Customer Reviews

Tacitus: 2 volumes (Oxford University Press academic monograph reprints)

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This book is not for the faint of heart -- and I hesitated for some time over how to rate this book. One does require a working knowledge of Tacitus' life and of Roman history and traditions. The book was written in the late 1950's when, annoyingly, certain classicists felt that it was beneath them to translate their citations from the original latin. Today we often regard this practice as having the patina of snobbishness and elitism. Again and again one encounters paragraphs where the key thought is embodied (entombed is more like it!)in one of Tactitus' remarks -- but in Latin!

This however, is a quibble. There is enough of this book that is readable to render it a vastly worthwhile undertaking. But be prepared! Have a good translation of Tacitus to hand -- together with a classical dictionary, a latin dictionary and Barrington's recently published Atlas of the Ancient World (which, by the way, was one of the most wondrous things to be published in the last few decades).

If you are prepared to put the work in, Syme, and Tacitus, will reward you. Victor Davis Hanson referred to The Roman Revolution, Syme's more accessible work, as a work of "Tacitean brilliance". And there is no question that Tacitus style and wit have rubbed off on Syme.

Here is Syme, encapsulating Cicero, on the writing of history:

"Now the fundamental laws of history, as all men know and concede, are veracity and honesty. But history calls for style and composition. It is not enough to record the events, they must be interpreted and judged, with movement and eloquence in keeping. The orator will supply what is needed."

And on the Roman view of the afterlife:

"The shadowy hope of a shadowy existence did not convince the traditional Roman of the governing order. The sole and solid propect of survival lay in good deeds, with good repute thereafter to posterity. Hence the preoccupation with fame -- sharp, insistent, and dominant. Even philosophers, who impugned the validity of the opinion, could not deny or repel the tempations of glory."

Let there be no mistake about it, Syme was one of the most thought-provoking and influential scholars of the last century. His death was a terrible loss. Syme's Tacitus is an excellent study (for it is not a biography)of Tactius, his work and his times. But the road to this book lies through The Roman Revolution -- read that first. If it is to your taste, drive on!