³⁷ R.M. Ogilvie and I. Richmond (eds), Cornelii Taciti. De Vita Agricolae (1967), IIff.; R.M. Ogilvie, ‘An Interim Report on Tacitus’ Agricola’, in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.33.3 (1991), 1715 f.; R.G. Tanner, ‘The Development of Thought and Style in Tacitus’, ibid., H.33.4 (1991), 2715.

³⁸ cf. Syme, R., Tacitus I (1958), 125Google Scholar; P. Steinmetz, ‘Die literarische Form des “Agricola” des Tacitus’, in G. Radke (ed.), Politik und literarische Kunst im Werk des Tacitus (1971), 129–41; R. Syme, Ten Studies in Tacitus (1970), 131; H.W. Benario, An Introduction to Tacitus (1975), 24–30.

³⁹ According to R.F. Thomas, Tacitus is a great exponent of the ethnographical genre (Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The Ethnographical Tradition (1982), 124–32).

⁴⁰ F. Giancotti, Strutture delle monografie di Sallustio e di Tacito (1971), 256 f.

⁴¹ See Miller, N.P., ‘Dramatic speech in Tacitus’, AJP lxxxv (1964), 287Google Scholar; P. Grimal, Tacito (1991), 113; for the profusion of rhetorical devices in speeches, see Adams, J.N., ‘The vocabulary of the speeches in Tacitus’ historical works’, Bull. Inst. Classical Stud. Univ. London xx (1973), 124–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In general, cf. also E. Paratore, Tacito (19622), 187.

⁴² Tac, Agr. 12.3–5; cf. also Verg., Ecl. 1.66; Cass. Dio XXXIX. 50.3; F. Gisinger, s.v. Oikoumene, in RE XVII.2 (1937), 2138 f. In general, see Bunbury, E.H., A History of Ancient Geography among the Greeks and the Romans from the Earliest Ages till the Fall of the Roman Empire II (1979; 1879 ¹), 493Google Scholar; J. Vogt, Orbis. Ausgewählte Schriften zur Geschichte des Altertums (1960), 166; A.R. Burn, ‘Tacitus on Britain’, in T.A. Dorey (ed.), Tacitus (1969), 40 f.; G. Maxwell, A Battle Lost. Romans and Caledonians at Mons Graupius (1990), 3; J.S. Romm, The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought. Geography, Exploration, and Fiction (1994), 140 f. See also Tac., Germ. 2.2; 5.1; in Verg., Ecl. 10.12, e.g., Gaul on the whole is explicitly connoted as lutosa; on Gallic marshes, see C. Jullian, Histoire de la Gaule I (1908), 100–1; A. Grenier, Archéologie gallo-romaine, lire partie. Géneralités – Travaux militaires (1931), 113–15. On the location of Germany and Britain into an orbis different from the Roman one, cf. M.A. Giua, ‘Paesaggio, natura, ambiente come elementi strutturali nella storiografia di Tacito’, in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II. 33.4 (1991), 2891–7. On Romans feeling lost in the face of these unfamiliar spaces, cf. R. Chevallier, Rome et la Germanie au premier siecle de notre ère (1961), 25.

⁴³ Tac, Agr. 17.2. In general, on the use of chiasmus in the Agricola, see Fanetti, D., ‘II chiasmo nell ‘Agricola di Tacito’, Museum Criticum xiii–xiv (1978–1979), 389–400.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Tac, Agr. 33.2; cf. H. Heubner, Kommentar zum Agricola des Tacitus (1984), 98.

⁴⁵ Tac., Agr. 25.1.

⁴⁶ cf. P. Salway, Roman Britain (1981), 101 f., 319.

⁴⁷ Tac, Agr. 25.4; 26.2; 27.2; cf. G. Forni, Taciti De vita lulii Agricolae librum (1962), 187. See Cass. Dio LX. 19.5; LX. 20.5–6; R.G. Collingwood and J.N.L. Myres, Roman Britain and the English Settlements (1941; 1936), 84. The Gauls also secured their old, women, and children in marshes (cf. Caes., B.G. II.16.5; II.28.1).

⁴⁸ Tac, Agr. 32.2; cf. Tandoi, V., Albinovano Pedone e la retorica giulio-claudia delle conquiste. I. Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica xxxvi (1964), 146Google Scholar; M.A. Giua, Contesti ambientali e azione umana nella storiografia di Tacito (1988), 64.

⁴⁹ Tac, Agr. 33.3.

⁵⁰ Tac, Agr. 33.5.

⁵¹ Virtus is a main subject in the Agricola: see K. Büchner, Tacitus und Ausklang (1964), 24 ff.; Alonso-Nuñez, J.M., ‘Caracteristicas de Vita lulii Agricolae de Tacito’, Boletin del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueologia xlviii (1982), 187–91Google Scholar; in general, note also Feger, R., ‘Virtus bei Tacitus’, Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumwissenschaft iii (1948), 301–15.Google Scholar

⁵² cf. Cizek, E., ‘La structure du temps et de l'espace géographique dans l'“Agricola” de Tacite’, Helikon viii (1968), 248.Google Scholar

⁵³ See T.A. Dorey, ‘Agricola and Germania’, in idem, op. cit. (note 42), 9—11; R. Sablayrolles, ‘Style et choix politque dans la “Vie d'Agricola” de Tacite’, Bulletin de l'Association G. Budé (1981), 52–63; J.P. Bews, ‘Language and style in Tacitus’ Agricola’, Greece & Rome xxxiv (1987), 209 f.

⁵⁴ Tac, Agr. 22.2.

⁵⁵ lac, Agr. 20.2.

⁵⁶ Caes. B.G. III.23.6; VII.51.2; cf. M. Rambaud, Caius Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Secundus tertiusque libri (1965), 192: ‘il s‘agit de choisir et d'occuper les positions avantageuses’.

⁵⁷ See M. Rambaud, ‘L'espace dans le récit césarien’, in R. Chevallier (ed.), Littérature gréco-romaine et géographie historique (1974), 116: ‘l'espace stratégique est le support d'une relation avec l'ennemi’; note also L. Loreto, ‘Pensare la guerra in Cesare. Teoria e prassi’, in D. Poli (ed.), La cultura in Cesare (1993), 271 f.

⁵⁸ The Gauls know how to benefit shrewdly from the locus: the marsh, in particular, turns out to be a valuable defence given to the natives and at the same time an insurmountable obstacle placed by the natura loci against the Romans: cf. Caes., B.G. III.28.2; VI.5.4–7; VI.34.1–6; vil.15.5; VII.16.1; VII.19.1; VII.26.2; vn.57.4; VIII.7.4; F. Cordano, ‘I confini geografici e naturali nel De bello Gallico’, in Poli, op. cit. (note 57), 90. On the Germans see, e.g., Tac, Hist, v.17.3; Ann. 1.64.2–3; I.65.2–5; I.67–8; II.5.3; II. 19.2.

⁵⁹ Strabo I.I.17.

⁶⁰ cf. A.M. Biraschi, ‘Dai “Prolegomena” all'Italia: premesse teoriche e tradizione’, in G. Maddoli (ed.), Strabone e Vltalia antica (1988), 128; G. Traina, Ambiente e paesaggi di Roma antica (1990), 55 f. In general, on the usefulness of geographic science according to Strabo, see G. Aujac, Strabon et la science de son temps (1966), 104; C. Nicolet, L'inventaire du monde. Géographie et politique aux origines de l'Empire romain (1988), 68, 93 f. In the treatise De rebus bellicis the image of the άρβαροι τοπομαχοȗνɛσ, turns up again essentially unchanged (cf. VI. 1–4 and the comprehensive note by A. Giardina, Anonimo, Le cose della guerra (1989), 71–4). On marsh as perfugium, see also Pan. Lat. VI. 12.2.

⁶¹ In general, cf. K. Wellesley, Tacitus as a Military Historian, in Dorey, op. cit. (note 42), 72 ff. On Strabo's and Tacitus’ Romanocentric view, see respectively E. Ch. L. van der Vliet, ‘L'ethnographie de Strabon: idéologie ou tradition?’, in F. Prontera (ed.), Strabone. Contributi allo studio della personalità e dell'opera 1 (1984), 77 and C. Jacob, Géographie et ethnographie en Grèce ancienne (1991), 159 ff.; Giua, op. cit. (note 48), 69. A paradigmatic case in which Tacitus revives Strabo's ideas is Ann. 1.63.2, where it is said that the palus is gnara vincentibus and iniqua nesciis: to the Roman soldiers the marsh cannot be aequa; at most it can be explored: it is possible to overcome the marsh chaos and the enemies who hide themselves there, it is possible to win only if the marsh is gnara. To those who are nescii of this treacherous milieu, the marsh – and, we could add, fortune – will necessarily be iniqua; cf. also Hist. V.17.2.

⁶² cf. W.S. Hanson, ‘Tacitus’ “Agricola”: An Archaeological and Historical Study’, in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.33.3 (1991), 1772 f. Tacitus’ conception of Roman soldiers is positive too: see Kajanto, I., ‘Tacitus’ attitude to war and the soldier’, Latomus xxix (1970), 699–718.Google Scholar

⁶³ Tac, Agr. 31.1; cf. M. Gorrichon, ‘La Bretagne dans la “Vie d'Agricola” de Tacite’, in Chevallier, op. cit. (note 57), 201.

⁶⁴ cf. Tac, Agr. 32.2: ‘clausos quodam modo ac vinctos’.

⁶⁵ cf. Tac, Agr. 33.2: ‘Britanniam vicistis’.