claudian Tablet and Tacitus: A Reconsideration". Rheinisches Museum, Vol. 99 (1956), pp. 304–315.
- Miller, Norma P. "Dramatic speech in Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 85 (1964), pp. 279–296.
- Miller, Norma P. "Tiberius Speaks: An Examination of the Utterances Ascribed to Him in the Annals of Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 89 (1968), pp. 1–19.
- Murgia, C. "The Date of Tacitus' Dialogus". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 84 (1980), pp. 99–125.
- Murgia, C. "Pliny's Letters and the Dialogus". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 89 (1985), pp. 171–206.
- O'Gorman, Ellen. Irony and Misreading in the Annals of Tacitus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) ISBN 0521660564
- Oliver, Revilo P. "The First Medicean MS of Tacitus and the Titulature of Ancient Books". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 82 (1951), pp. 232–261.
- Oliver, Revilo P. "The Praenomen of Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 98, No. 1 (Spring, 1977), pp. 64–70.
- Persival, J. "Tacitus and the Principate". Greece & Rome, Vol. 27 (1980), pp. 119–133.
- Reid, James Smith. "Tacitus as a historian". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 11 (1921), pp. 191–199.
- Rutland, L. "The Tacitean Germanicus. Suggestions for a re-evaluation". Rheinisches Museum, Vol. 130 (1987), pp. 153–163.
- Sage, M.M. "Tacitus and the accession of Tiberius". The Ancient Society, Vol. 13/14 (1982/83), pp. 293–321.
- Schellhase, Kenneth C. Tacitus in Renaissance Political Thought (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1976) ISBN 0226737004
- Shatzman, I. "Tacitean rumours". Latomus, Vol. 33 (1974), pp.549–578.
- Shotter, D.C.A. "Tacitus, Tiberius and Germanicus". Historia, Vol. 17 (1968), pp. 194–214.
- Sinclaire, Patrick. Tacitus the Sententious Historian: A sociology of rhetoric in Annales 1-6 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Prss, 1995) ISBN 0271013338
- Syme, Ronald. "How Tacitus Wrote Annals I-III", in Idem, Roman Papers, Vol. 3 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 1014–1042.
- Syme, Ronald. Tacitus, Volumes 1 and 2. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958) (reprinted in 1985 by the same publisher, with the ISBN 0198143273) is the definitive study of his life and works.
- Syme, Ronald. Ten Studies in Tacitus. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970) ISBN 0198143583
- Talbert, R.J.A. "Tacitus and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 120, No. 1 (1999), pp. 89–97.
- Townend, G.B. "Cluvius Rufus in the Histories of Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 85 (1964), pp. 337–377.
- Walker, B. The Annals of Tacitus: A study in the writing of history (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1952)
- Wharton, D.B. "Tacitus’ Tiberius: The State of the Evidence for the Emperor’s Ipsissima Verba in the Annals". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 118 (1997), pp. 119–125.
- Woodman, Anthony John. Tacitus Reviewed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0198152582

See also


- Republic (Plato): Tacitus' critique of "model state" philosophies.
- Tacitus on Jesus: a well-known passage from the Annals mentions the death of Christ (Ann., xv 44).

External links


- [http://classics.rutgers.edu/tacitus_biblio.htm Bibliography on Tacitus] (from Rutgers University Classics Department)
- Texts by Tacitus:
  -
  - At Perseus Project: [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html Works by Tacitus in English and/or Latin]
  - At MIT Classics: [http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Tacitus.html Annals and Histories]
  - At "The Online Books Page": [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?amode=start&author=Tacitus%2c%20Cornelius Online e-texts of Tacitus' works]
  - At "Romansonline" (Latin text can be displayed side by side to translation): [http://www.romansonline.com/Menu_s.asp Works by Tacitus]
  - At [http://www.roman-literature-online.com/ Roman Literature Online]: [http://www.roman-literature-online.com/tacitus/germany-and-agricola/ Germany and Agricola] and [http://www.roman-literature-online.com/tacitus/the-annals/ The Annals]
  - At "The Internet Sacred Text Archive": [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/index.htm Parallel English and Latin text of the complete works of Tacitus] Category:50s births Category:2nd century deaths Category:Roman era historians Category:Roman era rhetoricians Category:Roman era biographers Category:Roman jurists ko:타키투스 ja:タキトゥス

Ingvaeones

The Ingaevones or Ingvaeones (also referred to as "North Sea Germans")—Ingäwonen, Ingwäonen, Nordsee-Germanen in German—were a West Germanic cultural group or proto-tribe along the North Sea coast. Their name comes from Tacitus's Germania (circa 98 CE), in which he categorized them as one of the three tribes descended from the three sons of Alanus, son of Tuisto. They probably became distinct from the generality of North Germanic groups between around 1000 and 500 BCE, moving into the areas of Jutland, Holstein, Frisia and the Danish islands, where they had by about 50 BCE become further differentiated into the Frisians, Saxons, Jutes and Angles. The northern varieties of the Low Germanic languages, (Plattdüütsch, and Dutch), together with English and Frisian, may all be classified as the North Sea Germanic or Ingvaeonic languages. Even in the distant past these languages seem to have been a collection of closely related dialects, sharing common innovations as the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law and continuously influencing each other, rather than diverging linearly from a common linguistic ancestor — a characteristic of West Germanic languages as a whole. Other West Germanic proto-tribes were the Irminones and Istaevones. Pliny c.80 AD in his Natural History (chapter IV, paragraph 99) lists the Ingaevones as one of the five German confederations. According to him they were made up of Cimbri, Teutons, and Chauci. The legendary father of the Ingaevones/Ingvaeones is named Ing (Ingo, or Inguio), son of Mannus. Jacob Grimm, in his Teutonic Mythology, and many others consider this Ing to have been originally identical to the vague Scandinavian Yngvi, eponymous ancestor of the Swedish royal house of the Ynglings. In Nennius we find Mannus corrupted to Alanus and Ingio/Inguio, his son, to Neugio. Here the three sons of Neugio are named as Boganus, Vandalus, and Saxo — from whom came the peoples of the Bogari, the Vandals, and the Saxons and Tarincgi. The element Ing- as encountered in Old English names is usually considered to be related. The Old English Runic Poem contains these obscure lines: :Ing wæs ærest mid Eástdenum
:gesewen secgum, oð he síððan eást
:ofer wæg gewát. wæn æfter ran.
:þus Heardingas þone hæle nemdon. :Ing was first amidst the East Danes
:so seen, until he went eastward
:over the sea. His wagon ran after.
:Thus the Heardings named that hero. Category:Pre-Roman Iron Age Category:Ancient Roman enemies and allies Category:Ancient Germanic peoples Category:Ethnic groups of Europe

Tacitus

Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56–ca. 117), Roman orator, lawyer, and senator, is considered one of antiquity's greatest historians. His major works—the Annals and the Histories—took for their subject the history of the Roman Empire's first century, from the ascension of the emperor Tiberius to the death of Domitian.

Biography

Tacitus's works contain a wealth of information about his day and age, but details on his own life are lacking. Even his praenomen (first name) is uncertain. What little we know comes from scattered hints throughout the corpus of his work, the letters of his friend and admirer Pliny the Younger, an inscription found at Mylasa in Caria, and educated guesswork. Tacitus was born in 56 or 57 to an equestrian family; like many other Latin authors of the Golden and Silver Ages, he was from the provinces, probably northern Italy, Gallia Narbonensis, or Hispania. The exact place and date of his birth are nowhere made explicit. Nor is his praenomen: in some letters of Sidonius Apollinaris and in some old and unimportant writings his name is Gaius, but in the major surviving manuscript of his work his name is given as Publius. (One scholar's suggestion of Sextus has gained no traction).

Descent and place of birth

His scorn for the social climber has led to the supposition that his family was from an unknown branch of the patrician gens Cornelia, but no Cornelii had ever borne the cognomen Tacitus, the older aristocratic families had largely been destroyed in the chaos surrounding the end of the Republic, and Tacitus himself is clear that he owes his rank to the Flavian emperors (Hist. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Hist.+1.1 1.1]). The supposition that he descended from a freedman finds no support apart from his statement, in an invented speech, that many senators and knights were descended from freedmen (Ann. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ann.+13.27 13.27]), and is easily dismissed. His father was probably the Cornelius Tacitus who was procurator of Belgica and Germania. A son of this Cornelius Tacitus is cited by Pliny the Elder as an example of abnormally rapid growth and aging (N.H. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/7
- .html 7.76]), implying an early death. This means that this son was not the historian, but his brother or cousin—the senior Cornelius Tacitus may have been an uncle. From this connection, and from the well-attested friendship between the younger Pliny and the younger Tacitus, scholars draw the conclusion that the two families were of similar class, means, and background: equestrians, of significant wealth, from provincial families. younger Pliny The exact province of his origin is unknown. His marriage to the daughter of the Narbonensian senator Gnaeus Julius Agricola may indicate that he, too, came from Gallia Narbonensis. The possibly-Spanish origin of the Fabius Iustus to whom Tacitus dedicates the Dialogus suggests a (family?) connection to Hispania. His friendship with Pliny points to northern Italy as his home. None of this evidence is conclusive. Gnaeus Julius Agricola could have known Tacitus from elsewhere. Martial dedicates a poem to Pliny ([http://thelatinlibrary.com/martial/mart10.shtml 10.20]), but not to the more distinguished Tacitus—which, had Tacitus been Spanish, might be unusual, were Martial's light and often scurrilous style not antithetical to Tacitus's grave and serious manner. No evidence exists that Pliny's friends from northern Italy knew Tacitus, nor do Pliny's letters ever hint that the two men shared a common home province. 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. His ancestry, his skill in oratory, and his occasional sympathy for barbarians who resisted Roman rule (e.g., Ann. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ann.+2.9 2.9]), have led some to suggest that he was of Celtic stock: the Celts had occupied Gaul before the Romans, the Celts were famous for their skill in oratory, and the Celts had been subjugated by Rome.

Public life, marriage, and literary career

As a young man he studied rhetoric in Rome as preparation for a career in law and politics; like Pliny, he may have studied under Quintilian. In 77 or 78 he married Julia Agricola, daughter of the famous general Agricola; we know nothing of their marriage or their home life, save that Tacitus loved hunting and the outdoors. He owed the start of his career (probably meaning the latus clavus, mark of the senator) to Vespasian, as he tells us in the Histories ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Hist.+1.1 1.1]), but it was under Titus that he entered political life as quaestor, in 81 or 82. 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 gained acclaim as a lawyer and orator; his skill in public speaking gave a marked irony to his cognomen Tacitus ('silent'). He served in the provinces from ca. 89 to ca. 93, perhaps in command of a legion, perhaps in a civilian post. His person and property survived Domitian's reign of terror (93–96), but the experience left him jaded and grim, perhaps ashamed at his own complicity, and gave him the hatred of tyranny so evident throughout his works. From his seat in the Senate he became suffect consul in 97 during the reign of Nerva, being the first of his family to do so. 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 the following year he wrote and published his Agricola and Germania, announcing the beginnings of the literary endeavors that would occupy him until his death. Afterwards he disappears from the public scene, to which he returns during Trajan's reign. In 100, 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". A lengthy absence from politics and law followed, during which time he wrote his two major works: first the Histories, then the Annals. He held the highest civilian governorship, that of the Roman province of Asia in Western Anatolia, in 112 or 113, as evidenced by the inscription found at Mylasa (mentioned above). A passage in the Annals fixes 116 as the terminus post quem of his death, which may have been as late as 125. It is unknown whether he was survived by any children, though the Augustan History reports that the emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus claimed him as an ancestor and provided for the preservation of his works—but like so much of the Augustan History, this story is probably fraudulent.

Works

Marcus Claudius Tacitus edition of the complete works of Tacitus, bearing the stamps of the Bibliotheca Comunale in Empoli, Italy.]] Five works ascribed to Tacitus have survived (or at least: large parts thereof). Years are approximate, and the last two (his "major" works), took probably more than a few years to write.
- (98) De vita Iulii Agricolae (The Life of Julius Agricola)
- (98) De origine et situ Germanorum (The Germania)
- (102) Dialogus de oratoribus (Dialogue on Oratory)
- (105) Historiae (Histories)
- (117) Ab excessu divi Augusti (Annals)

Major works

The two major works, originally published separately, were meant to form a single edition of thirty books, with the Annals preceding the Histories. 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 (96). 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 70. The work is believed to have continued up to the death of Domitian on September 18, 96. The fifth book contains—as a prelude to the account of Titus's suppression of the Great Jewish Revolt—a short ethnographic survey of the ancient Jews and is an invaluable record of the educated Romans' attitude towards that people.

The Annals

The Annals was Tacitus's final work, covering the period from the death of Augustus Caesar in the year 14. 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 the year 66). 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 an 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.

Germania

The Germania (Latin title: De Origine et situ Germanorum) is an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. 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. Tacitus himself had already written a similar, albeit shorter, piece in his Agricola (chapters 10–13). The book begins with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the Germans (chapters 1–27); it then segues into descriptions of individual tribes, beginning with those dwelling closest to Roman lands and ending on the uttermost shores of the Baltic Sea, with a description of the primitive and savage Fenni and the unknown tribes beyond them.

Agricola (De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae)

The Agricola (written ca. 98) recounts the life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general and Tacitus's father-in-law; it also covers, briefly, the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain. 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

Briton 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). He could read the collections of speeches by some emperors, such as Tiberius and Claudius. Generally, Tacitus was a scrupulous historian who paid careful attention to his historical works. The minor inacurracies occurring in the Annals might be due to the fact that Tacitus died before completely finishing (and supposedly final proofreading) of this work. He used a great variety of historical and literary sources as well; he used them with freedom and he chose from varied sources of varied tendency. Tacitus cites some of his sources directly, among them Pliny the Elder, who had written Bella Germaniae and an historical work which was the continuation of that of Aufidius Bassus. Tacitus could use some collections of letters (epistolarium) and various notes. He also took some information from the works of the historical genre named exitus illustrium virorum. These were a collection of books on and by those who opposed the emperors. They tell of the sacrifice of the martyr to freedom, especially the men who committed suicide, following the theory of the Stoics. Tacitus used these materials to give a dramatic tone to his stories, while he placed no value on the theory of the suicides. These suicides seem, to him, ostentatious and politically useless, while, on the other hand he is sometimes over the hill about the "swansong" speeches of some of those about to commit suicide, for example Cremutius Cordus' speech in Ann. IV, 34-35.

Literary style

Tacitus's writings are known for their instantly deep-cutting and dense prose, seldom glossy, in contrast with the more placable style of some of his contemporaries, like Plutarch. When he describes a near-to-defeat of the Roman army in Ann. I, 63 this is one of the rare occasions where he applies some kind of gloss, but then still rather by the brevity with which he describes the end of the hostilities, than by embellishing phrases. In most of his writings he keeps to a strictly chronological ordering of his narration, with only seldom an outline of the bigger picture, as if he leaves it to the reader to construct that "bigger picture" for himself. Nonetheless, when he sketches the bigger picture, for example in the opening paragraphs of the Annals, summarizing the situation at the end of the reign of Augustus, he needs no more than a few condensed phrases to take the reader to the heart of the story.

Approach to history

Tacitus's historical style combines various approaches to history into a method of his own (owing some debt to Sallust): seamlessly blending straightforward descriptions of events, pointed moral lessons, and tightly-focused dramatic accounts, his history writing contains deep, and often pessimistic, insights into the workings of the human mind and the nature of power. Tacitus's own declaration regarding his approach to history is famous (Ann. I,1): : Although this is probably as close as one can get to a neutral point of view intention in antiquity, there has been much scholarly discussion about Tacitus's alleged "neutrality" (or "partiality" to others, which would make the quote above no more than a figure of speech). Throughout his writings, Tacitus appears primarily concerned with the balance of power between the Roman Senate and the Roman Emperors. His writings are filled with tales of corruption and tyranny in the governing class of Rome as they failed to adjust to the new imperial régime; they squandered their cherished cultural traditions of free speech and self-respect as they fell over themselves to please the often bemused (and rarely benign) emperor. Another important recurring theme is the role of having the sympathy of the army in the coming to power (and staying there) of an Emperor: throughout the period Tacitus is describing, the leading role in that respect sways between (some of) the legions defending the outer borders of the Empire, and the troops residing in the city of Rome, most prominently the Praetorian Guard. Tacitus's political career was largely spent under the emperor Domitian; his experience of the tyranny, corruption, and decadence prevalent in the era (81–96) may explain his bitter and ironic political analysis. He warned against the dangers of unaccountable power, against the love of power untempered by principle, and against the popular apathy and corruption, engendered by the wealth of the empire, which allowed such evils to flourish. The experience of Domitian's tyrannical reign is generally also seen as the cause of the sometimes unfairly bitter and ironic cast to his portrayal of the Julio-Claudian emperors. Nonetheless the image he builds of Tiberius throughout the first six books of the Annals is neither exclusively bleak nor approving: most scholars analyse the image of Tiberius as predominantly positive in the first books, becoming predominantly negative in the following books relating the intrigues of Sejanus. Even then, the entrance of Tiberius in the first chapters of the first book is a crimson tale dominated by hypocrisy by and around the new emperor coming to power; and in the later books some kind of respect for the wisdom and cleverness of the old emperor, keeping out of Rome to secure his position, is often transparent. In general Tacitus does not fear to give words of praise and words of rejection to the same person, often explaining openly which he thinks the commendable and which the despicable properties. Not conclusively taking sides for or against the persons he describes is his hallmark, and led thinkers in later times to interpret his works as well as a defense of an imperial system, as as a rejection of the same (see Tacitean studies, Black vs. Red Tacitists). A better illustration of Tacitus's "sine ira et studio" is scarcely imaginable.

Prose style

Tacitus's skill with written Latin is unsurpassed; no other author is considered his equal, except perhaps for Cicero. His style differs both from the prevalent style of the Silver Age and from that of the Golden Age; though it has a calculated grandeur and eloquence (largely thanks to Tacitus's education in rhetoric), it is extremely concise, even epigrammatic—the sentences are rarely flowing or beautiful, but their point is always clear. The same style has been both derided as "harsh, unpleasant, and thorny" and praised as "grave, concise, and pithily eloquent". His historical works focus on the psyches and inner motivations 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. He is at his best when exposing hypocrisy and dissimulation; for example, he follows a narrative recounting Tiberius' refusal of the title pater patriae by recalling the institution of a law forbidding any "treasonous" speech or writings—and the frivolous prosecutions which resulted (Annals, 1.72). Elsewhere (Annals 4.64–66) he compares Tiberius' public distribution of fire relief to his failure to stop the perversions and abuses of justice which he had begun. Though this kind of insight has earned him praise, he has also been criticized for ignoring the larger context of the events which he describes. Tacitus owes the most, both in language and in method, to Sallust; Ammianus Marcellinus is the later historian whose work most closely approaches him in style.

Studies and reception history

From Pliny the Younger's [http://thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep7.html 7th Letter (to Tacitus)], §33: : Tacitus is remembered first and foremost as Rome's greatest historian, the equal—if not the superior—of Thucydides, the ancient Greeks' foremost historian; the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica opined that he "ranks beyond dispute in the highest place among men of letters of all ages". His influence extends far beyond the field of history. His work has been read for its moral instruction, its gripping and dramatic narrative, and its inimitable prose style; it is as a political theorist, though, that he has been (and still is) most influential outside the field of history. The political lessons taken from his work fall roughly into two camps (as identified by Giuseppe Toffanin): the "red Tacitists", who used him to support republican ideals, and the "black Tacitists", those who read him as a lesson in Machiavellian realpolitik. Though his work is the most reliable source for the history of his era, its factual accuracy is occasionally questioned: the Annals are based in part on secondary sources of unknown reliability, and there are some obvious minor mistakes (for instance confusing the two daughters of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, both named Antonia). The Histories, written from primary documents and intimate knowledge of the Flavian period, is thought to be more accurate, though Tacitus's hatred of Domitian seemingly colored its tone and interpretations.

Notes

# OGIS 487, first brought to light in Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, 1890, pp. 621–623. # Since he was appointed to the quaestorship during Titus's short rule (see note below), and twenty-five was the minimum age for the position, the date of his birth can be fixed with some accuracy. # See Oliver, 1951, for an analysis of the manuscript from which we take the name Publius; see also Oliver, 1977, which examines the evidence for each suggested praenomen (the well-known Gaius and Publius, the lesser-known suggestions of Sextus and Quintus) before settling on Publius as the most likely. # Oliver, 1977, cites an article by Harold Mattingly in Rivista storica dell'Antichità, 2 (1972) 169–185. # Syme, 1958, pp. 612–613; Gordon, 1936, pp. 145–146 # Syme, 1958, p. 60, 613; Gordon, 1936, p. 149; Martin, 1981, p. 26 # Syme, 1958, p. 63 # Syme, 1958, pp. 614–616 # Syme, 1958, pp. 616–619 # Syme, 1958, p. 619; Gordon, 1936, p. 145 # Gordon, 1936, pp. 150–151; Syme, 1958, pp. 621–624 # That he studied rhetoric and law we know from the Dialogus, ch. 2; see also Martin, 1981, p. 26; Syme, 1958, pp. 114–115 # Agricola, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+9 9] # Pliny, Letters 1.6, 9.10; Benario, 1975, pp. 15, 17; Syme, 1958, pp. 541–542 # Syme, 1958, p. 63; Martin, 1981, pp. 26–27 # From the Histories ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Hist.+1.1 1.1]) we learn of his debt to Titus; since Titus's rule was short, these are the only years possible. # In the Annals ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ann.+11.11 11.11]) he mentions that he, as praetor, assisted in the Secular Games held by Domitian, which are dated precisely to 88. See Syme, 1958, p. 65; Martin, 1981, p. 27 # The Agricola ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+45 45.5]) indicates that Tacitus and his wife were absent at the time of Julius Agricola's death in 93. For his occupation during this time see Syme, 1958, p. 68; Benario, 1975, p. 13; Dudley, 1968, pp. 15–16; Martin, 1981, p. 28; Mellor, 1993, p. 8 # Agricola, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+44 44]–[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+45 45]: "[Agricola] was spared those later years during which Domitian, leaving now no interval or breathing space of time, but, as it were, with one continuous blow, drained the life-blood of the Commonwealth. [. . .] It was not long before our hands dragged Helvidius to prison, before we gazed on the dying looks of Manricus and Rusticus, before we were steeped in Senecio's innocent blood. Even Nero turned his eyes away, and did not gaze upon the atrocities which he ordered; with Domitian it was the chief part of our miseries to see and to be seen, to know that our sighs were being recorded[. . .] ." For the effects on Tacitus's ideology see Dudley, 1968, p. 14; Mellor, 1993, pp. 8–9 # Pliny, Letters, [http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/Pliny/Pliny02-01-L.html 2.1] [http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/Pliny/Pliny02-01-E.html (English)] # In the Agricola ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ag.+3 3]) he announces what must be the beginning of his first great project: the Histories. See Dudley, 1968, p. 16 # Pliny, Letters [http://thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep2.html 2.11] # Annals, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Tac.+Ann.+2.61 2.61], says that the Roman Empire "now extends to the Red Sea". If by "mare rubrum" he means the Persian Gulf, as is possible, then the passage must have been written after Trajan's eastern conquests in 116, but before Hadrian abandoned the new territories in 117. This may indicate only the date of publication for the first books of the Annals; Tacitus himself could have lived well into Hadrian's reign, and there is no reason to suppose that he did not. See Dudley, 1968, p. 17; Mellor, 1993, p. 9; Mendell, 1957, p. 7; Syme, 1958, p. 473 # Augustan History, [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Tacitus
- .html Tacitus X]. Scholarly opinion on this story is divided as to whether it is "a confused and worthless rumor" (Mendell, 1957, p. 4) or "pure fiction" (Syme, 1958, p. 796). Sidonius Apollinaris reports (Letters, 4.14; cited in Syme, 1958, p. 796) that Polemius, a 5th-century Gallo-Roman aristocrat, descended from Tacitus—but this too, says Syme (ibid.) is of little use. # Jerome's commentary on the Book of Zechariah (14.1, 2; quoted in Mendell, 1957, p. 228) says that Tacitus's history was extant triginta voluminibus, 'in thirty volumes'. # Mellor, 1995, p. xvii # Burke, 1969, pp. 162–163

References


- Adams, James N. "The language of the later books of Tacitus' Annals". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 22 (1972), pp. 350–373.
- Adams, James N. "The vocabulary of the speeches in Tacitus' historical works". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Vol. 20 (1973), pp. 120–144.
- Adams, James N. "Were the later books of Tacitus' Annals revised?" Rheinisches Museum, Vol. 117 (1974), pp. 323–333.
- Ash, Rhiannon. Ordering Anarchy: Armies and Leaders in Tacitus' Histories (London: Duckworth, 1999) ISBN 0715628003
- Barnes, T.D. "The Fragments of Tacitus' Histories". Classical Philology, Vol. 72 (1977), pp. 224–231.
- Barnes, T.D. "The Significance of Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 90 (1986), pp. 225–244.
- Barnes, T.D. "Tacitus and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre". Phoenix, Vol. 52 (1998), pp. 125–148.
- Baron, Hans. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance. (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966)
- Benario, Herbert W. An Introduction to Tacitus. (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1975) ISBN 0820303615
- Birley, Antony R. "The Life and Death of Cornelius Tacitus". Historia, Vol. 49 (2000), pp. 230–247.
- Bosworth, A.B. "Mountain and molehill? Cornelius Tacitus and Curtius Rufus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 54 (2004), pp. 551–567.
- Brink, C.O. "Can Tacitus' Dialogus Be Dated? Evidence and Historical Conclusions". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 96 (1994), pp. 251–280.
- Brink, C.O. "Justus Lipsius and the text of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 41 (1951), pp. 32–51.
- Burke, P. "Tacitism" in Dorey, T.A., 1969, pp. 149–171
- Clarke, Katherine. "An Island Nation: Re-Reading Tacitus' Agricola". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 91 (2001), pp. 94–112.
- Daitz, S.G. "Tacitus’ technique of character portrayal". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 81 (1960), pp. 30–52.
- Damon, Cynthia. "The Trial of Cn. Piso in Tacitus’ Annals and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 120, No. 1 (1999), pp. 143–162.
- Dorey, T.A. (ed.). Tacitus (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) ISBN 0710064322
- Dudley, Donald R. The World of Tacitus (London: Secker and Warburg, 1968) ISBN 0436139006
- Eck, Werner. "Cheating the Public, or: Tacitus Vindicated". Scripta Classica Israelica, Vol. 21 (2002), pp. 149–164.
- Fletcher, G.B.A. "Assonances or plays on words in Tacitus". The Classical Review, Vol. 54 (1940), pp. 184–187.
- Gill, C. "Character-development in Plutarch and Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 33 (1983), pp. 469–487.
- Ginsburg, Judith. Tradition and theme in the Annals of Tacitus (New York: Arno Press, 1981)
- Goodyear, F.R.D. "Development of language and style in the Annals of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 58 (1968), pp. 22–31.
- Goodyear, F.R.D. "The readings of the Leiden manuscript of Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 15 (1965), pp. 299–322.
- Goodyear, F.R.D. Tacitus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), Greece & Rome New Surveys in Classics No. 4. Good survey of scholarship up to 1960s.
- Gordon, Mary L. "The Patria of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 26, Part 2 (1936), pp. 145–151.
- Griffin, Miriam T. "Claudius in Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 40 (1990), pp. 482–501.
- Griffin, Miriam T. "The Lyons tablet and Tacitean hindsight". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 32 (1982), pp. 404–418.
- Griffin, Miriam T. "Tacitus and Pliny". Scripta Classica Israelica, Vol. 18 (1999), pp. 139–158.
- Griffin, Miriam T. "Tacitus, Tiberius and the Principate", in I. Malkin and Z. Rubihnson (eds.), Leaders and Masses in the Roman World: Studies in Honour of Zvi Yavetz (Leiden: Brill, 1995), pp. 33–57.
- Haverfield, F. "Tacitus during the Late Roman Period and the Middle Ages". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 6. (1916), pp. 196–201.
- Haynes, Holly. The History of Make-Believe: Tacitus on imperial Rome (Berkeley, Calif.; London: University of California Press, 2003) ISBN 0520236505
- Löfstedt, Einar. "The Style of Tacitus", in Idem, Roman Literary Portraits, transl. by P.M. Fraser (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), pp.157–180.
- Luce, T.J., and Woodman, Antony J. (eds.) Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993) ISBN 0691069883
- Marsh, Frank Burr. "Tacitus and aristocratic tradition". Classical Philology, Vol. 21 (1926), pp. 289–310.
- Martin, Ronald. "The Leiden manuscript of Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 14 (1964), pp. 109–119.
- Martin, Ronald. Tacitus (London: Batsford, 1981)
- Martin, Ronald. "Tacitus and the Death of Augustus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 5 (1955), pp. 123–128.
- Mattingly, H.B. "Tacitus’ praenomen: the politics of a moderate". Rivista storica dell’antichità, Vol. 2 (1972), pp. 169–185.
- Mellor, Ronald. Tacitus (London: Routledge, 1993) ISBN 0415906652
- Mellor, Ronald (ed.). Tacitus: The Classical Heritage (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995) ISBN 0815309333
- Mendell, Clarence. Tacitus: The Man and His Work. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957) ISBN 0208008187
- Miller, Norma P. "The Claudian Tablet and Tacitus: A Reconsideration". Rheinisches Museum, Vol. 99 (1956), pp. 304–315.
- Miller, Norma P. "Dramatic speech in Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 85 (1964), pp. 279–296.
- Miller, Norma P. "Tiberius Speaks: An Examination of the Utterances Ascribed to Him in the Annals of Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 89 (1968), pp. 1–19.
- Murgia, C. "The Date of Tacitus' Dialogus". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 84 (1980), pp. 99–125.
- Murgia, C. "Pliny's Letters and the Dialogus". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 89 (1985), pp. 171–206.
- O'Gorman, Ellen. Irony and Misreading in the Annals of Tacitus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) ISBN 0521660564
- Oliver, Revilo P. "The First Medicean MS of Tacitus and the Titulature of Ancient Books". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 82 (1951), pp. 232–261.
- Oliver, Revilo P. "The Praenomen of Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 98, No. 1 (Spring, 1977), pp. 64–70.
- Persival, J. "Tacitus and the Principate". Greece & Rome, Vol. 27 (1980), pp. 119–133.
- Reid, James Smith. "Tacitus as a historian". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 11 (1921), pp. 191–199.
- Rutland, L. "The Tacitean Germanicus. Suggestions for a re-evaluation". Rheinisches Museum, Vol. 130 (1987), pp. 153–163.
- Sage, M.M. "Tacitus and the accession of Tiberius". The Ancient Society, Vol. 13/14 (1982/83), pp. 293–321.
- Schellhase, Kenneth C. Tacitus in Renaissance Political Thought (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1976) ISBN 0226737004
- Shatzman, I. "Tacitean rumours". Latomus, Vol. 33 (1974), pp.549–578.
- Shotter, D.C.A. "Tacitus, Tiberius and Germanicus". Historia, Vol. 17 (1968), pp. 194–214.
- Sinclaire, Patrick. Tacitus the Sententious Historian: A sociology of rhetoric in Annales 1-6 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Prss, 1995) ISBN 0271013338
- Syme, Ronald. "How Tacitus Wrote Annals I-III", in Idem, Roman Papers, Vol. 3 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 1014–1042.
- Syme, Ronald. Tacitus, Volumes 1 and 2. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958) (reprinted in 1985 by the same publisher, with the ISBN 0198143273) is the definitive study of his life and works.
- Syme, Ronald. Ten Studies in Tacitus. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970) ISBN 0198143583
- Talbert, R.J.A. "Tacitus and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 120, No. 1 (1999), pp. 89–97.
- Townend, G.B. "Cluvius Rufus in the Histories of Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 85 (1964), pp. 337–377.
- Walker, B. The Annals of Tacitus: A study in the writing of history (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1952)
- Wharton, D.B. "Tacitus’ Tiberius: The State of the Evidence for the Emperor’s Ipsissima Verba in the Annals". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 118 (1997), pp. 119–125.
- Woodman, Anthony John. Tacitus Reviewed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0198152582

See also


- Republic (Plato): Tacitus' critique of "model state" philosophies.
- Tacitus on Jesus: a well-known passage from the Annals mentions the death of Christ (Ann., xv 44).

External links


- [http://classics.rutgers.edu/tacitus_biblio.htm Bibliography on Tacitus] (from Rutgers University Classics Department)
- Texts by Tacitus:
  -
  - At Perseus Project: [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html Works by Tacitus in English and/or Latin]
  - At MIT Classics: [http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Tacitus.html Annals and Histories]
  - At "The Online Books Page": [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?amode=start&author=Tacitus%2c%20Cornelius Online e-texts of Tacitus' works]
  - At "Romansonline" (Latin text can be displayed side by side to translation): [http://www.romansonline.com/Menu_s.asp Works by Tacitus]
  - At [http://www.roman-literature-online.com/ Roman Literature Online]: [http://www.roman-literature-online.com/tacitus/germany-and-agricola/ Germany and Agricola] and [http://www.roman-literature-online.com/tacitus/the-annals/ The Annals]
  - At "The Internet Sacred Text Archive": [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/index.htm Parallel English and Latin text of the complete works of Tacitus] Category:50s births Category:2nd century deaths Category:Roman era historians Category:Roman era rhetoricians Category:Roman era biographers Category:Roman jurists ko:타키투스 ja:タキトゥス

Bretagne

:For the town in the Territoire-de-Belfort, see Bretagne, Territoire-de-Belfort. Bretagne (; English: Brittany; Breton: Breizh; Gallo: Bertaèyn) is one of the 26 régions of France. It occupies a large peninsula in the northwest of the country, lying between the English Channel to the north and the Bay of Biscay to the south. Its capital city is Rennes. The région of Bretagne is made up of 80% of the former duchy and province of Brittany. The remaining 20% of Brittany is the Loire-Atlantique département which lies inside the Pays-de-la-Loire région, with its capital Nantes, which was the historical capital of the duchy of Brittany. Part of the reason why Brittany was split between two modern day régions was to avoid the rivalry between Rennes and Nantes. Although Nantes had been the main capital of the duchy of Brittany until the 16th century, Rennes had been the seat of the parlement (supreme court of justice) of Brittany between 1560 and 1789. Rennes had also been the administrative capital of the intendance of Brittany between 1689 and 1789. Intendances were the most important administrative units of the kingdom of France in the 17th and 18th centuries. As for the provincial states of Brittany, which originally met every two years in a different city of Brittany, they had only met in Rennes from 1728 to 1789 (with only the exceptions of 1730, 1758, and 1760). Despite that, the "Chambre des comptes" staid in Nantes till 1789. Note that Vannes (Gwened in breton) used to be the first administrative capital of the duchy from 1381 till the end of the 15th century, keeping the seat of the "Chambre des comptes" till 1491/99, and the one of the "Parlement" till 1553, and between 1675 and 1689. Thus, when French régions were created, it was decided in 1941 to create a région of Bretagne with Rennes as its capital, and another région created specifically for Nantes, which was called Pays-de-la-Loire (i.e. "lands of the Loire"). Pays-de-la-Loire is made up of a part of Brittany, but also several other historical provinces (Anjou, Maine, and so on). Some people in Brittany complain about the current division of Brittany and would like to see Loire-Atlantique joining the région of Bretagne in order to reunify Brittany. However, this would create several problems: what to do with the rump Pays-de-la-Loire région? and which city to choose as the capital of this reunified Bretagne région?

Transportation

There are several airports in Brittany serving destinations in France and England. TGV train services link the region with cities such as Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Lille in other regions of France. In addition there are ferry services that take passengers, vehicles and freight to Ireland, England and the Channel Islands.

See also


- List of postal codes in Brittany

External links


- [http://www.region-bretagne.fr/CRB Regional Council of Bretagne]
- [http://www.frenchentree-brittany.com/ FrenchEntree-Brittany] - Brittany life and culture in English
- [http://brittany.angloinfo.com/ AngloINFO Bretagne] - information in English
- ja:ブルターニュ

Denmark

The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark) is geographically the smallest and southernmost Nordic country, and is part of the European Union. It is located at in Scandinavia which is in northern Europe, but it does not lie on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Denmark borders the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, and consists of a peninsula attached to Northern Germany named Jutland (Jylland), the islands Funen (Fyn), Zealand (Sjælland), Bornholm and many smaller islands, the waters of which are often referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark lies north of Germany (its only land neighbour), southwest of Sweden, and south of Norway. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are Crown territories of Denmark, each with political home rule.

History

:Main article: History of Denmark The origin of Denmark is lost in prehistory. The oldest Danevirke is from the 7th century, at the same time as the new Runic alphabet. Oldest city: Ribe is from about 810. Up into the 10th century the Danes were known as Vikings, together with Norwegians and Swedes, colonising, raiding and trading in all parts of Europe. Viking explorers first discovered Iceland by accident in the ninth century, en route to the Faroe Islands. Erik the Red, or Erik Thorvaldson, was exiled from the colony for manslaughter in 980, and set sail for the west, to explore the lands to the west. He established the first settelments in Greenland around this time, naming the land, according to ledgend, to attract settelers. Erik's son Leif the Lucky(Leif Ericson)finally set foot in the Americas around the year 1000. While some say he was blown off course, it is most likely that he was diliberatly seeking the land spotted by Bjarni Herjulfsson several years earlier. He established a colony at L'Anse aux Meadows, which lasted only a year. Two further attempts at colonization by his brother ended in failure. At various times the King of Denmark has ruled parts of England and Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, France, especially Normandy and the Virgin Islands, Tranquebar in India, Estonia and what is now Northern Germany. Scania, Blekinge and Halland were part of Denmark for most of its early history, but were lost to Sweden in 1658. The union with Norway was dissolved in 1814, when Norway entered a new union with Sweden (until 1905). The Danish liberal and national movement gained momentum in the 1830s, and after the European revolutions of 1848 Denmark became a constitutional monarchy June 5 1849. After the Second War of Schleswig (Danish: Slesvig) in 1864 Denmark was forced to cede Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia, in a defeat that left deep marks in the Danish national identity. After this point Denmark adopted a policy of neutrality, as a result of which Denmark stayed neutral in World War I. Following the defeat of Germany, Denmark was offered by the Versailles powers the return of Schleswig-Holstein. Fearing German irredentism Denmark refused to consider the return of Holstein and insisted on a plebiscite concerning the return of Schleswig. In 1920, following the plebiscite, Northern Schleswig was recovered by Denmark. Despite its continued neutrality Denmark was invaded by Germany (Operation Weserübung), on April 9, 1940. Though at first accorded self-rule (which ended in 1943 due to a mounting resistance movement), Denmark remained militarily occupied throughout World War II. The Danish sympathy for the Allied Cause was strong; 1,900 Danish Police Officers were arrested by the Gestapo and sent, under guard, to be interned in Buchenwald. After the war, Denmark became one of the founding members of NATO and, in 1973, joined the European Economic Community (later, the European Union).

Politics and government

:Main article: Politics of Denmark Denmark is the oldest monarchy in th