Tacitus was born into a wealthy family in Northern
Italy. He received an education appropriate for a
Roman from a good family, mastering public
speaking skills, oratory, and debate. Throughout
his life, he occupied prestigious high-ranking positions
in the Roman Empire, beginning his career as
a senator, then becoming a consul and, finally, a
governor of Anatolia, one of the largest provinces
of the empire. Most of what we know about Tacitus’s
life comes from his works and letters he exchanged
with his good friend PLINY THE YOUNGER.
Though Tacitus was very successful politically,
it is as a historian and moralist that he is best remembered.
As a writer of history, he sought “to distinguish
right from wrong, the useful from the
dangerous” (Annales 4, 33).As a result,much of his
writing is focused on denouncing the Roman emperors
for their cruelty, attributing the decline of
the Roman Empire to this and other imperial vices.
In the year 98, Tacitus wrote his first work, Agricolae
De Vita Iulii, a biography of his father-in-law,
after whom the book is named. In this work, Tacitus
expresses his respect and admiration for Agricola
as a highly virtuous man. Soon after, he wrote
the treatise Concerning the Origin and Location of
the Germans, commonly called Germania (Germany,
ca. 98). Although the book contains a detailed
description of the customs and geographic
locations of Germanic tribes, it is not an objective
ethnographic study since the essence of the work is
political. It is colored with subtle irony toward
some of the German tribes’ primitive customs, descriptions
that glorify the simple German way of
life, and comparisons of these with the corruption
and luxurious immorality of the Romans.
Around the year 81, Tacitus composed his Dialogus
de Oratoribus (Dialogue on Orators), an essay
on education, the art of oratory in Rome, and oratory’s
decline. It is written in the style of CICERO
and, as was typical of the declamatory genre, is rich
with rhetorical figures and metaphors, illustrating
Tacitus’s talent as an expressive speaker.He became
one of the foremost prosecutors of his day, but
after the year 100 he gradually devoted more time
to writing until his death in Rome.
Critical Analysis
Tacitus is most famous for his Annals (ca.
115–117) and Histories (ca. 104–109). In these historical
works, the traditional declamatory writing
is replaced by a highly individual, polished style
that makes use of rich vocabulary and diverse sentence
structure and is reminiscent of LONGINUS.
Both works contain bitter criticism of imperial
power. Tacitus believed that the emperor had so
much power that no one could occupy the throne
without being corrupted by that power. Therefore,
his history is a tale of a succession of corrupt
despots, lust for power, and government scandal.
Histories presents a history of the Roman Empire
from the year 69 until the death of Domitian
in 96. The original work comprised 14 books, but
only the first four books and part of the fifth have
survived.
Tacitus’s later work, Annals, of which 16 books
are preserved, is a history of the emperors from
Augustus to Nero (37–68). Throughout Histories
and Annals, Tacitus makes good use of sarcasm.
The surviving fragments describe the revolt by the
northern tribes of Gaul, their defeat at the hands of
the Roman army, and the establishment of the Pax
Romana (Roman Peace) in the Gallic territories.
While he describes some emperors, namely Augustus,
with belittling innuendos, he describes others
with severe criticism. Emperor Tiberius, for example,
is portrayed as sinister and cruel, a man who
purges his opponents from the Senate by having
them tried for treason and executed. Claudius and
Nero are painted in similarly dark colors. The account
contains incisive character sketches, ironic
passages, and eloquent moral conclusions about
how the Roman character was declining due to the
lack of character in its rulers. In Annals, Tacitus
remains faithful to the spirit of passionate criticism
of the emperors’ cruelty and inhumanity. Thus, he
describes the terror that Nero imposed on Christians
who deviated from the traditional worship
of Greco-Roman gods:
Nero created a diversion and subjected to the
most extra-ordinary tortures those hated for
their abominations by the common people
called Christians. Mockery of every sort was
added to their deaths. . . . Covered with the
skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished,
or were nailed to crosses, or were
doomed to the flames. These served to illuminate
the night when daylight failed”
(Annales 15, 44)
Tacitus’s works differ from the usual panegyric
writing, which expresses admiration of the deeds
of those in power regardless of their actions. By
contrast, Tacitus provides a new perspective on the
personalities and deeds of these great historical figures,
allowing for a better understanding of the
events and people who colored his world.
English Versions of Works by
Cornelius Tacitus
Agricola and Germany. Translated by Anthony Birley.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Annals and the Histories. Translated by Alfred J.
Church and William J. Brodribb. New York: Random
House, 2003.
Histories. Book I. Edited by Cynthia Damon et al.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
2003.
Tacitus: Dialogus de Oratoribus. Edited by Roland
Mayer et al. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2001.
Works about Cornelius Tacitus
Haynes,Holly. The History ofMake-Believe: Tacitus on
Imperial Rome. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2003.
Mellor. Ronald. Tacitus. London: Routledge, 1994.
O’Gorman, Ellen. Irony and Misreading in the Annals
of Tacitus. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2000.