Agricola/Germany

tacitus anthony r. birley

Cornelius Tacitus, Rome's greatest historian and the last great writer of classical Latin prose, produced his first two books in AD 98, after the assination of the Emperor Domitian ended fifteen years of enforced silence. Much of Agricola, which is the biography of Tacitus' late father-in-law Julius Agricola, is devoted to Britain and its people, since Agricola's claim to fame was that as governor for seven years he had completed the conquest of Britain, begun four decades earlier. Germany provides an account of Rome's most dangerous enemies, the Germans, and is the only surviving example of an ethnographic study from the ancient world. Each book in its way has had immense influence on our perception of Rome and the northern barbarians. This edition reflects recent research in Roman-British and Roman-German history and includes newly discovered evidence on Tacitus' early career.

Genres historyclassicsnonfictionancient historybiographyromanancientgermanyhistoricalclassical studies

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,0098

Places

caledonia roman-era britain,

This edition

Format: 224 pages, Paperback
Published: September 23, 1999 by Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780192833006
ASIN: 0192833006
Language: English

Characters More characters

Boudica

Boudica, formerly known as Boadicea and known in Welsh as "Buddug" (d. AD 60 or 61) was a queen of the Brittonic Iceni tribe of what is now known as East Anglia in England, who led an uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire...
Titus Flavius Domitianus

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Calgacus

According to Tacitus, Calgacus was a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy who fought the Roman army of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland in AD 83 or 84. His name can be as interpreted as Celtic *calg-ac-os, "pos...
Vespasian

Vespasian (/vɛsˈpeɪʒiən/ or /vɛsˈpeɪziən/ Latin: Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus; 17 November 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman Emperor from AD 69 to AD 79. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. ...
Gnaeus Julius Agricola

Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40 – 93) was a Gallo-Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. Written by his son-in-law Tacitus, the De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae is the primary source for most of what is known about him, along wi...
Gaius Seutonius Paulinus

Gaius Suetonius Paulinus (fl. AD 40-69) was a Roman general best known as the commander who defeated Boudica and her army during the Boudican revolt....

About the author

tacitus

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca. AD 56 – ca. AD 120) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors. These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus in AD 14 to the years of the First Jewish–Roman War, in 70 AD. There are enormous lacunae in the surviving texts, including one four books long in the Annals.

Other works by Tacitus discuss oratory (in dialogue format, see Dialogus de oratoribus), Germania (in De origine et situ Germanorum), and biographical notes about his father-in-law Agricola, primarily during his campaign in Britannia (see De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae).

Tacitus was an author writing in the latter part of the Silver Age of Latin literature.