The Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six Annals of Tacitus

Cornelius TacitusProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
617K words
Chapters
62

Tags

English Originals World History Historical ReappraisalPolitical AllegoryRoman EmpireRise and FallImperial PortraitPower GameAntiheroHuman NatureClassical HistoriographyAcademic Study

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 Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six Annals of Tacitus; by Cornelius TacitusAuthor: Tacitus, Cornelius, 56-117,Language: English, Class: PA: Language and Literatures: Classical Languages and Literature, Release Date: Apr 1, 2005

Editor's review

The Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six Annals of Tacitus is an English selections volume from the work of the Roman historian Tacitus, focusing on the reign of Tiberius. Tacitus is known for his concise, austere style, and his narrative often carries moral judgment and political insight; this book lets readers feel his portrayal of power and the darker sides of human nature. As a selections volume, it is not a complete translation, and readers should note that its scope is limited to the material related to Tiberius in the first six books; it should not be used as the complete Annals. For readers interested in classics and Roman history, this is a convenient entry point for encountering Tacitus's original style; for general readers, the syntax of English classical narrative is relatively complex and requires some patience. The free Project Gutenberg edition is easy to consult at any time and is suitable for reading alongside an introduction or annotated edition to fill in background knowledge.

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Reading tips

  1. Read an introductory piece on the background of Tacitus and the age of Tiberius before entering the main text.
  2. Treat the selections as fragments for close study, and take notes on personal relationships as they appear.
  3. Read with a map and chronology at hand; this helps in understanding the political thread of events in the narrative.
  4. Where English syntax is complex, read slowly, and consult a Chinese translation if necessary to aid understanding.

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.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this a complete translation of the Annals? No. This is an English selections volume drawn from the first six books of the Annals and focused on the reign of Tiberius, not a complete translation of the whole work; readers should note its limited scope.
Can I read it without any background in ancient Roman history? You can try, but it is advisable first to gain some basic background on the age of Tiberius and early imperial Roman politics; otherwise, the relationships among people and events can easily become confusing. Reading with an introduction or annotations is safer.
What are the characteristics of Tacitus's narrative? Tacitus's style is concise and austere, and his narrative often contains moral judgment and political irony; his portrayal of the workings of power and of character is especially sharp, and this is one of the main values of reading his work.

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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.