Tacitus: Annals

Tacitus: Annals
Author: Tacitus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2017-12-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108378137

Tacitus' account of Nero's principate is an extraordinary piece of historical writing. His graphic narrative (including Annals XV) is one of the highlights of the greatest surviving historian of the Roman Empire. It describes how the imperial system survived Nero's flamboyant and hedonistic tenure as emperor, and includes many famous passages, from the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64 to the city-wide party organised by Nero's praetorian prefect, Tigellinus, in Rome. This edition unlocks the difficulties and complexities of this challenging yet popular text for students and instructors alike. It elucidates the historical context of the work and the literary artistry of the author, as well as explaining grammatical difficulties of the Latin for students. It also includes a comprehensive introduction discussing historical, literary and stylistic issues.

The Annals of Tacitus: Book 4

The Annals of Tacitus: Book 4
Author: A. J. Woodman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 622
Release: 2018-05-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1108318061

Book 4 of Tacitus' Annals, described by Sir Ronald Syme as 'the best that Tacitus ever wrote', covers the years AD 23–28, the pivotal period in the principate of the emperor Tiberius. Under the malign influence of Sejanus, the henchman who duped him and was loaded with honours, Tiberius withdrew to the island of Capri and was never again seen in Rome, where the treason trials engendered an atmosphere of terror. The volume presents a new text of Book 4, as well as a full commentary on the text, covering textual, literary, linguistic and historical matters. The introduction discusses the relationship between Tacitus and Sallust. The volume completes the sequence which began with commentary on Books 1 and 2 of the Annals by F. R. D. Goodyear (1972, 1981) and was continued by commentary on Book 3 by A. J. Woodman and R. H. Martin (1996) and on Books 5-6 by A. J. Woodman (2016).

The Annals of Imperial Rome

The Annals of Imperial Rome
Author: Tacitus
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 464
Release: 1973-07-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0141904798

Tacitus' Annals of Imperial Rome recount the major historical events from the years shortly before the death of Augustus up to the death of Nero in AD 68. With clarity and vivid intensity he describes the reign of terror under the corrupt Tiberius, the great fire of Rome during the time of Nero, and the wars, poisonings, scandals, conspiracies and murders that were part of imperial life. Despite his claim that the Annals were written objectively, Tacitus' account is sharply critical of the emperors' excesses and fearful for the future of Imperial Rome, while also filled with a longing for its past glories.

The Annals of Tacitus: Volume 1, Annals 1.1-54

The Annals of Tacitus: Volume 1, Annals 1.1-54
Author: Cornelius Tacitus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521609319

The first in a four-volume edition of Tacitus Annals 1-6. The Annals are Tacitus' brilliant account of Roman imperial history from the death of Augustus to the death of Nero. Books 1-6 describe the reign of Tiberius. Professor Goodyear's introduction to the series deals concisely with the background to the Annals. He outlines the history of Tacitean scholarship to the present day and shows how Tacitus' historical judgements were sometimes distorted by his preoccupations with style and with the moral function of historical writing. The commentary attends equally to literary, historical and textual questions. There are several appendixes on topics of more specialized interest.

Tacitus, Annals IV: A Selection

Tacitus, Annals IV: A Selection
Author: Robert Cromarty
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2021-04-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350060305

This is the OCR-endorsed publication from Bloomsbury for the Latin AS and A-Level (Group 1) prescription of Tacitus' Annals IV, sections 1–4 (... non adversus habebatur), 7–12, and 39–41, and the A-Level (Group 2) prescription of sections 52–54, 57–60, 67–71 and 74–75, giving full Latin text, commentary and vocabulary, with a detailed introduction that also covers the prescribed sections to be read in English for A Level. It is AD 23 and we are in the ninth year of the reign of Rome's second emperor, Tiberius. Increasingly he has come to rely on the assistance of the Praetorian Prefect, Lucius Aelius Sejanus, in the running of Rome. But Sejanus has ambitions beyond being a mere assistant, extending even as far as the imperial throne itself. Tacitus vividly portrays the machinations of Sejanus as he attempts to manoeuvre himself into a position to assume the ultimate authority, characterising the period as one dominated by villainy, betrayal and deceit. Resources are available on the Companion Website.

The Cambridge Companion to Tacitus

The Cambridge Companion to Tacitus
Author: A. J. Woodman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2010-01-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1139828207

Tacitus is universally recognised as ancient Rome's greatest writer of history, and his account of the Roman Empire in the first century AD has been fundamental in shaping the modern perception of Rome and its emperors. This Companion provides a new, up-to-date and authoritative assessment of his work and influence which will be invaluable for students and non-specialists as well as of interest to established scholars in the field. First situating Tacitus within the tradition of Roman historical writing and his own contemporary society, it goes on to analyse each of his individual works and then discuss key topics such as his distinctive authorial voice and his views of history and freedom. It ends by tracing Tacitus' reception, beginning with the transition from manuscript to printed editions, describing his influence on political thought in early modern Europe, and concluding with his significance in the twentieth century.

Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition

Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition
Author: Torrey James Luce
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2014-07-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400863368

In this volume distinguished scholars from both sides of the Atlantic explore the work of Tacitus in its historical and literary context and also show how his text was interpreted in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Discussed here, for example, are the ways predilections of a particular age color one's reading of a complex author and why a reexamination of these influences is necessary to understand both the author and those who have interpreted him. All of the essays were first prepared for a colloquium on Tacitus held at Princeton University in March 1990. The resulting volume is dedicated to the memory of the great Tacitean scholar Sir Ronald Syme. The contributors are G. W. Bowersock ("Tacitus and the Province of Asia"), T. J. Luce ("Reading and Response in the Dialogus"), Elizabeth Keitel ("Speech and Narrative in Histories 4"), Christopher Pelling ("Tacitus and Germanicus"), Judith Ginsburg ("In maiores certamina: Past and Present in the Annals"), A. J. Woodman ("Amateur Dramatics at the Court of Nero"), Mark Morford ("Tacitean Prudentia and the Doctrines of Justus Lipsius"), Donald R. Kelley ("Tacitus Noster: The Germania in the Renaissance and Reformation"), and Howard D. Weinbrot ("Politics, Taste, and National Identity: Some Uses of Tacitism in Eighteenth-Century Britain"). Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Irony and Misreading in the Annals of Tacitus

Irony and Misreading in the Annals of Tacitus
Author: Ellen O'Gorman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2006-12-14
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780521034951

This 2000 book examines Tacitus' Annals as an ironic portrayal of Julio-Claudian Rome, through close analysis of passages in which characters engage in interpretation and misreading. By representing the misreading of signifying systems - such as speech, gesture, writing, social structures and natural phenomena - Tacitus obliquely comments upon the perversion of Rome's republican structure in the new principate. Furthermore, this study argues that the distinctively obscure style of the Annals is used by Tacitus to draw his reader into the ambiguities and compromises of the political regime it represents. The strain on language and meaning both portrayed and enacted by the Annals in this way gives voice to a form of political protest to which the reader must respond in the course of interpreting the narrative.