Customer Reviews

Tacitus: Annals 13-16 (Loeb Classical Library No. 322)

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Publius/Gaius Cornelius Tacitus was born c. 55 A.D. under Nero's reign and his family seems to have had at least an equestrian rank. The date of his death is uncertain but placed at the close of Trajans reign in c. 117 A.D. Tacitus is considered by many to be the first modern Roman historian due to his avoidance of the praiseful oratory so common with other historiographers such as Livy. Tacitus tended to explain the events and persons as they existed and then delve into empirical speculation as to motives or causes: many of conclusions however, particularly towards Livia and Nero, are severly biased. Despite his personal biases and errors, in contrast to previous writers like Livy who wanted to praise the Emperor with an illustrious past of heroes decorated by poetics, Tacitus wrote these Annals more to compare how much worse previous emperors were than the present one: his writing is therefore more cynical and skeptical.

This volume covers Nero's reign from 54 A.D. to 66 A.D. and the debaucheries of his reign. Tacitus is paticulary harsh with Nero even though his extended reign of 12 years indicates that he certainly wasn't as bad or mad as Caligula. For more anectodal and comical stories as to his reign, I would recommend Suetonius' 'Twelve Caesars' as a companion text. In addition to providing information about the aristocracy in Imperial Rome, Tacitus gives valuabe information on the workings of the Principate, the Imperial Roman army, and the notorious Praetorian Guard.

The Loeb library is reknown for its publications of classical texts in English and either Latin or Ancient Greek depending on the author. If you're a student or teacher of classics you can't go without this publication. This translation is a pleasant work to read. All of Tacitus' volumes by Loeb are presently availble. This is a very good investment for anyone who wants to be illuminated as to what humanity achieved over 2000 years before we even existed: it's priceless!

Since there are so many of these darn things the review shall be divided into three sections. First, a brief description of the Loeb series of books and their advantages/disadvantages. Second shall be my thoughts on the author himself, his accuracy, as well as his style and the style of his translator. This is of course only my opinion and should be treated as such. The final part shall review what this particular book actually covers.

The Loeb series date back to the turn of the last century. They are designed for people with at least some knowledge of Greek or Latin. They are a sort of compromise between a straight English translation and an annotated copy of the original text. On the left page is printed the text in Greek or Latin depending on the language of the writer and on the right side is the text in English. For somebody who knows even a little Greek or Latin these texts are invaluable. You can try to read the text in the original language knowing that you can correct yourself by looking on the next page or you can read the text in translation and check the translation with the original for more detail. While some of the translations are excellent mostly they are merely serviceable since they are designed more as an aid to translation rather than a translation in themselves. Most of them follow the Greek or Latin very closely. These books are also very small, maybe just over a quarter the size of your average hardcover book. This means that you'll need to buy more than just one book to read a complete work. They are also somewhat pricey considering their size. The Loeb Collection is very large but most of the more famous works can be found in better (and cheaper) translations elsewhere. If you want to read a rarer book or read one in the original language then you can't do better than the Loeb Editions.

There are five volumes of Tacitus in the Loeb Classical Library. This includes all his surviving works. Tacitus is one of the most famous writers of the Roman Empire. He wrote most of his works in the early second century but they all deal with the events of the previous century. He is generally considered to be the Empire's best and most accurate historian. His earlier works include the Germania which is an account of the Germanians, the Agricola which is an account of his father-in-law and his governorship of Britain, and his Dialogues which is basically just a rhetorical exercise. His most famous works are his Histories and his Annals. Strangely, the order of these two is reversed, a fact which is carried through in the Loeb editions. He began with the Histories which cover from the death of Nero through Domitian intending to continue on through Nerva and Trajan. Instead he went backwards and started his Annals with Tiberius continuing on until he filled in all of the Julio-Claudians after Augustus. His writing style is impossible to reproduce in English. In what surely must have been an intentional feature he refuses to include the parallelisms much beloved by all other Latin authors. This is where a writer compares two things using the same structure. Instead he will make the comparisons but change the way the second thing is presented grammatically. It's difficult to express in English how strange that seems. The other feature of his style is the frequent use of epigrams at the end of his sentences. These are pithy and often sarcastic comments that wittily sum up the essence of what he means. The most famous of these is probably "They make a desert and call it peace," from the Agricola. There are many good translations of Tacitus. This one isn't too bad but the Oxford World Classics translations of the Agricola and Germania, The Annals and The Histories are probably the best. Be warned though, the translation achieves its quality by being rather loose at times. The most accurate translation is the Loeb one, but it really depends what you're looking for in the book. Other useful sources for this period include Suetonius and Cassius Dio.

This volume deals with Nero and has all the juicy events of his reign.

I read this book for a graduate course in Roman history. It is an indispensable primary source for students of Roman history.

On the first page of his Annals of Imperial Rome, Tacitus wrote that Octavian "seduced the army with bonuses, and his cheap food policy was successful bait for civilians." Tacitus' description of Augustus' transformation of Rome from a republic into an empire is most illuminating as well. "Upper-class survivors found that slavish obedience was the way to succeed, both politically and financially. They had profited from the revolution, and so now they liked the security of the existing arrangement better than the dangerous uncertainties of the old regime."

Sir Ronald Syme relied heavily on the work of Tacitus for his cogent narrative of Octavian's rise to power as Augustus. Syme's in-depth study of Tacitus' life and work was published in 1958. Tacitus' historical accuracy was doubted for centuries and Syme made a project of re-evaluating the accuracy of his historical writings. Syme believed that Tacitus was in a unique position to write about the birth and early political history of the Imperial period in Rome due to his very active political life. Tacitus had served as a senator, consul, and proconsul of Asia. In addition, he was known to be an excellent orator in his day. In his writings, Syme believed that Tacitus provided excellent accounts of Augustus' rise to power and his career as Rome's first Emperor.

Tacitus delved into the machinery of the new government, including Augustus' use of patronage as well as his many thwarted attempts at planning for his own succession. What Syme found was a man that grew very adept politically and whose political maturity rapidly developed at an early age. At eighteen, he was named as heir to Julius Caesar. He grew into the greatest Roman princeps spanning fifty-six years until his death. Augustus knew that to retain power he had to maintain the general consent of the governed. He astutely maintained order not by following the constitution or past precedent, but by using the tremendous resources at his disposal. Augustus kept the plebeians in check making sure they were fed, kept them amused with games, and constantly reminded them that he was protecting them from the oppression of the nobiles.

Augustus became the "leader of a large and well organized political party as the source and fount of patronage and advancement."

Recommended reading for those interested in Roman history, military history.

An excellent, detailed, fascinating account of the early years of the Empire written by a member of the Roman aristocracy (he was a senator and consul). His profesionalism is deeply contrasted with the hack writer Suetonius. Although I am not a Latin scholar, I have always appreciated the Loeb bilingual series in as much as it acts as a deterrent to sloppy translators.