Tacitus Reviewed [Hardcover]

A. J. Woodman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198152582 | ISBN-13: 978-0198152583 | Publication Date: December 31, 1998

Tacitus was Rome's greatest historian, and the Annals his greatest work. This book collects A.J. Woodman's writings on Tacitus over the past twenty-five years, focusing almost exclusively on the Annals. Woodman offers new or different interpretations of some of the most famous passages in the work, and argues that, through familiarity, generations of scholars have misread significant passages, thereby gaining and perpetuating a distorted view of what Tacitus had to say, especially about Tiberius. His iconoclastic insights will have major implications for those who wish to use the Annals as a source for what happened in the first century AD.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Woodman is a brilliant Latinist...His work is the most important contribution to the study of Tacitus' technique."--Times Literary Supplement

"Close analyses of individual passages powerfully support Woodman's thesis....Extensive notes, bibliography, and indexes enhance the work. A permanent contribution to scholarship. Highly recommended for graduates and scholars in classical studies."--Choice

"...Woodman's essays bring even greater nuance to a writer already admitted to being magnificently talented....[he] restores the complexity of a text whose subtleties have sometimes been missed."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review

About the Author

A. J. Woodman is at University of Durham.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 31, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198152582
• ISBN-13: 978-0198152583
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,153,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How do you believe historians?, December 26, 2000

By 

J. P. Johnson (Ewing, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tacitus Reviewed (Hardcover)

This collection of previously published essays from Woodman is important not only for the study of classical historiography, but for anyone interested in how we know what happened in the past. Some of the essays are technical and concerned mainly with issues of Latin grammar and detailed parsing of specific passages, but through these Woodman always delivers an important and often surprising insight into historical issues. Many of the essays are very accessible to the lay-reader, and any history buff will particularly enjoy the reprint of Woodman's inaugural lecture as Professor of Latin, in which he touches upon Hitler's rise to power, a John F. Kennedy vignette, and classical history. Many of the themes in this book are related to Woodman's __Rhetoric in Classical Historiography__, and in both works he addresses a question which everyone should consider: what sort of truth do historians aim at, and when can you know that their report may or may not be the same sort of truth that you have come to expect? Make no mistake: this is a scholarly work. But I would recommend it for anyone interested in history or Latin literature.