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The Starting-Dates of Tacitus' Historical Works

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

D. C. A. Shotter
D. C. A. Shotter
Affiliation:
Magee University College, Londonderry
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Extract

In recent years, the starting-dates of both the Historiae and the Annales of Tacitus have been criticized. In the case of the Historiae, Hainsworth has claimed that Tacitus chose to start his narrative with the events of A.D. 69, because for various reasons the events of A.D. 68 were an embarrassment to him. Syme has suggested, in the case of the Annales, that by starting with the accession of Tiberius, Tacitus has barred himself from a proper understanding of that principate.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , May 1967 , pp. 158 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1967

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References

1 The Historiae: Hainsworth, J. B., ‘The Starting-point of Tacitus’ Historiae—Fear or Favour by Omission', Greece & Rome (1964), 128 ff.Google Scholar The Annates: Syme, R., Tacitus (Oxford, 1958), i. 369 ff. and 427.Google Scholar

2 Syme, R., op. cit. i. 369.Google Scholar (Cf. Hainsworth, J. B., art. cit. 128.)Google Scholar

3 Syme, R., op. cit. i. 370.Google Scholar

1 Ann. i. 4. 2Google Scholar: ‘Postquam provecta iam senectus aegro et corpore fatigabatur, aderatque finis et spes novae, pauci bona libertatis in cassum disserere, plures bellum pavescere, alii cupere.’

2 Ibid. 1. 17. 2.

3 Shotter, D., ‘Tiberius and the Senate—Three problems in Annals I’, Mnemosyne (forthcoming).Google Scholar

4 Ann. 1. 4. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Ibid. 1. 7. 10: ‘Dabat et famae, ut vocatus electusque potius a re publica videretur quam per uxorium ambitum et senili adoptione inrepsisse.’ This preoccupation is also well illustrated by Tiberius' conduct during the trial of Piso (Ann. 3. 8 ff.), especially his speech to the senate (3. 12).Google Scholar

6 Hist. 1. 16. 1.Google Scholar

7 Syme, R., op. cit. i. 368.Google Scholar

1 Hainsworth makes the same point concerning the relation of the events in 68 with allusions to them in Tacitus' narrative in the Historiae (art. cit. 128–9).Google Scholar

2 Hist. 1. 1. 4.Google Scholar

3 Ann. 1. 9–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 See above, p. 158, n. 2.

5 Syme, R., op. cit. i. 145 ff.Google Scholar

6 Hainsworth, J. B., art. cit. 128.Google Scholar

7 For the text of this, see Pliny, , ep. 9. 19. 1.Google Scholar For a detailed discussion of Verginius' conduct in 68 and the nature of Vindex's aims, see Hainsworth, J. B., ‘Verginius and Vindex’, Historia xi (1962), 86 ff.Google Scholar, and Brunt, P. A., ‘The Revolt of Vindex and the Fall of Nero’, Laiemus xviii (1959), 531 ff.Google Scholar

1 For Tacitus' rather unenthusiastic references to Verginius' conduct in 68, see, for example, Hist. i. 8. 2Google Scholar: ‘… nee statim pro Galba Verginius. an imperare noluisset dubium: delatum ei a milite imperium conveniebat.’ Again, , in Hist. 1. 77. 2Google Scholar, Tacitus ignores an obvious chance to compare Verginius favourably with Otho, a chance he did not ignore in the case of Marius Celsus (see Hist. 1. 71Google Scholar). An example of Verginius' weakness and Tacitus' lack of enthusiasm for him occurs again in the events of 69, after the death of Otho (Hist. 2. 51). On this occasion, Verginius refused to do anything to help his troops in their confusion after their general's death. Instead he ran away: ‘Verginius per aversam domus partem furtim degressus inrumpentes frustratus est.’Google Scholar

2 For this, see Pliny, , ep. 9. 19. 5.Google Scholar

3 As Hainsworth says (art. cit. 128Google Scholar), Tacitus' use of erunt in his first sentence (Hist. 1. 1. 1) shows that there is nothing to discuss in the choice of starting-date; in fact, its tone is firm and decisive. Tacitus saw no need to excuse himself.Google Scholar

4 Hist. 1. 11. 3.Google Scholar

5 Syme, , op. cit. i. 370Google Scholar. (Cf. Hainsworth, , art. cit. 128–9.)Google Scholar

1 e.g. Ann. 12. 25. 2–3, where Tacitus describes the way in which Nero supplanted Britannicus as, Claudius' heir.Google Scholar

2 e.g. Ann. 6. 46. 7, where Tacitus gives Tiberius' prophecy about Caligula—‘Omnia Sullae vitia et nullam eiusdem virtutem habiturum praedixit.’Google Scholar

3 It might be argued that Tiberius' campaigns under Augustus could have been presented to afford something of the picture that we have in Velleius; but this would have shown only that he was a good general. This fact and the retirement to Rhodes are shown as they were important to the history of A.D. 14—that is, as people were thinking about them.