Tacitus

     Publius (Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (AD 58 – AD 117) was a Roman senator, orator, and, most famously, historian. He was born to a wealthy family in southern Gual, what is now considered part of Italy. Records of his youth are scant and there is some confusion as to his first name. While “Publius” is generally accepted, there is a school of thought that supports the name “Gaius”, largely due to a reference in some relatively obscure letters in which he is referred to as such.

As the son of a wealthy aristocratic family, Tacitus received a top-notch education. While his intellectual lineage is impossible to fully trace, some believe he trained with Quintillian himself. No matter, it is clear that Tacitus studies rhetoric as he prepared for a career in law and politics.

Tacitus is often equated with Cicero in that his mastery of prose was unequalled. He is lauded today for his excellence in Latin and innovative style. He also saw history, like Cicero, as something that should not simply tell a story but reflect upon the history told so as to judge it and learn from it. This belief was greatly influenced by the tyranny of Domitian (81-96) in which many were put to death at the whim of the emperor and under which Tacitus is said to have remained silent so as to preserve his own life. This experience left him convinced that the “chief function of history [is] to ensure that virtue be remembered, and to terrify evil words and deeds with a fear of posterity’s damnation.”

Contribution to rhetoric:

Tacitus is said to have taken to rhetoric eagerly, not as a method for exploitation or entertainment, but as a means for acquiring “a profound literary culture”. For Tacitus, rhetorical training was vital to education; it was the means for learning the true and the good, the virtuous life. As such, he was renowned for his excellence in oratory, frequently giving moving speeches “in court, on the streets, and even in [the leading orators’] houses.” His overall contributions to rhetoric, however, are best noted in his surviving works. These books, discussed below, were par excellence of rhetoric as an educational tactic. Each book introduced drama and tragedy, common rhetorical devices, and a pleasant blend of poetry and prose designed to captivate and engross the reader. To a certain extent, the greatest historians of the modern era owe everything to Tacitus for he was the first to employ rhetorical techniques to recount history to the point that some consider him the father of modern historiography.*

Surviving Works:

The Life of Agricola: This, the oldest surviving text, is a biography of Tacitus’ father in law Julius Agricola. Ostensibly focusing on Agricola’s life, the text veers off to describe the geography and ethnography of Britain. This book, written after the assassination of Domitian, was likely most noteworthy as providing a stark contrast to the contemptuous dictator; Agricola, as a conquering general, was depicted as a man of high moral and ethical character. 

Germania: This text is a comprehensive analysis of the land known as Germania. The book discusses the lands, laws, and customs of the inhabitants with a precise analysis that could be considered a precursor to techniques used by modern political scientists. 

Dialogue on Oratory: This is the only text that Tacitus wrote explicitly about oratory (rhetoric). In the dialogue, Tacitus defends oratory as a valiant art but argues that, in practice, it had become degraded to the point that is was negatively impacting education. In a sense, the dialogue follows Plato and Cicero in that it establishes a conversation in order to tease out the distinctions between a more pure form or rhetoric than that which is commonly practiced. Like Plato and Cicero, the work was explicitly normative and reflected a line of thought that imagined the proper conditions for better oratory. For Tacitus, the condition of freedom (potentially anarchy) is a prerequisite for true oratory.

Histories: Only a portion of the original remains, but the Histories is a text that describes Roman life under four emperors. It remains a historically relevant text because of its precise description of Roman life during the first century. It is widely considered the greatest of Roman histories.

Annals: Tacitus’ final surviving work, the Annals records the history of four Roman emperors. It is a revealing text in that it argues that the empire was both conducive and antithetical to peaceful living. Living under the Caesars meant corruption, greed, and service to the Emperor but it also involved a ruling class that was genuinely committed to the good management of the state and the provision of services for the people.

Not surviving: There are some theories that suggest that Tacitus wrote a text about the period of 29-32 AD that would have discussed the trial and execution of Jesus Christ. This theory is supported by Book 15.44 of the Annals that notes that Jesus Christ was executed by Pontius Pilate.

Derivatives:

Tacitus was, perhaps, the most influential historian of all time, having great impact in early American and European thought. Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “Tacitus I consider the first writer in the world without a single exception. His book is a compound history and morality of which we have no other example.”

William Sheakespeare was said to be intimately familiar with Tacitus’ work and drew upon it for inspiration, particularly when writing Henry V.

Tacitus continues to be discussed in contemporary times. One author, writing in 1992, estimated that scholars had produced over 5,000 original works related to the man since World War II alone. That number has surely increased as Tacitus’ work continues to be discussed, debated, and reinterpreted today.

*Note: There is some claim that Thucydides set modern historiography in motion and Tacitus merely followed in his footsteps. That may be the case, but it is clearly true that Tacitus had a much greater and longer lasting impact.

Bibliography

Benario, Herbert, “Tacitus, Germanicus, and Henry V,” Notes and Queries (2010: 372-373)

Kennedy, George, Classical Rhetoric & Its Christian & Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999)

Martin, Ronald, Tacitus (Berkeley: University of California Press: 1981)

Mellor, Robert, Tacitus (New York: Routledge, 1993)

Santoro L’Hoir, Francesca, Tragedy, Rhetoric, and the Historiography of Tacitus’ Annales (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2006)

Sinclair, Patrick, Tacitus the Sententious Historian: A Sociology of Rhetoric in Annales 1-6 (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995)

Walker, Bessie and Henry, Elisabeth, The Annals of Tacitus (Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press, 1952)