The Histories (Penguin Classics)

by Tacitus, William Jackson Brodribb, P. Cornelius Tacitus

Book Overview

In AD 68, Nero's suicide marked the end of the first dynasty of imperial Rome. The following year was one of drama and danger, with four emperors--Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian--emerging in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140441506
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.3" x 0.8" x 4.8"

Customer Reviews

A nicely done translation

Most people don't need a review of Tacitus's work. Most people want to know if a particular translation is any good. With that in mind, I recommend this Penguin edition of Kenneth Wellesley's translation. The translation itself is highly readable, and Wellesley indicates the rare instances where he emends the Latin text in footnotes. Wellesley also uses the footnotes to help the reader keep track of some of the less prominent characters in the work, a feature which is a big help for the non-specialist. Probably the best aspect of this edition is the map section at the end. The book contains 11 maps that include maps of large areas, maps of cities, and diagrams of important battles. Wellesley also refers the reader to the appropriate map through the footnotes. This review makes it sound like the book contains a lot of footnotes, but really there are usually just one or two a page. The one minor defect of the book is that the index only contains personal names. A general index would have made this user friendly book even better. But like I said, this is a great English copy of the Histories.

Still a benchmark

Every now and then a pivotal moment in history is witnessed and recorded by a master communicator. The mid-first century of Rome was such a time and Tacitus was such a communicator. The Histories will forever be a benchmark of good history with its observations on human nature and behaviour along with their impact on history. The historian will do well to read Tacitus not just for the historical lessons but for his approach to history as a record of human activity. While observing and commenting on the human element in history, Tacitus avoids making moral judgements and remains as objective as possible in the midst of turmoil, wars, and rumors of wars. His beloved nation and people were suffering under the barbarity of fratricidal war yet he remains above the madness and records the events with passion tempered with objectivity. His example is one that has remained difficult for others to follow. A word on this translation in particular - I found Mr. Wellesley's translation very readable and poetic. He seems to have captured the literature value of the text as well as the content. Well done.

corrupting effects of power

Reading Tacitus' Annals I oft remembered Thucydides' account of the Peleponnesian wars. An important theme of the latter work was the corrupting effects of prolonged war on the morals and intellect of the Athenian people, who were ultimately degraded so much that they voted the destruction of the people of a small island just because they had chosen to remain neutral. Tacitus, on the other hand, seems to have dedicated himself in this work to examining the corrupting effects of absolutism on the Roman people after the fall of the Republic. He shows how absolute power brought out the worst traits in the character of rulers like Tiberius and Nero, who grew more and more tyrannical with every year on the throne, and how members of the illustruous Roman senate and other sections of the Roman political society turned into a horde of spineless sycophants, informers and debauches. There were still a few honourable individuals, but as Tacitus shows in an endless series of judicial and non-judicial murders, most of these paid the price of sticking to the ancient traditions of liberty and honour with their lives. Tacitus also deals at length with the relations of the Romans with the subject peo-ples. I may be wrong here, but it seems to me that in such passages Tacitus draws a parallels between the fate of these enslaved peoples and that of the enslaved Roman people -the first a slave to the Romans, the second a slave to the emperor and his bureaucracy made up of ex-slaves. Many subject peoples rebelled and some like the Cherusci under Arminius (towards whom he does not seem averse at all) could successfully preserve their liberty against the in-trusion of the Romans. Those Romans who dared defy the tyrant on the other hand, and especially those who could wisely remain independent and yet stay alive, were far fewer, Tacitus seems to imply. Insofar as it demonstrates how closely liberty (including liberty of thought) and morals are intertwined, this work is still relevant today as a central work of liberal humanism.

fascinating reading

Tacitus Histories deals with the turbulent year 69AD the year of four emperors. Tacitus eye for detail which allows us to understand the personalities of Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespatian and their motivations and ambitions in this trully chaotic time in Rome's history. The sinister role of the Praetorians in these events is faithfully accounted. I found I could not put it down! Very readable compared to the Annals. The translation is first rate. The work is also supported by numerous foot notes and maps. Anyone interested in this period of Roman history must read this book.

69 AD: The Year of the Four Emporers

The Histories, an account of the tumultuous year of 69 AD, is a historical tour de force by the Roman senator Cornelius Tacitus. Although part of the original work which was written in 105-108 AD has been lost, that which remains is still one of the better works of an ancient historian. The main strengths of this history lie in good organization and rich detail, combined with an excellent writing style and pithy observations. The main characters are the four men who vied for imperial power in the wake of the emperor Nero's demise: the elderly Galba, the playboy Otho, the porcine Vitellius and the veteran soldier Vespasian. All of these men sought to establish themselves in power and the result was a yearlong civil war that spread across virtually the entire empire. Organizationally, the book is divided into chapters that cover various events in chronological order. The tension and drama mounts as chapters follow the murder of Galba, Vitellius' march on Rome, the suicide of Otho, Vespasian's bid for power and the revolt of upper Germany under Civilis. Tacitus has organized the work well and the book quickly becomes a page-turner, as the drama and intrigue is interwoven between chapters. There are virtually no diversions from the main themes and little material that is irrelevant. The only problem organizationally, is that Tacitus includes very few time references so it can be difficult to gauge when events are actually occurring (the editor adds some dates in footnotes, but many other dates are vague). He also introduces many characters without providing sufficient background material. One of the main values of Tacitus' work is the richness of detail. There is considerable information on military order of battle and campaigns, as well as senatorial debates, imperial finances and political intrigues. Militarily, the Roman army does not appear so grand in Tacitus' account of their civil war behavior. Tacitus hates civil war and feels that it erodes the morality and discipline that made Rome great. Indiscipline is rife, with jealous generals competing against each other and troops always on the verge of mutiny or massacring civilians. Tacitus recounts that each of the armies of the imperial aspirants committed atrocities along the way to Rome in order to demonstrate the moral ambivalence of the civil struggle. In combat, the Roman soldier of this period performed poorly, whether against fellow Romans or Germans. Without discipline Tacitus suggests, the Roman army was little more than an armed mob led by criminals. He notes that, "a career of riot and looting was just the thing to acclimatize them to the idea of civil war". Even the famed Praetorian Guard appears ragged, fickle and lazy here; at the Second Battle of Cremona they are told "you are finished as soldiers unless you beat the enemy...Dishonor you have drunk to the dregs." The Second Battle of Cremona, which the forces of Vespasian win, is highly unusual as an example of