Germania

Cornelius TacitusProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2

Word count: 192K words
Chapters: 20

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.La Germanie by Cornelius TacitusAuthor: Tacitus, Cornelius, 56-117,Language: Latin, Class: PA: Language and Literatures: Classical Languages and Literature, Release Date: Sep 21, 2013

Editor's review

Tacitus's Germania is a singular work in the ethnographic writing of ancient Rome. Composed in Latin, it is short yet dense with information. It systematically describes the geographical distribution, customs, social institutions, and military organization of the Germanic tribes east of the Rhine, while also reflecting the author's critique of Rome's own moral decline. Its accounts of land tenure, marriage customs, deliberative practices, and martial traditions are indispensable primary sources for later scholarship on early Germanic society, and a key text for understanding how Romans imagined and constructed the image of the "barbarian." Its value lies not only in the historical material itself but in watching a Roman elite examine an alien culture through a comparative lens. This edition is Project Gutenberg's Latin electronic text, suitable for close reading alongside a translation and as supplementary material for the study of classical languages.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers researching ancient Roman history or the history of early European peoples
Readers interested in early Germanic society and tribal institutions
Language learners studying Latin who wish to engage with primary texts
Students of history and literature interested in ancient ethnographic writing and the imagination of alien cultures

Not a good fit for

Beginning readers seeking accessible popular history with a strong narrative drive
Readers with no Latin who are unwilling to consult a translation
Readers expecting a systematic general history or a complete chronological narrative

Reading tips

Read a section of a Chinese or English translation first to grasp the structure, then return to the Latin original and compare it section by section.
Take brief notes by tribal entry, organizing geographical distribution and differences in customs for easy cross-comparison.
Read alongside Tacitus's other works or background material on Roman history to understand his motives and comparative perspective.
Consult annotated editions or dictionaries for key terms, rather than understanding ancient institutions through associations with modern vocabulary alone.

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

Can I read this book without knowing Latin?

The main text of this edition is in Latin, and reading it directly requires some language foundation. Readers without Latin can first use a Chinese or English translation to grasp the content, then use this book as supplementary material for comparing the original; if you only want to understand the content, reading the electronic original on its own will be rather difficult.

Is this book a complete general history?

No. It is an ethnographic work of limited length, focusing on the geography, customs, institutions, and military affairs of the Germanic tribes. It is not a complete chronological historical narrative, nor does it cover the entire course of relations between Rome and the Germanic peoples.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts. This edition is the Latin original in electronic form, convenient for searching, copying, and comparative reading, but it lacks the notes and introduction of a modern translation, so readers must supply background material themselves.

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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.