Tacit
Tacitus in Latin) is a historian Roman born in 55 and died about 120 AD. AD
Summary |
Biography
We know very little about the life of Tacitus. The Roman historian, was born between 55 and 57 in Narbonne Gaul (in Vaison-la-Romaine ?), under Nero , and probably from a family of the Equestrian Order of Transalpine Gaul, dynamic and prosperous social class which served support to the Empire since the decline of families patrician Roman
With its strict and disciplined education, he attended grammaticus, the rhetor and even became, without doubt, a student of Quintilian. His brilliant studies opens the doors of the forum and so begins, about 75, his legal career: he frequented the lawyers Gallic Rome.
By 77, he married the daughter of Consul Julius Agricola. For him the beginning of a great political career officer. Vespasian granted him laticlave , the military tribunes and became a member of Tacitus Viginti Sex Viri, "The Council of 26".
In 81, Titus , he became quaestor.
By 87, he is a member of Quindecimvir Sacris Fatiundis, "The College of 15". His political position is compounded by a priestly career.
In 88, under Domitian , he became praetor and tribune of the plebs.
89 to 93, he became legate of the province in Belgic Gaul.
By 93, he returned to Rome and not to attract attention to himself the emperor Domitian (81-96), always ready to exile or to kill the famous people of the empire, Tacitus is to disempowerment.
He accepts the consulate in 97, became consul suffect under the emperor Nerva. The same year he was in charge of the funeral oration Consul Virginius Rufus.
In 98 when Trajan came to power, Tacitus became one of the familiars of the emperor and retired from politics, from Trajan to pursue the story and script.
In 100, he is an advocate of the province of Asia against the former governor Marius Priscus, Pliny the Younger emphasized the dignity and eloquence of this plea.
From 112 to 114, he was governor of the province of Asia and accesses, thus, the highest political office. Nothing is known about the rest of his life. He died in the years 120.
Work
- January 1998: De uita Iulii Agricolae (Life of Agricola)
- End 98: In situ ac Germaniae or populist origins and De situ Germanorum (Germania)
- 107: Dialogus de oratoribus (The Dialogue of speakers)
- 109: Historiae (Histories)
- 110: Ab excessu diui Augusti (unfinished match what the tradition has appointed Annals)
The Life of Agricola (De Vita Iulii Agricolae)
This biography appears in 98, five years after the death of Agricola , the son of ... Tacitus. (He was her father-only ...) This work has two motivations:
- Tacitus was not in Rome at the time of the death of his stepfather and was therefore unable to pronounce his eulogy.
- Tacitus wanted, by contrast with the regime in office, to the fable of a form of human virtues and qualities that Domitian was unprepared. The aim was to show opposition discrete, a kind of passive resistance.
In writing The Life of Agricola, Tacitus wants to honor a man he loved and esteemed. He praises him as a good servant of the Empire, he helped to expand, completing the conquest of Britain (Britannia, Britain today) and the pacifying. Thus the work presents itself as both a eulogy and a historical essay on Britain, its people and its conquest. It is also a manifesto against the tyranny of Domitian , who was assassinated in 96. What is striking in this work is the novel approach that Tacitus is the phenomenon of imperial conquest. It focuses geographer and anthropologist - as in Germany - these barbarians attacked by Roman expansion, taking into account the viewpoint of the conquered and not only that of conquerors. Why would they passively accept the easement? Conquest provides the strength and glory of the Roman people, but can she claim the happiness of the vanquished? Tacitus shown great lucidity Agricola stressing a policy of cultural assimilation.
Here are the ingredients:
- Chap. I-III: the start of the work is placed under the patronage of Nerva and Trajan, who restored freedom to the Roman people.
- Chap. IV to IX: The Life of Agricola itself.
- Chap. X XXXVIII: essays on ethnographic and geographic Britain and the Britons. Tacitus describes the conquest of the island. Agricola is shown as the representative of all virtues.
- Chap. XXXIV - XLVI: Portrait of Agricola. Tacit invitation to follow this example.
The Germania (De situ populist Germaniae ac)
Also appears in 98 of Germany (or On the origin and the country of the Germans), a small news item - Trajan fortifying the border of the Rhine - but whose character is much more historical and ethnographic. It is a description of the different tribes living north of the Rhine and Danube. Tacitus clearly inspired by earlier authors such as Livy or Pliny the Elder. The love of liberty of the Germans, their strength, their courage to oppose the corruption rife in Rome.
46 chapters have survived, whose distribution is very clear:
- Chapters I-XXVII: Each chapter is devoted to a question. This is a notice on a specific topic: housing, food, hospitality, gaming, wedding dress;
- Chapters XXVIII XLVI: Overview of the various Germanic peoples from west to east, from the banks of the Rhine to the current Russia through the Baltic and Scandinavia.
It can hold two lessons:
- moral lesson: the poverty and simplicity of institutions to maintain among the Germans a purity of manners which the Romans moved away. It is a theme Stoic constantly present;
- political lesson: those virtues, which are the same as those who made formidable ancient Rome, are worrisome for the future of the Roman Empire.
Dialogue between speakers (Dialogus de oratoribus)
It has sometimes been reluctant to attribute Dialogue speakers to Tacitus, but all the manuscripts are in his name. The work was probably composed in 80 or 81, when Tacitus was still entirely focused on the eloquence and published probably in 107.
Dialogue to address Tacitus Justus Fabius, who asked the causes of the decline of eloquence. It relates to how Ciceronian, he attended a meeting in 75 between the poet and the speakers Maternus Marcus Aper and Julius Secundus (both teachers) and Vipstanus Messala. Dialogue does not respond immediately to the question. In the first part, and Aper Maternus discuss with heat merits of eloquence and poetry. In a second part, in considering whether the eloquence is decadent, callers opposed to the modern ones. We come finally to the causes of the decline of eloquence: moral laxity in education, poor teaching of the rhetoricians, loss of political freedom and new social conditions.
The Histories (Historiae)
Stories, published in 106, describe the Roman Empire from 1 January 69 to year 96, that is to say, the advent of Galba to Domitian's death. Jerome felt compiling some thirty books, but it generally holds the number 12. The fact remains that today 5: the entire first 4 books and the first 23 chapters of Book V. The contents of the original work covers the following realms: Galba , Otho , Vitellius , Vespasian , Titus and Domitian. The work that we came to ending the reign of Titus:
- Book I: Galba and Otho, or the triumph of Otho
- Galba adopts a patrician, Piso.
- Revolt of Vitellius.
- Mutiny of the Praetorians in Rome.
- Book II: Otho and Vitellius, or the triumph of Vitellius
- Commitment in the East of the legions of Vitellius.
- Battle Otho - Vitellius.
- Death of Otho Bedriac.
- Description of the reign of Vitellius, known for his gluttony and indolence.
- Book III: Vitellius and Vespasian, or the triumph of Vespasian
- Vespasian arrives in Italy.
- Victory over Vitellius Bedriac.
- Siege and capture of Cremona.
- Unrest in the provinces.
- Siege and burning of the Capitol.
- Death of Vitellius.
- Book IV: Julius Civilis
- The Batavian are raised under the leadership of Julius Civilis they besiege the camp of the legions.
- Civilis wants involve the whole of Gaul in revolt, but, after meeting in Reims, the Gallic cities decide to stay loyal to the Empire.
- Book V: Titus before Jerusalem
- Events of the year 70.
- Titus is still a crown prince, but he began the siege of Jerusalem and Judea.
Tacitus had a pessimistic view of history, and would hold about disconcerting. The first page of history is instructive: "I discuss the history of an era full of misfortunes, scarred by battles, torn by sedition, cruel in peace even four princes killed by the sword, three civil wars, more foreign wars, and most of the time, and each other at a time ... "followed by a review of failures and tragedies:" However, this century was not barren of virtues to be unable to produce as Good examples The Annals (Ab excessu diui Augusti)
Written in 110, this work is, without doubt, the great historical works of Tacitus. The title has accepted the apocryphal tradition (Annals) comes from a misinterpretation of the passage IV, 32. It is unclear whether the author completed his work before he died. This was to include 18 books whose content is from the beginning of the reign of Tiberius (14 AD.) At the end of the reign of Nero (68 AD.). We kept the books I-IV, the beginning of Book V, part VI of the book and all that is between the second half of Book IX and the first half of Book XVI. So we lost the reign of Tiberius, Caligula all, the beginning of the reign of Claudius and the last two years of the reign of Nero.
Tacitus drew his sources in the works of other historians, public records and sometimes in his own experience. Both historian and moralist, Tacitus depicts with pessimism, as the histories, mentalities, major events and manners of the men of his time: the analysis is balanced and style of startling brevity. Tacitus knew that the imperial institution was intended to last, but he shared the ancient Roman concept that it is individuals who make history.
Thus the portrait of historian traces the emperors and their entourage is it ruthless obsession with conspiracy in Tiberius , weakness unworthy of a prince in Claude, monstrosity of Nero. The entourage - made up of Agrippina , mother of Nero, and freedmen, executors of the dirty work - is in tune. Murder is the favorite weapon of power. In this work, Racine will make the subject of one of his tragedies: Britannicus. We find in the annals of literary material stories, but the approach of political events is substantially different. Tacitus turns his attention mainly to domestic politics and the traditional balance between "what is happening in Rome" and "what happens outside" is not respected.
Historian
His approach
Its value is highly controversial historian Tacitus had not been objective in his writing and a challenge to the thoroughness of its information. It is considered too passionate. He knew, however, qualify his laudatory portrait by assessing the errors of its heroes (his hatred of Tiberius and Agrippina did not stop to give them a unique dimension in his work).
Tacitus when he wrote his works, combining multiple sources, interpreting and thought back to an original. He built his historical reflection on his philosophical thought. He combined the thoughts of three historians who preceded him: Livy , Sallust and Cicero.
His thought
Tacitus is not only an artist but also a thinker whose thought is not easy ... interpret his lyrics is not easy. In addition, he leaves his work in some gray areas, which make difficult the interpretation of his thought, and it can not enslave to theses trenches too. Was he a friend or an enemy of the empire? It was certainly a friend of the empire, and undoubtedly a friend of Rome. He served the emperors, which does not prevent him from criticizing them. Its primary purpose was not in fact serve the emperors, but Rome. He was very close to Hadrian and Trajan. In the words of A. Michel Writer Tacitus, Racine, in the preface to Britannicus, dubbed the "greatest painter of antiquity, is both a man of culture and man of order. He was trained by Marcus Aper and Julius Secundus he staged in the Dialogue of speakers. It's listening to his master, as he Gallic origin, as Tacitus has nurtured his talent. Like his friend Pliny , it was a brilliant orator and famous who admires Cicero , but does not imitate him. He seeks not the abundance but the expressive power, which Pliny calls the semnots, the Greek word seriously. He was praised for its lively, concise style. Tacitus knew how grand and sober portraits of his characters. The story also offered her beautiful subjects he manages to stage. In his work, greatness has always attached to irony or bitterness. His literary production, in the context of his friendship with Trajan and Pliny the Younger , was appreciated by the imperial environment. Tacitus was the unofficial historian of the plan, which does not prevent him from being as a critical historian. It has always been viewed by the people as a great historian and thinker. Publications
See also
Bibliography
Biographies
- Ronald Syme , Tacitus, Oxford, 1958.
- Pierre Grimal , Tacitus, Paris, 1990.
Critical Structures
- A. Michael, Tacitus and the fate of the Empire, Paris, 1966.
- R. Knight ed. Proceedings of the symposium "Presence of Tacitus' Tour, 1992.
- X. Darcos, Tacitus, its truths are ours, Plon, Paris, 2007
Related articles
- Famous Historians
- Tacitus, Marcus Claudius , Roman emperor in 275 - 276.
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5, rated)
Loading ...