The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

Cornelius TacitusProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0

Word count: 289K words
Chapters: 29

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.The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus by Cornelius TacitusAuthor: Tacitus, Cornelius, 56-117,Language: English, Class: PA: Language and Literatures: Classical Languages and Literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2005

Editor's review

This volume brings together two short historical works by Tacitus. The Agricola is a biography of his father-in-law, the governor of Britain Agricola, combining a life story with commentary on Roman imperial expansion and provincial governance; the Germania systematically describes the geography, customs, social structure and military organization of the Germanic tribes. Both texts are concise, with praise and blame folded into the narrative—now grave biography, now cool ethnographic observation—and together they are classic texts for understanding how Romans viewed the frontier and foreign peoples. As historical sources they carry the author's standpoint and the limits of his age, and readers should note his rhetorical aims; as prose they are tightly structured and full of memorable phrases, long regarded as models of Latin prose. This Project Gutenberg edition is an English translation, suited to general readers curious about the classical world, who may read each work separately, and to those seeking a foundational text for tracing Western historiography and political thought.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Beginning readers interested in Roman history, the classical world and frontier governance
Students of literature and history who need to understand the tradition of Western ethnographic writing
Self-learners who want to train their ability to weigh historical sources through short classics
Readers who enjoy concise, forceful historical prose and are willing to read an English translation

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a complete general history or an annalistic account of events
Researchers who need modern scholarly annotation and detailed textual scholarship
Casual readers unfamiliar with Roman names and places who do not wish to look them up

Reading tips

Read the Agricola first to grasp the man and his era, then the Germania for institutions and customs.
Mark the author's evaluative statements as you read, distinguishing factual narrative from rhetorical praise and blame.
Keep a map at hand to locate Britain and the Rhine frontier, building a sense of space before reading the details.
After each section, summarize the main points in two or three sentences to help digest the dense names of people and tribes.

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

In what order should the two works be read?

Begin with the Agricola: it follows a life and is more continuous in narrative, making it easier to enter Tacitus's style; then read the Germania, which is organized more as ethnographic entries and suits reading in sections.

Can this material be treated as reliable historical evidence?

It is an important reference, but should not be accepted wholesale. Tacitus has clear moral and political aims, and his account of the Germans often uses contrast to criticize Roman mores; read it alongside other sources and cross-check.

Is the English translation hard to read?

The translation is an early one, with long sentences and many proper names. Readers with university-level English who are willing to look up names and places will manage; read slowly, section by section, without chasing speed.

Does the book include notes or an introduction?

The Project Gutenberg edition consists mainly of the public-domain translation text and may not include modern scholarly notes. For background, consult introductory works on classical history or encyclopedia entries and fill in the context as you read.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

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.