Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II

by Tacitus, W. Hamilton Fyfe (Translator)

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Classics, Philosophy, Historical, Ancient History, Ancient

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 120

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

[John Isles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Tacitus in Latin, and translating him into English as we currently are on the LatinStudy email list (see https://www.quasillum.com/study/latin...), is a challenge, but this edition of Books I and II of the Histories has been very helpful. These two books cover the reigns of the Roman emperors Galba and Otho, and the buildup to the war between Vitellius and Vespasian. There's a short introduction and concise but helpful commentary. A vocabulary is given but it's very much incomplete. (Most of the reviews to be found on Goodreads are obviously not of this edition.)

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent history of the Year of the Four Emperors. I'll never forget the image of Vitellius trying to abdicate but being blocked at every turn by the crowd. So he returned to the palace and was slaughtered a day or two later. Some vivid battle scenes (attacking city walls in tortoise formation) will stay with me too.

I like Tacitus's pithy style. The short introduction by W. H. Fyfe in the Loeb edition is excellent too. I hope we find the missing books someday.

[Matt Pelikan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sort of like reading celebrity gossip columns where you don't recognize the name of a single celebrity. No doubt an important historical document, and it has its moments of wit. But it's a bit of a chore for the 21st-century non-specialist. The translation of the Kindle edition I read was outdated and barely adequate; this book really calls out for an edition with extensive notes.

[Rana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was written by Tacitus and I think it is important to know about the author to rate this book. Tacitus lived around 56-117 AD and is known to be the governor of Asia. He also held other political offices. It is believed that this book is only a third of the original work written by him and unfortunately the other 2/3 has not survived. The original book was published in 109 AD.
The book is about the period from the time Nero commits suicide till Verspasian becomes the Roman emperor. The Romans called it the year of the four emperors. The book is a vivid description of the civil war during this time. Tacitus was a about 12 years old when Nero died and the civil war started. So he had personally witnessed the turmoil.
There are many characters involved and sometimes it gets confusing and I easily mixed up the characters. I also had to use Google as a reference to refer to the geography of the areas he was referencing. It could be confusing because 2/3 of the book is missing. I cannot believe Tacitus explains the civil war is such detail.
Great book.

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

The history was interesting but unfortunately this EBook was spoiled by the terrible formatting, particularly of footnotes.

If you can get past those, then the descriptions of a very turbulent time in the Roman Empire are fascinating and detailed.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing like reading the source material to see where the Roman history books get their ideas. Tacitus tells us a lot about many important aspects of history, writing towards teh latter end of the first century.

[Clouds · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simply written history of a brief and tumultuous sliver of Roman history - the Year of the Four Emperors. Something unexpected: Tacitus is funny. Thoroughly enjoyable, even if “the rest is lost.”

[Albert Ballard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Closer to the Truth

Reading histories closer to the date of inception is not devoid of bias. It does give an unfiltered view of Tacitus and his perspective.

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting, though would be considered dry material by most--and there were some parts that i skimmed. the only thing ot really detract from it was the formatting--pages of footnotes i had to swipe past and odd numbers popping up at random through the text. i am not sure if this is how Tacitus numbered his lines in a writing style of old or if this is a problem with the translation and later format--but it was rather annoying to say the least.

all in all despite these problems, a good read.

[John Blumberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's too bad so much of Tacitus' work has been lost over time as he did a pretty good job of covering the three Emperors period. What was there was, I feel, wonderfully written. It was somewhat hard to keep track due to the number of participants involved in such a work but the footnotes did help to some degree. I will definitely be reading his other work when I get the chance.