Tacitus Essays

Justin West Pror. Boardman Ch 201 10/16/14 Making History Tacitus and Livy, these two great historians both wrote during the time of the Roman Empires decline. While both Tacitus and Livys’ ways of writing history are very similar in several ways, the way that Levy wrote history was quite different from the way that Tacitus wrote history. While they both share a few common thoughts, like the superiority of Roman values, their perceptions of Rome differ. Both of the authors recognize the superiority

Tacitus was a Roman historian and senator who lived from around 56 to 120 C.E. During his life, the Roman Empire had expanded as far north as Britain. Through military conquest and Romanization, Roman culture was spread, integrating the inhabiting societies with roman politics, administration, social practices, and the start of the new religion of Christianity. However, up until this period Germany remained untouched from Roman imperialism, and according to Tacitus, was subject to very little emigration

In the first chapters of Book VI of the Annals, Tacitus describes the early youth of Aelius Sejanus. Almost immediately, we are aware of the fact that both Tiberius and Sejanus, in some way, are responsible for the end of Rome’s peaceful reign. In this way, Tacitus portrays the negative impression received from both characters in a multitude of ways. Firstly, Tacitus recalls the events of Sejanus persuading the emperor Tiberius to situate the praetorian guard outside the city of Rome and by the gate

Tacitus uses a diverse set of words with the central meaning of death to illustrate Augustus’s reign and Tiberius’s sneaky ascent into power through the demise of his rivals. An accomplished writer such as Tacitus prefers to have a variety of words when writing, so the reader is not seeing the same word over and over again. A lack in word variety makes the writer appear unintelligent and unable express their ideas. In the second paragraph, Tacitus uses “caesis,” “exotique,” “interfecto,” and “partibus

Tacitus believes that Roman Imperialism has a variety of attributes that include prosperity, cruelty, and jealousy. Tacitus no doubt had much contempt for Domitian as he believes that his rule was purely tyrannical. Tacitus describes him as impeding on the exchange of free thoughts and ideas between the Roman writers which led to many of them becoming exiled. However, he describes how times are getting better but ever so slowly with the change of leadership to Nerva, and then Trajan. Tacitus writes

Tacitus referred to some of Nero’s actions as a “series of reversals” which is how Roman authors traditionally talked of foreign countries which again brings in the idea of deterritorialization and the association of Rome with lesser, barbarian cultures. Woodman argues that Tacitus was prompting his readers into thinking that Nero was trying to turn Rome into the hated city of Alexandria, which was disliked for its association with Cleopatra and because it was half Greek. Those in the government

Cornelius Tacitus, an ancient Roman historian, can be regarded as an important contributor to humanity’s collective knowledge of the past. His seminal works A Treatise on the Situation, Manners and Inhabitants of Germany as well as The Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola provide an important, if biased, perspective on ancient Germanic tribes and early British governor Agricola, respectively. These two documents combine to revealingly showcase a unique perspective on warfare, leadership, and culture as

This review analyzes Kenneth Wellesley's 1964 translation of the The Histories by Tacitus. The Histories is an account of Rome during the infamous A.D. 69, in which Rome held four emperors, and the surrounding months. In it, Tacitus described the reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius and Vespasian's rise to power, as well as the battles, executions, and other events that shook Rome at the time. Actually, The Histories is believed to have covered a much longer time period, approximately from the death

be assumed that Tacitus received his detailed descriptions, presented in the Germania, of the Germanic people and their culture from hearing stories from people who had personally come in contact with the Germanic people. Tacitus gave great detail about the culture and ethnicity of the Germanic people ranging from the importance of war, the war tactics they used, and the loyalty of marriage. By describing the Germanic people’s culture with these certain characteristics, Tacitus was attempting to

The tempest is the last play by Shakespeare. Although it is the last one, it is “the opening play in almost all the complete collections of Shakespeare’s plays ever since the first folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays…The tempest is unquestionably one of the best plays by Shakespeare”, as Zhang Siyang, a famous Shakespeare critic once pointed out in An Introduction to Shakespeare. From this we can see that the tempest assumes an important position in all Shakespeare’s plays. In this tale, every

Tacitus was a Roman historian who sought to understand and convey the social customs, governance structure, and war like nature of the Germanic tribes. The Germanic tribes, otherwise referred to as “Germany” by Tacitus, sat beyond the territories of Rome further into the north. It is important to note that Tacitus described Germans during this time as being very isolated from other civilizations. He explains that “they are indigenous and very little foreign blood has been introduced...” (Tacitus

In his Germania, Tacitus describes the lands and peoples of Germany. He sometimes praises them, sometimes derides them, but often he writes with an air of casual indifference. Since Tacitus was a Roman, and he wrote the Germania for other Romans, the reader can get a glimpse of Roman society at the time through analysis of Tacitus’s word choice and tone. While Tacitus covers many facets of Germanic culture, he particularly highlights their customs in battle and rather ethical domestic lifestyle,

Germania, written by Roman author Tacitus, presents several examples throughout his work informing the reader of the various groups of the Germanic people. He presents detailed descriptions of culture and customs of different ethnic groups. Tacitus, being Roman, does not describe the Germans completely negatively, but rather describes them as sometimes living a simpler, more pure lifestyle than his more excessive Roman contemporaries. Tacitus uses the category of ethnicity and race to define people

glory...They make a desert and call it peace.” (Tacitus 22). Despite Tacitus not being present during this speech made by Calgacus who was one of the leaders of the Britons.This second hand account of the speech granted Tacitus the ability to put up a mirror of Roman ambition. Tacitus represented the best qualities of Roman attributes through his father in law Agricola. A man to which through Tacitus’ writings the manifestation of Roman perfection. Tacitus view of the flaws of Roman society were it’s

Despite these contrasting accounts of Augustus given by Tacitus, Suetonius and Dio Cassius, numerous historiographical complexity are faced in general when studying famous ancient figures, as authors can develop their own interpretations of events that occurred and offer an argument or point of view in an effort to persuade other individuals. However, because Dio Cassius was a well renowned politician as well as a noted Roman historian and Tacitus was a senator and historian who came from a Roman family

Tacitus gives a very detailed description of Germania and it’s populace. He describes numerous aspects of their lives and does this by first narrating how the term ‘Germany’ came about and its citizen’s origins, Physical characteristics in which Germans are thought to possess which are “fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge frames” , form of government, administration of justice and punishment, dress styles etc. Looking at his description of the Germans, it is evident that he tries to portray them as

as a community. Their livelihood centred around morality. When Tacitus writes about them in his treatise he writes them favourably. They have an organized social structure of equality. It is not very hierarchical but everybody has their own role. The women manage the dwellings, the Chiefs look after the tribes and the Warriors battle. In Germania, the author Tacitus writes about a society that is moral and un-imperialistic. What Tacitus sees is warriors that do not fight for a state, but for their

place in 64 CE. Many ancient historians wrote about this catastrophe and the emperor’s role in it, having various accounts of what had occurred. Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio all recorded this event and painted Nero in differing lights, with the first having the most extensive account and being the only one to have been alive during the fire. Tacitus (56-120 CE) was a Roman orator and public official, who used many public records, official reports, and his own experience as the basis for his

Suetonius, Cassius Dio, and Tacitus are our three best sources for the time of Nero. Suetonius and Cassio Dio are in agreement that the latter part Nero’s reign was an utter disaster, summarizing it with the following quotations: It might have been possible to excuse his insolent, lustful, extravagant, greedy or cruel practices (which were furtive and increased only gradually), by saying that boys will be boys; yet at the same time, this was clearly the true Nero, not merely Nero in his adolescence

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. Tacitus is considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians. He lived in what has been called the Silver Age of Latin literature. He is known for the brevity and compactness of his Latin prose, as well as for his penetrating insights into the psychology of power politics. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman emperors Tiberius, Claudius