The Germania

Cornelius TacitusProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.3

Word count: 84K words
Chapters: 9

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Die Germania by Cornelius Tacitus. Author: Tacitus, Cornelius, 56–117. Language: German. Class: PA: Language and Literatures: Classical Languages and Literature. Release Date: April 29, 2012

Editor's review

Tacitus's Germania is a singular work in ancient Roman ethnographic writing: brief, yet dense with information. It systematically records the geographical distribution, social institutions, customs, and military organization of the Germanic tribes east of the Rhine, combining sober observation with the Romans' moral intent of using the "barbarian" as a mirror for themselves. Tacitus's Latin is known for its concision and epigrammatic force, and within a limited compass the work presents a clear narrative framework and a strong sense of contrast. For today's readers its value extends beyond historical source material: it shows how an ancient author understood "the other," and makes one aware that behind seemingly objective ethnographic description there is often rhetoric and stance at work. This is the German edition, suitable as supplementary reading for the study of classical texts and for readers interested in ancient European peoples and the Roman frontier. It is best read as a text with a stance, not as a neutral investigative report.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying Roman history or the history of ancient European peoples who need primary-source reference
Readers interested in the ethnographic tradition who want to understand how antiquity viewed other cultures
Advanced German learners who wish to engage with a translation of a classical text

Not a good fit for

Beginners expecting a systematic general history—the book's length and format cannot serve that purpose
General readers seeking light, story-driven reading—the text is more documentary in nature
Readers without basic Roman history background who are unwilling to consult notes

Reading tips

Read an introduction to Tacitus's life and writing context before the main text to avoid taking passages out of context
Take brief notes by tribal entry, organizing geographical and institutional information for easy cross-reference
Watch for the author's allusions to Roman society and distinguish description from rhetorical intent
If reading German is difficult, proceed alongside a reliable English or Chinese translation

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

This is the German edition—is it hard to read?

The main text is in German, a German translation of a classical work, and the language is generally formal. Readers with intermediate German willing to use a dictionary can attempt it; if you only want the content, read a Chinese or English translation first and then compare with the German edition.

Is Germania a historical work or a literary work?

Both. It belongs to the ancient Roman ethnographic tradition and includes geographical, institutional, and customary description, but Tacitus writes with clear moral and rhetorical aims; it is not objective historiography in the modern sense, and readers should be mindful of its stance.

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About the author

Cornelius Tacitus Author · Roman

Tacitus (Tacitus, Cornelius, 56-117) was a Roman historian, statesman and orator who served as consul and as governor of the province of Asia. His surviving works include the Histories, the Annals, the Agricola and the Germania, and this library holds thirteen of his works. His writing centres on imperial politics and the judgment of character, in a concise and incisive style that reveals the tensions between power and morality. The Histories cover the Roman political struggles of the late first century, the Annals trace the inner workings of early imperial rule, and the Agricola and the Germania present frontier life and foreign peoples in the forms of biography and ethnography, exerting a lasting influence on later European historiography and political thought.