The Agricola and the Germania

by Tacitus, Harold Mattingly (Translator), S.A. Handford (Revisor)

P. Cornelius Tacitus, soldier, senator, colonial administrator and historian of the Roman Empire, was born about A.D. 55 and died about 120. His Agricola is a eulogistic description of the career of his father-in-law, probably the most famous of the governors of Roman Britain, and contains the first detailed account of the British Isles. The Germania is a study of the German tribes; in it Tacitus frequently contrasts the primitive virtues of the Germans with the degeneracy of contemporary Rome.

1982 edition, ISBN 0140442413.

Genres: History, Classics, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Biography, Roman, Ancient

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 98

About the author

born perhaps 55
died perhaps 120

From the death of Augustus in 14 Histories and Annals , greatest works of Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Roman public official, concern the period to Domitian in 96.

Publius Cornelius Tacitus served as a senator of the empire. The major portions examine the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those four emperors, who reigned in the year. They span the empire to the years of the first Jewish war in 70. One enormous four-books long lacuna survives in the texts.

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

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

...there are no more nations beyond us; nothing is there but waves and rocks, and the Romans, more deadly still than these - for in them is an arrogance which no submission or good behaviour can escape. Pillagers of the world, they have exhausted the land by their indiscriminate plunder, and now they ransack the sea. A rich enemy excites their cupidity; a poor one, their lust for power. East and West alike have failed to satisfy them. They are the only people on earth to whose covetousness both riches and poverty are equally tempting. To robbery, butchery, and rapine, they give the lying name of "government"; they create a desolation and call it peace...
From Calgacus' address to the Caledonians p80-81

Coming to Tacitus' eulogy of his father-in-law Agricola after reading Visions of Glory the elements that will be recycled into Christian Hagiography stand out. The way in which the person, Agricola in this case, is an ideal type, distinct and apart already in childhood from "the temptations of evil companions" p54. If he had ever, like Saint Augustine, stolen fruit from an orchard, the fact would have had no place in this life which is dedicated to the ideal of moderation, and also perfection as a soldier, an official, and a Roman.

However, being Roman is problematic. Tacitus view of Rome is pessimistic in that very few people ever seem to measure up to his conception of the true Roman (and as in The Histories sometimes these people are known only by their penchant to commit suicide in the appropriate manner to prove a point), I have no doubt that Tacitus would have condemned Romulus for drinking milk out of a cup instead of suckling directly from a she-wolf as he did as a youth. Rome is continually going to the dogs, but arrival is postponed only because of the occasional appearances of figures like Agricola. Agricola is of course: modest, conscientious, leads from the front, hard fighting and above all thoroughly appropriate in his behaviour as exemplified in his grief over the death of his son: he accepted this blow without either parading the fortitude of a stoic or giving way to passionate grief like a woman p79. The negative poles of behaviour for Tacitus are being passionate "like a woman" or being like some kind of some kind of fancy pants namby pamby philosopher type. For Tacitus, just like Goldilocks, the mean is golden. Yet while the true Roman as an individual is moderate and conscientious, Rome as a political culture is presented by Tacitus as enslaving, corrupt and decadent.

To mirror Agricola, Tacitus invents the figure of Calgacus by which I mean there may have really been a single person in command of the Caledonians called Calgacus or not, the only evidence for his existence comes from this book in which the point of his existence is to give a rallying speech to the Caledonians before battle which denounces Roman imperialism. This strikes me more as a literary conceit than as a potential historical fact> Calgacus means "swordsman" - & so probably isn't even a name, just an unfamiliar sounding word, appropriated to create a suitable foil for the hero of the story, as commander of the Caledonians in a battle which is presented as the high point of Agricola's governorship of Britain (78-84 AD), to present this negative view of Roman as political, Imperial, culture. The battle itself then becomes the clash between those negative values and the positive values embodied in Agricola himself, which inevitably triumph. He marshals his troops with care, is resolute and anticipates the moves of the enemy and thus achieves victory over superior numbers with minimal casualties (at least among his own men).

Tacitus' view of the natives is that they can be noble savages, as his Caledonians are presented here, yet at the same time they are stupid - like the cohort of Usipi who desert the Romans but who lack the technical skills to allow them to convert their noble aspirations into practical effect. They can also be seduced into slavery: the population was gradually led into the demoralising temptations of arcades, baths, and sumptuous banquets. The unsuspecting Britons spoke of such novelties as 'civilisation', when in fact they were only a feature of their enslavement p73. According to Tacitus the natives are like children, they lack foresight and willpower to maintain their traditional values (in contrast to Agricola) if one glances forward in time one sees this attitude was not unique to ancient Rome.

In common with the later Christian hagiography there is a golden hazy vagueness over the details. The moral of the story is the morality of Agricola as the hero figure. We know more about the details of Agricola's campaigning in modern Scotland from archaeology and aerial photography than from Tacitus' account which in that sense is not biographical but intended to be exemplary.

The history of Britannia, that distant province of the Roman Empire, is so obscure that every word in Tacitus' eulogy for his Father-in-Law, the soldier and later Governor, Agricola has been turned over repeatedly, yet the effort only invites further questions.

When one of the leaders of the Caledonians makes a great set piece speech to his warriors denouncing Roman imperialism and colonisation you read and wonder how much this is Tacitus imagining what a barbarian resisting the Romans ought to say and how much this is Tacitus reminding his audience of the simpler, martial virtues of the ancient Romans it is a nice bit of rhetoric and reminds me of Heart of Darkness, back in the sepulchral city they talk of peace, out in the field the reality is devastation . Equally the resistance of barbarians to the Romans might be an allusion to the lack of resistance of the Roman political elite to the tyranny of the Emperor Domitian. Agricola is not free to pursue a martial career and to bring glory to Rome - military success could be the forerunner of an attempt to seize power so the careers of officals and old Roman military virtues are kept carefully clipped by the cautious Emperor, so Agricola doesn't get to invade Ireland, something he can only fantasize about. Even so, Agricola is conspicuous in his dignity and thus through his early death spared the tyranny which his son-in-law lived through.

   * * * 

The Germania is an account of the tribes living beyond the Rhine later famous for praising the purity of German blood and descent, but here I imagine Tacitus speaking to the Good Old Boys at the Gentlemen's club. The idealised foreigner is a mirror reflecting what the Romans ought to be. At least what members of the senatorial elite, all old money and of good families with impeccable ancestries, might think looking at an Imperial government operated by freed slaves with the most dubious antecedents.

The Germans are held up as a model in their marriage customs, funerals and their public assemblies. It's hard to see this as anything other than a condemnation of the kind of ways of love and modern life described by Ovid in The Love Poems and the idealisation of the how things used to be back in the early Republic when men were manly, martial and virtuous and Roman women were no less martial and virtuous, if not quite as manly as their menfolk. Any similarity with actual Germans, at least in the parts describing the 'Germans' generally rather than specific tribes, may well be entirely co-incidental!

When reading Tacitus making a joke (presumably) about the tribe ruled by women that this was not just below freedom but worse than slavery I can't help thinking that he is invoking the spirit of Cleopatra and the memories of Livia and Agrippina. The place of the proper Roman Matron was to inspire their menfolk to proper virtuous behaviour and not, horror of horrors, exercise power on their own behalf and own interests.

Tacitus also briefly mentions the punishment of those who were drowned in bogs inside wicker cages. Some of the bog bodies dug up in recent times have had been found covered in branches (though I believe one of these was a young girl which appears to contradict Tacitus' testimony that this was a punishment reserved for "cowards, shirkers, and sodomites" p111). And there are occasional finds that support Tacitus' descriptions including, again on a bog body, a man's long hair knotted at the side of his head (possibly what we call a Suebian knot) I saw some documentary on the battle of the Teutoburger Wald featuring re-enactment societies, unfortunately they had to delay the start of the battle because the Germans were still getting their hair ready, plainly for all that fastening your cloak with a thorn business, sartorially being a barbarian was far tougher than one might think .

The tribe specific descriptions show something of societies in flux. Different in some ways already from Caesar's descriptions of Germans in The Conquest of Gaul, probably influenced by the spreading Roman empire and merchants bringing wine and other fine luxuries north to exchange for slaves and amber.

The interest and enjoyment of these works is that they are so short and slight. Their purpose and audience so tightly bound with the use of the material that you can poke and prod at them endlessly. Not quite what the author intended, but fun none the less.

[Jonfaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.

Tacitus as Graham Greene. Whether offering a biography or an anthropological survey, Tacitus remains both terse and eloquent, all the way with a taste that all is certainly going to shit. I liked both pieces equally, I was struck in the latter by what I fathomed to be the respect shown for the Nasser of the Danube. The first section, a portrait of his father-in-law can't help but appear regal in defeat.

[David Gustafson · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans of the great Roman historian Tacitus who gave us "The Histories" and "The Annals," his two short works, "Agricola" and "Germania" will give you a mild fix.

"Agricola" is a short biography of Tacitus' father-in-law, Julius Agricola, who was governor of Britannia. This is the beginning of Tacitus' writing career and many have suggested that it was the funeral oration he could never deliver since he was posted elsewhere in the empire at the time Agricola's death. Therefore, it is hardly an objective history,but it still full of delicious minutiae about both Rome and Britain for the insatiable nerd.

"Germania" is a much more useful account of the various customs and tribes of Rome's northern adversary. We also begin to see the flourish of Tacitus' graceful writing style.

These two works were a warm-up for Tacitus' amazing career. The accompanying footnotes by J.B. Rives are indispensable additions to the text. The reader will be constantly flipping back-and-forth.

Again, these works are for the devout history nerd, not the casual reader, so this nerd still awards five stars for these brief books simply because Tacitus is one of my rock stars!

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two Types of History

Tacitus' Agricola and Germania are two significant works that offer a window into Roman history, military campaigns, and the ethnographic portrayal of ancient peoples. Written by one of Rome's most astute historians, these texts not only serve as historical records but also as reflections of Tacitus' broader concerns with power, morality, and the nature of empire. Little is in fact known about Tacitus, including his praenomen (given name) or his origins. He was likely from an equestrian family, who may have been freed earlier in Roman history. He was likely born around 56 or 57 AD and by his own volition owed his status to the Flavian emperors. He raised through the ranks, governing provinces, entering the senate and become consul in 97 AD. This book was written shortly after.

The Agricola is a biographical account of Tacitus' father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who was a prominent Roman general and governor of Britain. This work is often regarded as a tribute to Agricola's character and achievements, particularly his military successes in Britain. Tacitus paints a picture of Agricola as a model Roman, virtuous and effective, yet also a victim of the political machinations of the Emperor Domitian. Through this text, Tacitus subtly critiques the corruption and tyranny that he saw as pervasive in the Roman government, using Agricola's life to contrast the virtues of good governance with the vices of despotism. One must take this with a pinch of salt as this was likely a political text in order to promote Agricola further, therefore in some ways the history is left behind for the promotion of his father in law.

The Germania, on the other hand, is an ethnographic study of the Germanic tribes living beyond the Roman Empire's northern frontier. Tacitus provides detailed descriptions of their customs, social structures, and way of life, often contrasting them with Roman society. His account has been interpreted in various ways, ranging from a straightforward ethnography to a more complex critique of Roman decadence through the idealisation of the ‘noble savage.’ Tacitus' portrayal of the Germans as a people untainted by luxury and corruption may reflect his concerns about the moral decline he perceived in Roman society. This is a running theme through a lot of Roman scholars in the First Century AD. It must be remembered that this is Tactius’ view of the north German tribes and their voice, outlook or opinion is not heard. He also groups them together and provides a sweeping summary of their behaviours without shaving off the top layer. As such we only obtain an outside Roman view of some of the people who lived in ancient Germany. This can be useful, but also misleading.

Together, these works reveal Tacitus' ability to weave together history, biography, and ethnography to serve broader political and moral purposes. His prose are tough, mainly as this is translated from the original Latin, the writing is dense and slow. However the books are useful as Tacitus’ critical and cynical outlook on the human condition and the state of the Roman Empire is a window into the times he lived. Despite their relatively short length, Agricola and Germania offer rich insights into the complexities of Roman imperialism, the tensions between civilisation and barbarism, and the personal cost of political power. But this comes at a cost of wading through it. In summary, Tacitus' Agricola and Germania are essential readings for anyone interested in Roman history at an academic level, but I would not recommend for the casual historian. His works have survived because of the themes of virtue, corruption, and the nature of power which have interested people down the ages. They are also some of the first written words on Germany and the people who have lived there.

[J.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been on a Celtic bent lately, as one of the family is taking Celtic Studies at Uni and I have a few books to pass on. I can’t remember when, or why, the Tacitus took up residence on my shelves, but I thought I’d at least glance through it before it found a new home. Somewhere I’d gathered the impression that Tacitus was witty and funny. I can’t say he particularly came across as that to me, but his style is certainly direct, and he doesn’t mince his words. He must have stood out, at a time when historians in the Roman world had to curry favour; he can be pretty scathing, for instance, about Rome’s habit of making emperors divine. In “Agricola” he comes across as having genuine admiration and love for his father-in-law (Agricola, lately governor of Britain). According to this partial account, Agricola has been less than well treated by the Roman Emperor Domitian. His son-in-law shares with us, down so many ages, his personal grief at not having been present when Agricola died – poisoned, he is sure, by order of Domitian. Yes, it may be a standard tribute, for all I know, but it came across as real regret.

The value of the book for me was in the descriptions of the British, although these are subjective and centred on how nice it is for them to have the rule of Rome. Agricola strengthened Roman conquests and maintained what Tacitus considers a wise hold over southern Britain, thus, as he sees it, saving the Brythonic Celts from undertaking further battles they could not win. The loss of culture and religion does not rank alongside the civilising influence of Rome.

Things were a bit more challenging as Agricola pushed the edges of the empire as far north as the Moray Firth (from where I’m writing this piece, so it all feels quite close!). The location of the Battle of Mons Graupius, which Tacitus describes in detail, is thought to be Bennachie in Aberdeenshire. After defeating the tribes whom Tacitus calls “Caledonians” (probably Picts) at Mons Graupius, Agricola turned back and established a couple of forts further south before being recalled to Rome. So, a bit of a wash-out when it came to conquering Scotland! The battle itself was won with hardly any losses on the Roman side, using auxiliaries conscripted into the ranks, while the Roman legions were held in reserve and ended up merely pursuing the scattered tribesmen.

The Germania is very different, and what I recall most about it is the careful and seemingly accurate naming, placing and description of the tribes, including their origins further east. This broad view extends to their relations with Gaul and their attacks on the Roman frontier. Now, what is different here is that Tacitus writes a good deal about the morality of the tribes as opposed to the degenerate ways of Rome. This theme – civilisation versus barbarism – does run through both books, but in opposite interpretations. In the first, the noble and decent ideals of early Rome are embodied in Agricola, civilising barbarians, while in the second, they are displayed in the Germanic tribes, as yet unsullied by Roman corruption. Rome has reached its apex; here, there is both the echo of its collapse, and a distant shadow of the Germany of the Third Reich, which built its foundations on its perverted notion of the purity of Germany’s blood heritage. Tacitus refers more than once to the notion of Germanic racial superiority:

“For myself, I accept the view that the peoples of Germany have never contaminated themselves by intermarriage with foreigners but remain of pure blood, distinct and unlike any other nation . . . .”

Tacitus’ admiration for the strength and determination of the tribes leads him to cast doubt on the Roman policy of expansion when it comes to Germany. Surely this would be tantamount to treason, in the grip of a Emperor such as Domitian, who mistrusted the upright Agricola! However, he was perhaps safer with Trajan when he expounded his opinions on this subject. These are summarised in Harold Mattingley’s introduction:

“So far, the suggestions of Tacitus seem to point in the same direction as the official policy, but they do not go with it all the way. When he speaks of destiny driving the Roman Empire upon its appointed path he seems to imply a more pessimistic view than Trajan would have been likely to take. For Tacitus the best is over: fortune has already given Rome her choicest gift. Trajan showed by his actions that he judged the extension of the empire to be both possible and desirable. One passage in the Germania reads like a deliberate criticism of the policy which Trajan was later to pursue: the freedom of the Germans, Tacitus implies, may well prove more formidable than the despotism of the Parthian kings (overthrown by Trajan in 113 AD).”

Hmm. The Germania, with its emphasis on freedom, independence and morality for the German tribes, offers a description of a golden kingdom. In Agricola, the halcyon rule of his father-in-law and the dubious political and religious grip of the Druids caused Tacitus to think of the Britons in a different way. He presents them as only gaining from the rule of Rome. He does give Calgacus, leader of the Caledonians, a wonderfully fine and noble speech of resistance, but this is fictitious. Tacitus clearly enjoyed writing it, and as well as its glorious eloquence it does show at least an understanding of the position of the British, making a good link to the Germania, where his empathy with the German tribes is overt. It’s as if this man Tacitus was searching unconsciously for an ideal, a high legacy that Rome had betrayed.

It is certainly true that his account is lively and his descriptions vivid. I found it a good deal more interesting than what I remember of Caesar’s Gallic Wars!

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of classics anymore (probably from having to binge on them in grad school) but these short works were both engaging and enjoyable. Like a lot of ancient writers, Tacitus is something of a jack of all trades.

He doesn't simply write history, or political commentary or cultural/anthropological observation, but moves between those things fluidly in an epoch before each of those styles was more or less confined to its own genre. His descriptions of the British and the Germans are important, not simply for being some of the first any human being wrote about those peoples, but also because he shows them from the perspective of a detached (and often bewildered) outsider.

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

⚔️ This is a combination of two works, Agricola (about a man, in fact, Tacitus’s father in law) and Germania (yes, about ancient Germany).

The works are 2000 years old.

I found Agricola far more interesting since it is a collection of stories about Agricola in Britain with the Roman army.

Germania was interesting to a limited degree. It was a list of customs and rituals and religious beliefs. No stories at all = dull.

So I recommend Agricola as a good read.

Germania is not. My maternal bloodline is Deutsche so I was hoping to gain a lot from the text. Yes, okay, we learn about this, that and the other custom. But I did not find the essay by Tacitus engaging.

[Andrew Reece · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cornelius Tacitus Chronicles The Deeds Of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, & Provides Fascinating Exposition On Rome's Germania Province.

This 2009 Penguin Classics revised edition of the original 1948 Harold Mattingly translations of the Agricola & Germania features an introduction by J.B. Rives which includes a short biography of Corenelius Tacitus, an analysis of his writing style, & an overview of his extant written works. There is also a condensed historical overview of the periods in Roman history which preceded that of Tacitus & his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who is the subject of the first short monograph in the duology. Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul is briefly discussed in relation to the content of the Agricola as well as Tacitus' second expository essay, the Germania, & there is also an excellent set of expanded notes located at the back of the volume which provide additional historical background & cover a broad range of topics relevant to the main texts.

The Agricola features a variety of different writing styles & formats which range from the biographical narrative to illustrative expository sequences describing the geography of Britannia, such as this short excerpt from chapter 10: "Britannia, the largest of the islands known to us Romans, is so shaped & situated as to face Germania on the east & Hispania on the west, while to the south it can actually be seen by the Gauls. Its northern shores, with no lands facing them, are beaten by a wild & open sea." In a later passage Tacitus digresses on the unfathomable mysteries of Britannia's seas: "To investigate the nature of the Ocean & its tides lies outside my immediate scope, & the matter has been much discussed. I will add just one point: nowhere does the sea hold wider sway. It carries to & fro a mass of currents, & in its ebb & flow is not restricted to the coast, but passes deep inland & winds about, pushing in even among highlands & mountains as if in its own domain." While the Agricola is primarily a biography of the life & military career of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the geographic descriptions at the work's beginning provide some much-welcome variety & dimension to an otherwise uniformly composed narrative.

After serving as commander of the Twentieth Legion under Petilius Cerialis, whose term as Britannia's consular governor lasted from AD 71-73, Agricola returned to Rome where Divus Vespasian awarded him with governorship over the Roman province of Aquitania, located in southern Gaul, & in a passage excerpted from chapter 9 Tacitus describes some of the qualities that made Agricola so popular amongst those over whom he governed : "When duty had had its due, he put off the official pose; harshness, arrogance & greed had long since ceased to be part of his make-up. He succeeded where few succeed: he lost no authority by his affability, but no affection by his sternness." There are also short summaries on the military exploits in Britannia of several of Agricola's contemporaries, among them Sextus Julius Frontinus, who was the author of the Strategemata, & Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, whom surprisingly is not known to be related to the Roman emperor Hadrian's ab epistulis, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus.

The historical reference notes for both the Agricola & the Germania explore a series of interesting topics such as culture, folklore, & historiography, as well as a selection of etymological analyses of Tacitus' original Latin phraseology. One of these appear in the notes for chapter 35 of the Agricola regarding the origins of a Latin appellation used by Tacitus, 'covinnarius eques', while he narrates the Battle of Mons Graupius. In the phrase 'covinnarius eques', or 'covinnus-cavalry', the term 'covinnus' is Celtic in origin & conferrable with the Old Irish 'fen', & the Welsh 'gwain', meaning 'wagon'. Many of the historical figures, places, & events discussed in Tacitus' famous duology appear in his more substantial written works, namely The Annals Of Imperial Rome, which chronicle the reigns of the Roman emperors Tiberius, Claudius, & Nero, & The Histories, an action-packed accounting of the Year of the Four Emperors in 69 BC. Tacitus' subject matter in the Agricola & Germania also coincides to a lesser extent with the works of several other Silver Age Latin writers, not all of whom were historians, such as Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus' Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, the Elder Pliny's Natural History, & the Epistles of the Younger Pliny.

The second of Tacitus' written works in this duology is the Germania, a diverse exploration of the culture, history, & geography of the region & its inhabitants, the Germani, which has a more cursory, generalized format than the primarily narrative-driven Agricola. Tacitus' writing style in the Germania encompasses a variety of different forms & expressions which include geographical & cultural expositions in addition to more traditional digressions which are commonly associated with classical historians such as Herodotus. One such digression occurs in chapter 3, when Tacitus contemplates the travels of the Greek hero Ulysses, & another can be found in his musings on the origins of the Pillars of Hercules which appear in chapter 34 : "Did Hercules really go there, or is it only our habit of assigning any outstanding achievement anywhere to that famous name? Drusus Germanicus was not deficient in daring, but the Ocean forbade further research into its own secrets or those of Hercules. Since then no one has made the attempt, & it has been judged more pious & reverent to believe in what the gods have done than to investigate it." The style & format of the Germania are considered to be inspired by a literary tradition established by the not-fully-extant Periegesis of the 5th century BC Greek writer, Hecataeus of Miletus, & the work's relaxed, informal layout combines well with Tacitus' tendency to briskly move between different topics, rendering it a smoother, more fluid reading experience than the Agricola.

The expanded notes for chapter 33 of the Germania provide additional information on a battle which was probably fought in AD 97 between the Romans & the Bructeri, an event whose only other record can be found in the Epistles of the Younger Pliny. The notes discuss the scholarly interpretation of a phrase used in Tacitus' original Latin text, 'urgentibus imperii tatis', which translates to 'the imperial destiny drives hard', & Rives briefly mentions the different theories which include comparisons to the writings of another Roman historian, Titus Livius. Later, during Tacitus' descriptions of the Germanic Nahanarvali tribe's cult in chapter 43, the notes explain a convention used by Greek & Roman historians, 'interpretatio Romana', or 'Roman translation', which involved translating foreign religious names to the closest Graeco-Roman equivalent. All of the linguistic analyses are intelligently-written & easy to follow, & should be of interest to any reader who is curious about learning the history & usage behind these Latin expressions.

Overall, this Penguin Classics edition of the Agricola & Germania is a wonderful way for any reader to become familiar with 2 of Tacitus' lesser-known written works, & the additional features render this duology an excellent choice alongside the quite-reasonable price point. There is also a list of further reading suggestions which includes studies devoted to specific topics, such as Tacitus' role as a historian, as well as various translations & commentaries of the Agricola & Germania. This collection is highly recommended & should appeal to casual readers & enthusiasts alike. I hope you enjoyed the review, thanks so much for reading!

[Evan Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tacitus is most famous for his Histories and Annals, but three of his shorter works also survive. The Agricola and Germania are his first books, published in AD 98.

Agricola
The Agricola is a short biography of Tacitus’ father-in-law. Gnaeus Julius Agricola served as governor of Britain from 77-85 and conquered much of Wales, northern England, and even Scotland. Most of the book is concerned with Agricola’s exploits in Britain, and as background it provides a connected history of Britain from 55 BC to AD 83.

For history buffs, this is pretty cool. The Agricola is the fullest surviving account of the early Britons, and provides readers with a great look at the Roman conquest of (most of) the island. Agricola progressed well past the future site of Hadrian’s Wall and had come tantalizingly close to subduing all of Britain before he was recalled by Domitian in 85:



There’s all sorts of fun stuff here, from Boudica’s revolt to the Battle of Mons Graupius, where Agricola finally defeated the Scots. This battle acts as the grand finale to the Agricola, and features some great speechwriting in the Thucydides style. Check out part of the speech which Tacitus puts in the mouth of the Scottish leader, attempting to fire up the troops before the battle:

”It is no use trying to escape [the Romans] arrogance by submission or good behavior. They have pillaged the world: when the land has nothing left for men who ravage everything, they scour the sea. If an enemy is rich, they are greedy, if he is poor, they crave glory. Neither East nor West can sate their appetite. They are the only people on earth to covet wealth and poverty with equal craving. They plunder, they butcher, they ravish, and call it by the lying name of ‘empire.’ They make a desert and call it ‘peace.’”

…kind of reminds one of another pissed-off Scotsman, doesn’t it? FREEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!



Germania

The Germania is the oldest Western ethnographic study. It is an examination of Germany, both the country and its people. This was of great interest to the Romans of the time, as the German tribes were Rome’s most dangerous enemies. This makes for a bit less juicy reading than the Agricola, but it’s still very interesting as a look into what Germany was like in the age of antiquity. As you might expect, Tacitus gets less factual and more fanciful as he drifts further away from the Roman frontier and into the far east, but for the most part he appears to have been pretty well informed.

Interestingly, the Germania has been called one of the 100 most dangerous books ever written, thanks to a short section (in Ger. 4) where Tacitus innocently notes:

”I myself accept the view of those who judge that the peoples of Germany have never been contaminated by intermarriage with other nations and that the race remains unique, pure, and unlike any other.”

This was all fine and dandy until 19th century thinkers started using Tacitus as support for their theories of German racial superiority, which eventually turned into fuel for Nazi race theorists, which no doubt would have surprised Tacitus to no end.

Conclusion

Tacitus’ style, with its epigrams and other little random asides, is a real pleasure to read. These works are both quite short (about 30 pages a piece), and extremely interesting for history lovers. If you are at all interested in British or German history during the 1st century, you will really enjoy this book. 4 stars, recommended!

[david · Rating 3 out of 5]

56-120 ADE

Cicero. Philostratus. Seneca. Juvenal. Quintilian. And now, Tacitus. (I’m leaving aside many others)

Tacitus, one of the earliest chroniclers of the Common Era, wasted no time in his sixty-odd earthly years, to reveal his hatred of the Jews.

Matzoh anyone?

An activist I am not. But we all read and it is difficult to un-understand.

His mien, interestingly enough, was not uncommon among scholars during and directly after his day in the sun without SPF 50.

His two compositions included here are “The Germany” and “Agricola of Tacitus (The father-in-law of Mr. T).”

Incredible and precise depictions of the day. A stellar writer and one of two guys I have learned of who actually witnessed and wrote about Jesus Christ. The other guy I am thinking of is Flavius Josephus, but there may be others. A scholar I am not.

Oft times I found the descriptions of the people during this epoch amusing through his words.

And his deconstruction on wars and the fighting between the ancient communities or states of his era I found fascinating. And yet, predictable.

We all have limited time on this earth so what’s the rush to kill one another?

Maybe that is the gift of years;

The ownership that societies are unable to change.

And to be okay with that.

An interesting read.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and well written volume containing Tacitus' first 2 works. Agricola is a brief biography of Tacitus' father in law, Julius Agricola, and The Germania is a short ethnographical study into the people's and tribes of Germany. An interesting insight into Roman knowledge of central/eastern Europe at the time.

[Falk · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s not for nothing that Tacitus is considered both the greatest historian as well as one of the greatest prose stylists to write in Latin, and even reading him in translation (I read Mattingly's) it’s easy to understand why. I really liked his dry, terse style of writing. My main reason for picking up this book was that it included Germania, but Agricola proved to be a very positive surprise, and both of these works have their unique qualities. In Agricola, the juxtaposition of the speech by Calgacus (a chieftain) to the Caledonian army, with that of Agricola to the Roman troops before the battle of Mons Graupius works really well as a literary device, and had the effect of almost transporting me back in time. In his biography of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, his father-in-law, Tacitus focuses on his achievements in Britain, and contrasts this to the politically oppressive climate back in Rome - in an age "so savage and hostile to merit" (Ch. 1.) "We have indeed set up a record of subservience. Rome of old explored the utmost limits of freedom; we have plumbed the depths of slavery, robbed as we are by informers even the right to exchange ideas in conversation." (Ch. 2.)

Both Agricola and Germania are short works, and both were written in 98 CE, which is a good reason to combine them in one volume. They also both take us to the frontiers of the Roman empire, and far beyond that in the case of Germania. And of course, they both contain criticism of the decline of Roman moral values, against which the virtus of Julius Agricola and the “noble savages” of Germania is contrasted. - "No one in Germany finds vice amusing, or calls it 'up-to-date' to seduce and be seduced. (...) Good morality is more effective in Germany than good laws are elsewhere." (Ch. 19.)

I was struck by the similarities of the Assemblies of the Germanic tribes as they are described by Tacitus, and the Things of the Norse societies: "When the assembled crowd thinks fit, they take their seats fully armed. Silence is then commanded by the priests, who on such occasions have power to enforce obedience. (...) If a proposal displeases them, the people shout their dissent; if they approve, they clash their spears. To express approbation with their weapons is their most complimentary way of showing agreement." (Ch. 11.) And likewise in his description of the customs of Germanic hospitality – and not to forget their feasting: "The Germans are not cunning or sophisticated enough to refrain from blurting out their inmost thoughts in the freedom of festive surroundings, so that every man's soul is laid completely bare. On the following day the subject is reconsidered, and thus due account is taken of both occasions. They debate when they are incapable of pretence, but reserve their decision for a time when they cannot well make a mistake." Tacitus’ comments are often remarkably astute, and adds a lot to his vivid descriptions of the Germanic people and their ways.

The original title of Germania is "De origine et situ Germanorum (On the Origin and Geography of the Germans)", and from Ch. 28 onwards, Tacitus turns from describing the character and customs of the Germanic people to that of the various Germanic tribes and their locations. He also gives due attention to their respective religious practices, and, as well, their military strengths and weaknesses and their tactics. Tacitus laments the fact that it is taking so long to conquer Germany ("a total of two hundred and ten years. (...) In this long period much punishment has been given and taken." (Ch. 37.) And he goes on to state that: "The freedom of Germany is capable of more energetic action than the Arsacid despotism."

It is a fascinating journey that ends with the Fenni, who are described as "astonishingly savage and disgustingly poor", although as well: "Unafraid of anything that man or god can do to them, they have reached a state that few human beings can attain: for these men are so well content that they do not even need to pray for anything." (Ch. 46.) Tacitus is unsure of whether to class them with the Germans or the Sarmatians, but under any circumstance, their degree of freedom nevertheless wins them a nod of approval. We may at this point be far from the virtus, the qualities of bravery, found in e.g. Agricola, Calgalus and the different Germanic tribes, but, even at the very end of this book, and having reached the sea "that is believed to be the boundary that girdles the earth", Tacitus still finds barbarian virtue (or virtue in the barbarian) - and he avoids speculation: "What comes after them is the stuff of fables... On such unverifiable stories I shall express no opinion."

We know little of Tacitus’ sources for Germania, but clearly he must have reflected on their veracity. I can’t help wondering how he might have commented about Scandinavia had he had better access to information about the lands and tribes so far north. It is likely that his Suiones "right out in the sea" were inhabiting present-day southern Sweden. He states that "They are powerful not only in arms and men but also in fleets. The shape of their ships differs from the normal in having a prow at each end, so that they are always facing the right way to put in to shore", but then goes on to say that they don’t use sails, which might just as well be another of Tacitus’ attempts at generalization - as he admits to when describing the physical characteristics of the Germans: "always the same: fierce-looking blue eyes, reddish hair, and big frames" (Ch. 4), and that's not the only example I can think of. Maybe he did get "the stuff of fables" mixed up with his facts in a few instances in Germania; and likewise e.g. the speech of Calgalus in Agricola is most certainly Tacitus’ own invention, but those instances of inaccuracy and/or 'author's license' need not be held against him. For a large part, Tacitus is confirmed by archaeology and other literary sources. Add to that his own literary genius. Both works are thoroughly engaging on several levels, and gives a unique glimpse into the Roman mind - of course that of Tacitus especially - as well as the British and Germanic tribes at the end of the 1st century CE.




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penguin Classics edition, translated by Harold Mattingly; introduction, notes & revision by J.B. Rives

I'm not a big fan of the Romans, so it's unsurprising that one of the few Roman texts I've read cover to cover isn't even about the Romans themselves - it's mostly about barbarians.

I read most of this book a while ago, and I thought it contained a quote I was going to use here, Tacitus saying something to the effect that people who were more interested in barbarians than in civilisation were merely bored. (This perhaps being some predilection of decadent Roman youth.) But I've just skimmed right through Germania and the introduction, and it's not there, so it must have been in something else I read around the same time. Anyway, I was amused that there were people like me so very long ago.

Though when I say Germania is not even about the Romans, it's only ostensibly not about the Romans. One of the most common opinions on it has been is that the text is more or less a front for discussing Roman virtues and vices: the barbarian is what the Roman is not; usually he is not as good as the Roman, but some aspects of his life may be praiseworthy in comparison with degenerate Romans of today.

Rives sensibly incorporates archaeological evidence into his introduction and notes, and shows that it's going too far to say that Germania is merely a superimposition of Roman values, and not at all an ethnography of tribes on the borders of the Empire:
in some cases we can indeed corroborate Tacitus’ observations with evidence from other sources. The real difficulty is that in the absence of such corroboration we simply cannot judge where Tacitus’ account is reliable and where it is not.

A few of the examples supported by archaeological evidence: the discovery of the site of the Battle of Teutoberg Forest; the houses of the Germani, and "In Tacitus’ day there were certainly sub-Neolithic peoples living in northern Scandinavia and the eastern Baltic, and some second-hand report about a people like this probably lies behind his account here."

The last would be the Fenni, who end the work, Tacitus' narrative having been moving further and further from the Empire and therefore mentioning progressively less Roman-like societies. (One shouldn't assume they were in Finland, as Tacitus was necessarily vague about locations, not having visited the peoples himself, and besides, tribal groupings moved around a fair bit during the Roman era and the Migration Period, and weren't always in the locations now associated with their names.) The Fenni sound like a favourite daydream of Rousseau or an anarcho-primitivist. (More obscurely, they reminded me of a couple of the characters in Estonian historical fantasy novel about the advent of agriculture, The Man Who Spoke Snakish; the author surely read Germania as part of his research.)

The Fenni are astonishingly wild and disgustingly poor. They have no arms, no horses, no homes. They eat wild plants, dress in skins and sleep on the ground. Their only hope is in their arrows, which, for lack of iron, they tip with bone. The same hunt provides food for men and women alike; for the women go everywhere with the men and claim a share in securing the prey. The only way they can protect their babies against wild beasts or rain is to hide them under a makeshift network of branches. To this the young men return, this is the haven for the old. Yet they count their lot happier than that of those who groan over field labour, sweat over house building and venture in hope and fear their own and other men’s fortunes. They care for no one, man or god, and have gained the ultimate release: they have no needs, not even for prayer.

Their level of technology is of course the antithesis of Rome's - and less obviously, this level of equality between the sexes was also unRoman, and may have sounded reprehensible to Tacitus' audience.

I put off reading Germania for an unnecessarily long time - it's actually very short, and very interesting. And I found I didn't mind at all that I was hearing about these peoples through a Roman filter. It was thrilling to be standing right on the edge of recorded history, peering through the mist.

The only nuisance was the need to look at maps all the time, to check probable locations for the tribes, as well as the concrete locations of outlying Roman provinces and battle sites. (But then I also think most novels should contain maps.)

----

Agricola I read only to finish the volume and therefore tick off another finished book on Goodreads. It has some stuff about Agricola's governorship in Britain and the Romans' relations with British tribes - it's a source of evidence about Boudicca and Cartimandua - but if you're British and are halfway interested in history, you've probably heard all these bits quoted several times before, in other books, in museums and on TV programmes (possibly narrated by Tony Robinson).

The mentions of Britain are couched within general biography and praise of Agricola, Tacitus' father-in-law. He was a shrewd and lucky man who was successful during a sometimes despotic period of Empire. (It's not very lucky to die at 53 today, but given how many of Agricola's contemporaries were executed, it seemed a fair innings in context.)

When I wasn't bored by Agricola, I was sometimes amused. For a minute near the beginning, I found myself, by reflex, noting things that would offend some modern readers and which I therefore felt an obligation to mention in a review. Then I burst out laughing at this. It's the Romans FFS. I don't think anyone reads a Roman writer not expecting him to be colonialist and sexist. Later, I kept thinking that the whole thing was written a lot like an extended case study in a self-help manual for business success: how to be respected, get ahead, and keep your head when all around are losing theirs (or perhaps being poisoned).

I may not have enjoyed Agricola much, but I'd highly recommend this edition as a whole from a historical viewpoint. (Different translations may be preferable for classical studies.) It could be even better if it were updated regularly with info on new archaeological discoveries, but its general principles give an idea of what to look for, and the introduction and notes are fascinating if you're reading Germania out of interest in European prehistory. 5 stars for Rives.

[Sabareesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, I have a strong fascination for most things ancient-Greek and -Roman. The cradle of western civilization has been the source from which, through a series of successful extrapolative explorations, has emanated a great many of our contemporary beliefs, sciences, philosophy, medicine, and even verbiage. Then, therefore, it is no surprise that when I came across Tacitus being referenced by Rousseau (over 1600 years later) - the man of epigrams who has lent, or should I say donated, his name to our expression for economy of words - putting down a biography of the Roman general who conquered Britain, I was unable to pass it up.

Tacitus was a historian who lived in the late first and early second century CE in the Roman Empire. He was married to the daughter of the Roman general who led the conquest of Britain, Agricola, and hence had first row seats to the unfolding of the general's life. The Agricola is a biography of and homage to the eponymous subject. The second half of the book is The Germania which is a historical, geographical and ethnographic portrait of the Germanic peoples of his time.

Before I go into the content, a note on the choice of translation: I was able to procure 2 translations from my local library - Mattingly's and that of Herbert Benario. When juxtaposing the two to determine which to read, I preferred Benario at the beginning because the writing style appeared more preserved from the original in comparison to Mattingly's - which was all content with the style mostly lost. But a few chapters in, it became clear that the preservation of writing style came at the cost of clarity, which Mattingly's version prevailed in. When the author and reader are separated by two millennia, my preference is for clarity of content over subtlety and style.

The Agricola:
From the very first chapters of the book, it is patently obvious that it makes no claim to an objective portrayal of the subject, for the biographer is clearly enamored with the accomplishments of his father-in-law. That is, however, not to say that he does not do an excellent job with the biography. He walks us through Agricola's professional life and how his involvement in politics, or rather the thereby lack of, impacted his career. Since the most significant part of his career was his conquest of Britain, that is where most of the concentration is. This also involves a very inaccurate description of Britain's geography, but that can be excused considering the lack of cartographic evidence available at the time.
There is also a discussion of the tactics Rome employed against the Britons, taking advantage of their lack of unity. I find it interesting to note the similarity between this and the approach the British employed against their colonies a millennium and a half later.
The book ends with an account of Agricola's life post-conquest superimposed with the political situation in Rome at the time.

The Germania:
In the second work in this collection, Tacitus brings to bear on Germany his remarkable insight into the nature of people. The first half of this is a description of the Germanic people overall - their culture, their beliefs, their bellicose nature, their physical traits, the geography of the area. The second half is a granular description of the most prominent tribes in Germany, noting the features that set them apart. Here, again, Tacitus comments on how it was to Rome's advantage that Germany was not united: "fortune can bestow on us no greater gift than discord among our foes." Tacitus shows remarkable strategic acumen and his perspicacious nature is apparent in the observations he makes of group dynamics. He comments, "It has been judged more pious and reverent to believe in the alleged exploits of the gods than to establish the true facts." This is no less relevant today in contemporary America than it was in his age. How little has changed in the nature of men in two whole millennia!

On a tangent, I couldn't help but observe how similar this description of the Germanic people is to the Aiel in Wheel of Time - red hair, tall build, women fighting, spears being their favorite weapon. Also, the Germans used bet their freedom on dice and willingly became slaves if they lose, and they called it honor to do so. Eerily similar to the concept of Gai'shain.

Notes on the translator's notes:
Besides the original text, the introduction by Mattingly is an excellent resource for a short history. In the introduction, Mattingly calls into question the reliability of Tacitus as a historian, with good reason. But in turn, Mattingly himself appears to be of the firm stance that his country, Britain, is of exalted virtue and separately that Germany is a source of trouble (in the 20th century). These are hardly the opinions of an unbiased writer. The claim of Germany's troublesomeness cannot be denied factually, but a distinction must be made between the nature and inclinations of an entire people in its natural state and the populace being held and directed under arms by the whims of a madman. Mattingly also appears to offer some political opinions about the rectitude of contemporary German claims, going so far as to feel at liberty to dismiss them or otherwise belittle certain modes of thought. While he is surely at liberty to do so personally, the astute reader must question if it belongs in a work of history - which then leads us to question how faithful the very translation is. I don't believe it stayed much from the source material, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn if the result is, in some small part, colored with the translator's personal opinion.

[rosshalde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Akıcı bir şekilde okunabilen bir tarih kitabı. Yalnız okurken şunu göz önünde bulundurmak lazım; kitap Romalı bir tarihçinin gözünden subjektif bir şekilde yazılmıştır.

İlk bölümde Tacitus'un gözünden Germen halklarının alışkanlıkları, gelenekleri yaşayış biçimleri anlatılmış. Kitapta anlatılan Germenlerin bir kaç geleneği dikkatimi çekti.

Kabileler halinde yaşayan Germenlerin savaşlar sayesinde ün yapmış bir kabile isminin diğer kabileler tarafından da düşmana korku vermek için kullanıldığından bazı kabilelerin gerçek kökenini belirlemek mümkün olmuyor demiş Tacitus. Bu bana Orta Asya'daki türk boylarını hatırlattı. Fransız tarihçi Jean-Paul Roux, yazdığı Türklerin Tarihi: Pasifik'ten Akdeniz'e 2000 Yıl'da Türk boyları arasındaki benzer durumdan bahsediyordu.

Ayrıca yine Germen kabilelerindeki kadının rolü dikkat çekiciydi. Tacitus'un Germenleri övdüğü tek konu bu olabilir. "Barbarlar içinde sadece Germenler tek bir kadınla yaşar, drahomayı(bir nevi başlık parası) kadın erkeğe değil erkek kadına verir, sadece yaş ve kuvvet bakımından eşit olan kadın ve erkek evlenebilir" gibi kuralları Roma imparatorluğunda hakim olan kültürden oldukça farklı.

ikinci bölüm Tacitus'un kayın pederi ve aynı zamanda Romalı bir komutan olan Agricola'nın hayatı üzerineydi. Doğal olarak bu kısım Agricola'ya methiye şeklindeydi denebilir. Britannia valisi olan Agricola'nın hayatı ve askeri başarıları üzerinden bu bölümde diğer bir barbar halk olarak tanımladığı Britanyalılardan da bahsetmiş. Roma hakimiyetini kabul eden Britanyalılar hakkında yazdığı şu sözler dikkatimi çekti;

"Britannialılar zamanla kötü alışkanlıklarımızın da etkisine kapılmaya başladılar. Revaklara, hamamlara ve süslü ziyafet salonlarına alıştılar. Bu onlara karşı alınan bir önlemdi, cahiller ise buna medeniyet adını veriyorlardı."

Son olarak Agricola'nın Caledonia (bugünkü İskoçya) seferini bir nevi destanlaştırarak anlatmış ve dönemin imparatoru Domitianus'u hakarete varacak şekilde tanımlamış ve kitabı yazdığı sırada tahta olan Tiberius'a övgüler yağdırmış. İlginç geldiği için baktım. Daha sonra benzer hakaretleri Tiberius öldükten sonra onun için de tekrarlamış Tacitus. Dolayısıyla Tacitus'un sözlerini pek güvenilir bulmamakla beraber Germenlerin kültür ve yaşayış biçimi hakkında akıcı bir şekilde yazdığı için kitabı beğendim. Okurken ara ara ilk çağ Avrupası haritasına bakmakta yarar var. Tarih sevenlerin ilgileneceği bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two books in one from the ancient Roman historian Tacitus. I understand these are considered amongst his minor works, and the introduction to the edition I have comments that the "Germania" contains "little of value from a historical standpoint." Not so! The comment was perhaps made because the book is not a narrative history, but rather a description of the Germanic peoples as they were around the time of the first century. Of course we have few means of checking its accuracy; for the most part we just have to take Tacitus' word for it, but he seems to be accurate in describing the sources of amber; and other comments ring true, such as when he tells us that Germanic chiefs led more by their ability to persuade than their authority to command.

The second book is Tacitus' biography of his father-in-law Agricola, who is best known for considerably extending Roman rule across Britain. The book is something of a hagiography, but is notable for containing the famous "speech" by the Caledonian leader Calgacus, just before the Battle of Mons Graupius. The eloquent words are frequently quoted, although in reality the entire text was probably made up by Tacitus and reflects his idea of what Calgacus should have said, rather than anything the Caledonian actually did say. Still, an interesting account of how the Romans viewed Britain and its inhabitants.

One word of warning about the free download compiled by volunteers. I have nothing but praise for the volunteers, but in common with other free digital books, the reader can't access the explanatory notes until the end, and there are a lot of them. I have stuck with four stars for the content, but the free edition itself is only worth three.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Grim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tacitus provides a deeply interesting account of the customs, traditions and culture of the various British and German peoples. There is a bias towards Rome though not as much as one would think. Tacitus, in some places, even romanticises the "barbarians" to contrast their virtues with the vices of Rome, which had embraced games, baths and banquets in their lavish wealth. Overall, he manages to do this without diminishing his primary aim, that is, recording the life of his father-in-law Agricola, governor of Britain at the time, and to give an account of the peoples of Germany.

"The result was that instead of loathing the Latin language they became eager to speak it effectively. In the same way, our national dress came into favour and the toga was everywhere to be seen. And so the population was gradually led into demoralising temptations of arcades, baths and sumptuous banquets. The unsuspecting Britons spoke of such novelties as 'civilisation', when in fact they were only a feature of their enslavement".

[Scriptor Ignotus · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Long may the barbarians continue, I pray, if not to love us, at least to hate one another, seeing that, as fate bears remorselessly on the empire, fortune can offer no greater boon now than discord among our enemies."

"Thus even our style of dress came into favour and the toga was everywhere to be seen. Gradually, too, they went astray into the allurements of evil ways, colonnades and warm baths and elegant banquets. The Britons, who had had no experience of this, called it 'civilization', although it was a part of their enslavement."

"'It is no use trying to escape [Roman] arrogance by submission or good behavior. They have pillaged the world: when the land has nothing left for men who ravage everything, they scour the sea. If an enemy is rich, they are greedy, if he is poor, they crave glory. Neither East nor West can sate their appetite. They are the only people on earth to covet wealth and poverty with equal craving. They plunder, they butcher, the ravish, and call it by the lying name of "empire". They make a desert and call it "peace".'"

"'It would not be inglorious to die at the very place where the world and nature end.'"

"If there is a place for the spirits of the just, if, as philosophers believe, great souls do not perish with the body, may you rest in peace. May you call us, your family, from feeble regrets and the weeping that belongs to women to contemplate your noble character, for which it is a sin either to mourn or to shed tears. May we rather honour you by our admiration and our undying praise and, if our powers permit, by following your example. That is the true respect, the true duty, of each of us closest to you. That is what I would enjoin on his daughter and his wife, that they revere the memory of a father and a husband by continually pondering his deeds and his words in their hearts, and by embracing the form and features of his soul rather than of his body.

Not that I would think of banning any statues in marble or bronze. But images of the human face, like that face itself, are weak and perishable. The beauty of the soul lives for ever, and you can preserve and express that beauty, not by the material and artistry of another, but only in your own character. All that we have loved in Agricola, all that we have admired in him, abides and is destined to abide in human hearts through the endless procession of the ages, by the fame of his deeds. Many of the men of old will be buried in oblivion, inglorious and unknown. Agricola's story has been told for posterity and he will survive."

"I myself accept the view of those who judge that the peoples of Germany have never been contaminated by intermarriage with other nations and that the race remains unique, pure, and unlike any other."

"When they are not waging war they occupy a little of their time in hunting but a good deal more is spent without occupation: they devote themselves to sleeping and eating. The bravest and most warlike do nothing, as the care of the house, home, and fields is given over to the women and old men and to the weaklings in the family. They themselves merely lounge about, for, by a bizarre contradiction of character, the same people love idleness as much as they hate peace."

"Nevertheless, the marriage code is strict there and there is no aspect of their morality that deserves higher praise. They are almost the only barbarians who are content with a single wife..."

"This means that they live a life of sheltered chastity, uncorrupted by the temptations of public shows or the excitements of banquets. Men and women alike know nothing of clandestine letters. Considering the great size of the population, adultery is very rare. The penalty for it is instant and left to the husband. He cuts off her hair, strips her naked in the presence of kinsmen, and flogs her all through the village. They have no mercy on a woman who prostitutes her chastity. Neither beauty, nor youth, nor wealth can find her another husband. In fact, no one there laughs about vice, nor is seducing and being seduced called 'modern'. Even better is the practice of those states where only virgins can marry: the hopes and aspirations of a wife are settled once and for all. They are content with a single husband, just as they are content with one body and one life. She has no thoughts beyond him, nor do her desires survive him. They must love not so much the husband himself as their marriage. To limit the number of their children or to kill one of the later-born [i.e., abortion] is regarded as a crime. Good morality is more effective there than good laws elsewhere."

"The Hellusii and Oxiones are said to have human faces and features, the bodies and limbs of animals. As this has not been confirmed, I shall leave the matter open."

[Biblio Curious]

I read only Germania, translated by Sir William Peterson. The descriptions of the Germany people of the time is at times very cute in sections! The descriptions of the houses is one of sweetest. They each have their own homes that seem more like hobbit houses than anything else. There's a few lines that could be taken out of context to mean something terrible & only proves that folks can always find a way to distort things to suit their views. Overall, it doesn't seem exceptionally different from any other ancient writing. There's talk of war, social customs and farming.

I'm glad to have read it because it does show how much things can be blown out of proportion to suit goals of propaganda. I'd recommend if if you're interested in ancient German history that may or may not be accurate. What's interesting is if you read it looking for racism, you'll be able to find some. If you read it as an ancient work, it doesn't stand out from other ancient works in any exceptional way. These ancient people were similar to others of the time.

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

I often came across this title in bookshops but I had no motive in reading it, I asked myself what's the use of reading such a boring title with respect to the fame of Tacitus. Eventually, I was sorry for such a rash decision due to my seeming ignorance. One of the reasons, I think, is that we should take his narratives on both books first written in Latin into account as they would inform and guide their readers in the 21st century to know more and better understand first "the career of his father-in-law, probably the most famous of the governors of Roman Britain, and contains the first detailed account of the British Isles," and second "a study of the character of the German tribes" (back cover) as depicted some 19 centuries ago.

At last, last October I found this paperback in the Dasa BookCafe (http://www.dasabookcafe.com/) and liked its classic front cover but I still kept it unread till early last month. I decided to have a go with its first book Agricola (without 'The' inside on page 51) and found it illuminatingly rewarding; however, after some pages I had to stop somewhere and returned to read its informative, lengthy introduction as the essential foundation since both classified as ancient history have long been written around A.D. 98 by Tacitus, one of the great Roman historians (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus...). So from the gap of 1921 years up to now, it is imperative that their readers for their better understanding on the man and the tribe should gain crucial knowledge from its introduction before reading his two books that miraculously cover the fields of ethnography and geography as we can see from its following 14 topics in the introduction:

I Tacitus
II Agricola, the Man
III Agricola, the Book
IV Tacitus's Account of Britain
V Britain before Agricola
VI Agricola's Governorship
VII Britain after Agricola
VIII The Army of Britain
IX Germania, the Book
X Germany and Rome in History
XI The Early Roman Empire
XII The Constitution of the Empire
XIII The Provinces of the Empire
XIV The Army and Fleet of the Empire

To continue . . .

[Julian Worker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Agricola and The Germania are two separate items. Agricola is a biography of Agricola the governor of Britain between 77 - 84 AD. Germania is an account of the geographical area now roughly approximated by Denmark, Germany, Poland and territories down as far as The Danube River and The Carpathian mountains.

Agricola was the father-in-law of the author, Tacitus. Agricola was probably the most famous governor of Britain and he secured large areas of territory for The Roman Empire, establishing ports on the north coast of Britain around The Solway Firth and Dumfries, forts in the Scottish borders, and defeating the Caledonian tribes at the Battle of Mons Graupius, possibly situated in Perthshire. Agricola's career is also described both before and after his stay in Britain. He seems to have been a genuinely popular figure wherever he went in the eastern Roman empire, a popularity that didn't endear him to the Emperor, Domitian.

The Roman Empire never subjugated the tribes of Germany. Nevertheless, Tacitus describes in detail the general societal habits of the people who live in the area of Germania, before detailing the arms and weapons and battle tactics of the various individual tribes.

This is a fascinating insight into the world of two millenia ago.

[Gabriel Cheers-Aslanian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is two different texts. Agricola is effectively an obituary for Tacitus’ step-dad Agricola who was an early governor of Roman Britain. It’s written quite well or at least the translation is good. I particularly liked how he wrote about Domitian and all his neuroticisms. He hated that guy lol. Nice that he loved his step dad so much tho. Also, learning about ancient Britain would be quite interesting for most people, I feel

Germania is an ethnography of all the people who lived beyond the Rhine and Danube in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden and the Baltics. Some interesting info in there. The Romans travelled all the way to Denmark and the Baltics but overall like maybe 1/5 of the stuff he claims is attested.

I’d say that these are nice little texts to get into ancient history. I feel like they have prepped me to read some more significant stuff but I didn’t have a blast whilst reading them. If I could describe the height of my enjoyment, it would be the mental version of breathing out through your nose at a joke.

[Davvybrookbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dad read Latin and Ancient Greek in high school, studied Ancient Greek in college, and brought us on historical tours around Greece when we lived there in the 90s. I can only imagine what readers of Tacitus in Latin would feel, perhaps a certain closeness to the author himself.

Agricola and Germania are short works that in a way both provide accounts, heavily biographic, of the former, and ethnographic, of the latter, of the conquests and outposts of the Roman Empire nearly 2000 years ago. If I read this account in Europe, I would surely know more of the geography (and I imagine history too). Even so, I thoroughly loved the endnotes to this edition, which provided an actual history to which Tacitus wrote. The stylization of Tacitus’ narration is impressive in its own right, and in Latin I imagine one could feel its colossal presence even more.

I will be reading more Ancient Greek and Roman classics. Next up will be Xenophon’s Anabasis translated sometimes as The Persian Expedition but referenced by my dad as The March Up Country. The back flap of the edition I found says, “The heroes story all boys used to know.”

[Ella Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spotted this purple book on a lonesome shelf in Oxford. I read it during the late evening hours after seeing the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir: Da Pacem Domine. Tacitus was the son of a Roman knight. He admired his father-in-law, Agricola, more than anyone, but I do agree with Mattingly that his account of him, written AD 97-8, is a portrait of a career rather than a man. Though, one thing is certain: for Tacitus, chronicle prevented countless generations from drowning in oblivion. Through story we revere, through memory the soul lingers on into eternity. The soul flutters high, above the perishable human face, so he thought. He was not the constrained, unfeeling, fixed-minded man that Hegel made the Romans out to be: naturally, marble and bronze were applauded as key components of the metropolis, but he says these harsh structures could never surpass the warmth of the eternal soul. Famous men have from time immemorial had their life stories told. This very tradition must be tied to current time, he writes, reflecting his unceasing belief in Rome and its people. We must not confuse honour and merit with conceit, argues Tacitus. I liked reading his histories - perhaps too much, he surely will not vanish from my own memory. O fellow human soul, though your ages dissolved, you are no stranger to mine, for your vision is so very real.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at Britain during ancient Roman times

[Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

“They are the only people on earth to whose covetousness both riches and poverty are equally tempting. To robbery, butchery, and rapine, they give the lying name of ‘government’; they create a desolation and call it peace.”

Contrary to what you may think, Tacitus does not use such rhetoric to describe the Britons, or the Germans, or any other northern European peoples his countrymen found uncivilized in the first century CE. In fact, in the strictest sense, Tacitus does not use these words at all; they come from the chieftain Calgacus, a Caledonian noble, in a speech to British rebels before the climactic battle of the Agricola. In the speech, Calgacus decries Roman imperialism: the Romans are “pillagers of the world” (raptores orbis), they covet both riches and poverty, and their rapaciousness is never satisfied. Indeed, even the barren island of Britain, so far from the seven hills of Rome, has drawn their imperialistic avarice. After all, writes Tacitus, with “destiny driving our empire upon its appointed path” (urgentibus imperii fatis), the Roman mission of conquest will inexorably reach the ends of the earth.

“They create a desolation and call it peace” (ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant), Tacitus has Calgacus proclaim, and I am put in mind of a quote from Saint Augustine, who asks rhetorically in his City of God, “What are kingdoms except great robberies?” (quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia). The two men, while separated by many hundreds of years, both share a low estimation of justice in an earthly state like Rome’s res publica. And they both, in rather different ways, criticize their own society. From a Christian like Augustine, we perhaps expect such rhetoric; Roman officials persecuted Christians on-and-off over hundreds of years, and Christianity itself places so much emphasis on that which is not of this world. Tacitus, however, stands out. He was a Roman senator, an accomplished orator, and as Roman as any upper-class citizen of the first century could be. He ascended the cursus honorem, quietly suffered the tyrannical emperor Domitian for fifteen bloody years, and wrote copiously about Rome’s imperial history. Yet across that literary corpus, his critical eye never wavers; however silent he may have been while Domitian executed his senatorial peers, he almost never let an opportunity pass in subsequent years to put quill to parchment and call out Roman hypocrisy.

The Agricola and the Germania were Tacitus’s first publications. They are short, which is part of the reason his subtle invective is so memorable. The Agricola describes the public life of Tacitus’s father-in-law, a man of distinction who was responsible for much of the post-Claudian conquest of Britain. It is perhaps most noteworthy not for its subject—for while important, the life of Agricola hardly captivates audiences—but for the window Tacitus offers into life under a bad emperor, one whose jealousy led him to recall Agricola at his finest hour and, in effect, force him to retire. Beyond this, the Agricola is famous because Tacitus puts forth his own ostensible critique of Roman imperialism. The process of “Romanization,” through which “the [British] population was gradually led into the demoralizing temptations of arcades, baths, and sumptuous banquets,” Tacitus equates to the loss of liberty. “The unsuspecting Britons spoke of such novelties as ‘civilization,’” he writes, “when in fact they were only a feature of their enslavement.” At other times, such as in the quote cited earlier, Tacitus uses Agricola’s British enemies as a mouthpiece to voice an unpopular view of Roman national character. The pax Romana, Augustus’s most laudable achievement, Tacitus calls a “desolation” (solitudinem), clearly less disillusioned about the nature of Roman conquest than many of his senatorial peers.

Of course, the question about whether Tacitus really means it still poses difficulties. Calgacus technically calls the Roman peace a desolation, not Tacitus, and irrespective of whether Tacitus faithfully reproduces Calgacus’s speech, he makes the deliberate authorial decision to voice such sentiments via a British chieftain. Is this a clever way to avoid imperial censorship and hide his true position? Or does he simply do his best to channel what many British nobles probably felt about Rome’s imperial ambition?

The Germania is a very different text from the Agricola, yet no less distinct in its outlook. Written in the same ethnographical tradition pioneered by Herodotus, the Germania sets out to describe the customs and traditions of a people with whom Rome had a complicated relationship, to say the least. Germanic tribes called the Cimbri and Teutoni defeated several consular armies before Gaius Marius put an end to their destructive migration in 101 BCE, and in 9 CE, at the famous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, Germans led by Arminius massacred three legions, their auxiliaries, and their general, Publius Quinctilius Varus, in the worst military disaster of the principate. In Tacitus’s own time, Rome had mostly abandoned its Augustan mission to extend the frontier to the Elbe River; the Rhine would have to be sufficient to keep the Germanic tribes at bay. Yet the Germanic threat never quite disappeared from the Roman imagination, and as Marcus Aurelius could attest, it was sometimes disturbingly real.

We moderns can learn a lot from Tacitus in the Germania. He makes a sincere attempt to understand another culture, not in order to condemn that culture, but to valorize its people and their customs. Yes, he sometimes reverts to baseless stereotypes that undermine his authority on other matters. Yes, he sometimes makes distasteful pronouncements about the intellectual capacities of the Germans he otherwise praises so highly. Yet on the whole, Tacitus’s ethnographical task necessitates real empathy in order to comprehend this barbarus—that is, truly unfamiliar—area of the world. To put it another way, Tacitus is no ethno-nationalist, if you see what I mean.

Most notable, I think, are his comments at the very end of the Germania. Tacitus is describing the Fenni, whom he claims are “astonishingly savage and disgustingly poor.” They are itinerant hunter-gatherer types who practice equality among the sexes; “the women support themselves by hunting, exactly like the men,” Tacitus makes a point to tell us. And while he seems fundamentally repulsed by their strange way of life, he nevertheless stresses that, “unafraid of anything that man or god can do to them, they have reached a state that few human beings can attain: for these men are so well content that they do not even need to pray for anything.”

In other words, the Fenni, completely lacking the “demoralizing temptations of arcades, baths, and sumptuous banquets,” are profoundly happy. Free from the yoke, resolute in their particular way of life, these Germans need no prophetesses, no augurs, no rituals of supplication. Whether or not this was true is beside the point. The point is that Tacitus believes it so, and that he mentions their singular state of contentment at the very end of his monograph, its pride of place. Is there, beneath the ethnographic veneer, a sense of longing for a simpler way of life, away from palace intrigues and informers? If so, Tacitus dispenses with such sentiment immediately. Onward with the ethnographical account. “What comes after [the Fenni] is the stuff of fables,” he continues. “Hellusii and Oxiones with the faces and features of men, the bodies and limbs of animals. On such unverifiable stories I shall express no opinion.” So ends the Germania.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every one of Roman’s greatest historians began their writing career with some piece, for one such man it was a biography of his father-in-law and an ethnographic work about Germanic tribes. Agricola and Germany are the first written works by Cornelius Tacitus, which are both the shortest and the only complete pieces that he wrote.

Tacitus’ first work was a biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who was the governor of Britain and the man who completed the conquest of the rest of the island before it was abandoned by the emperor Domitian after he recalled Agricola and most likely poisoned him. The biography not only covered the life of Agricola but also was a history of the Roman conquest of Britain climaxed by the life of the piece’s hero. While Agricola focused mostly one man’s career, Tacitus did give brief ethnographic descriptions of the tribes of Britain which was just a small precursor of his Germany. This short work focused on all the Germanic tribes from the east bank of the Rhine to the shores of the North and Baltic Seas in the north to the Danube to the south and as far as rumor took them to the east. Building upon the work of others and using some of the information he gathered while stationed near the border, Tacitus draws an image of various tribes comparing them to the Romans in unique turn of phrases that shows their barbarianism to Roman civilization but greater freedom compared to Tacitus’ imperial audience.

Though there are some issues with Tacitus’ writing, most of the issues I had with this book is with the decisions made in putting this Oxford World’s Classics edition together. Namely it was the decision to put the Notes section after both pieces of writing. Because of this, one had to have a figure or bookmark in either Agricola or Germany and another in the Notes section. It became tiresome to go back and forth, which made keeping things straight hard to do and the main reason why I rate this book as low as I did.

Before the Annals and the Histories were written, Tacitus began his writing with a biography of his father-in-law and Roman’s northern barbarian neighbors. These early works show the style that Tacitus would perfect for his history of the first century Caesars that dramatically changed the culture of Roman.

[Adam Calhoun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tacitus is one of the great Roman historians, and reading the Agricola and the Germania one can understand why. Displaying a very readable style, Tacitus provides insight into contemporary life and civilizations of the Roman world. This is a collection of two books, the Agricola and the Germania. The Agricola is a biography of his father-in-law, interleaved with descriptions of Roman Britain. The Germania is a later book describing the Germans.

Of the two, the Germania is probably more interesting to non-experts. It's fascinating reading about Germanic life two millenia ago, and how Romans viewed German life. Agricola can be a bit more dry, more interesting to those who know a lot about Rome and really want to understand more subtle aspects of Roman life; a lot of this book will slip past you if you don't already have enough background knowledge.

But there is a reason that they are considered Classics.

[Locky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, fascinating accounts of the Britons and barbarian tribes of Germania through the perspective of Roman historian (among other titles) Tacitus. It's truly a treasure to have such writings survive for nearly 2,000 years.

On a side note, I don't read introductions to such books anymore. I find it much more agreeable to read the text myself and draw my own conclusions, rather than have someone else try to justify actions of the time to fit a politically correct narrative as I've unfortunately encountered several times previously.
Also, the introduction alone is 49 pages long, while both Agricola and Germania are a total of 57 pages.