Publius cornelius tacitus biography

As in the Germania , Tacitus favorably contrasts the liberty of the native Britons with the tyranny and corruption of the Empire; the book also contains eloquent polemics against the greed of Rome, one of which, that Tacitus claims is from a speech by Calgacus , ends by asserting, Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

Why did tacitus write the annals

Note the three different ways of saying and in the first line -que , et , ac , and especially the matched second and third lines. Life [ edit ]. New York : Grolier Society. Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about About Related Articles close popup.

Tacitus birth and death

Notes [ edit ]. Tacitus , Volumes 1 and 2. Benario, Herbert W. Works [ edit ]. Verginius Rufus. See Syme, , pg. He also took information from exitus illustrium virorum. Tacitus believed that Domitian had treated his father-in-law unjustly, and this conviction, combined with outrage over the suppression of freedom of speech and action by the Senate, resulted in Tacitus's fiery indignation towards the emperor and the imperial system.

Borzsak had conjectured that the historian was related to Thrasea Paetus and Etruscan family of Caecinii , about whom he spoke very highly. Probably in 81 he held the quaestorship; if a fragmentary inscription thought to be part of Tacitus's epitaph has been correctly identified, he was one of the two quaestors marked out by the emperor for special honor the quaestores Augusti.

Family and early life [ edit ]. Syme, Ronald. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. Afterward, he absented himself from public life, but returned during Trajan 's reign 98— For the emperor, see Tacitus emperor. During his mature years, Tacitus was considered one of the leading Roman jurists.

When he writes about a near defeat of the Roman army in Annals I,63, he does so with brevity of description rather than embellishment. It is likely that he governed some small province from 89 to 93, and held a more responsible position as proconsul of the province of Asia from to These were a collection of books by those who were antithetical to the emperors.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. But this may only indicate the date of publication for the first books of the Annals ; Tacitus could have lived well into Hadrian's reign, and there is no reason to suppose that he did not. These episodes were presumably included to glorify Agricola, who did not shine on the Roman political horizon, and to give color to the text, but today they have become a priceless source of information on early British history.

ISSN Of the 14 books of "Histories", which appeared first, only the first four and part of the fifth have survived.