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Tacitusagricolag00taciiala.Pdf s?^ / st THE AGRICOLA AND GERMANIA OF TACITUS ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS. TACITUS THE AGRICOLA AND GERMANIA TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH I!Y K. B. TOWNSHEND, M.A. LATE SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE METHUEN & co. 86 ESSEX STEEET, W.C. LONDON 1894 TO THE MEMORY OK FRANK EUSTACE ANDERSON, FORMERLY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF GREEK AT HARVARD, MASSACHUSETTS. 2064992 PREFACE. THE text from which the following translation has been made is that of the edition of the Agricola and Germania which was brought out by Mr. A. J. Church and Mr. W. J. Brodribb in 1869. In the one or two cases where I have used a different reading, the reader's attention has been called to it in a footnote. I have to express my great obligations to the very useful notes appended to their work, as well as to the translation of the two treatises which they published previously. After I had finished my translation, Dr. E. B. Tylor kindly lent me an unpublished version of the Germania of which he had a copy in his possession, and I obtained permission to " " borrow from it the phrase these are no boy's lovelocks in the passage where Tacitus is describing the head- dress of the Swabian warriors ; the footnotes to it were also useful on various points. In the identification of the numerous peoples and tribes whom Tacitus mentions, I have almost invariably followed Dr. Latham. If his great work on the Germania may be considered to be in some respects a little out of date, on the other hand in it was first suggested, if I am not mistaken, that PREFACE hypothesis of the European origin of the Aryans which now commends itself so strongly to many scientific men. I may add that the short footnotes which I have ventured to append to some of the names are to be taken as stating in the briefest possible manner such conclusions as I have been able to arrive at. To have attempted more would have swelled the contents of this little book far beyond the modest limits assigned to it. It makes no pretensions to come into the same class as the last German treatise on the Germania, which extends, so it is said, to over a thousand pages. A translation of the Agricola appeared anonymously in 1885 from the press of Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co. I had not seen it when I made my version, but I read it afterwards with much pleasure on account of its very spirited style, and I have taken the liberty of borrowing from it one phrase, "in the springtime of her rare promise," where Tacitus is speaking of his betrothal to Agricola's daughter. Finally, I have to express my sincere and hearty thanks to Mr. H. F. Fox of Brasenose, for advice and to the assistance generously bestowed ; Headmaster of Bath College, who most kindly gave up several days to the task of going over the whole of the Germania witli to A. of me ; and Mr. Godley Magdalen College, who was good enough to revise the sheets of the Agricola. OXFORD, September, 1894. (viii) THE AGRICOLA OF TACITUS I. It was the practice of our forefathers to bequeath to posterity the history of the deeds and the characters of their great men, nor has the practice ceased even at the present day. It still obtains, although this age is careless of its heroes, in those instances where some sublime and distinguished virtue has risen victorious over the besetting sin of every community, large or small, a blind antipathy to goodness. But of old the hero found a outlet a fair field for his ready and energies ; while genius hastened to embalm the memory of his valour, not with partiality and not with any selfish motive, but looking solely to the recompense of a good conscience. Not a few men, moreover, thought that to be the chroniclers of their own lives was a sign of rather than of conceit nor was self-respect ; any impu- tation ever made upon this ground against the good faith or the good taste of Rutilius and Scaurus : periods that were prolific of great men were most capable of ap- preciating them. At the present day I feel it neces- sary to begin by apologising beforehand for writing the biography of one who has passed away, which I need scarcely have done were these pages to be devoted to some lively satire upon the age in which he lived, an age so malignant and hostile to virtue. 1 (1) THE AGRICOLA OF TACITUS II. Death was the reward meted out by Domitian, so it is recorded, to Arulenus Rusticus for writing the eulogy of Paetus Thrasea, and to Herennius Senecio for that of Priscus Helvidius nor did his writing ; he glut rage upon their persons alone : their writings also felt his fury, and the works in which they had enshrined the memory of those great men were ordered to be publicly committed to the flames in the place of assembly in the forum by the hands of the executioners. Per- haps in the smoke of those fires the tyrant and his tools flattered themselves that the voice of Rome, the independence of the senate, and the conscience of mankind were and to vanishing away ; they proceeded expel from Rome the teachers of philosophy, and banish the members of every honourable profession, so that nothing might be left to put them to shame. Colossal, indeed, was the exhibition of abjectness offered by us : our forefathers had shown the world to what heights could soar freedom ; we, when we dared neither speak nor listen for terror of the informers, showed to what slavishness humanity could sink. Our mouths were closed, and even our memories themselves would have become a blank had we been as able to forget as we were to keep silence. III. Now, at last, our courage is reviving. We first saw the dawn of a happier epoch when Nerva reconciled two things divorced until this time, the rule of the em- the of the individual and peror and liberty ; now every day of Trajan's reign is adding to the sum of our happiness. Public security has not merely been brought THE AGRICOLA OF TACITUS within the range of our hopes and prayers but has attained to the solid assurance of a prayer fulfilled. Nevertheless, from the nature of human weakness reme- dies act more slowly than diseases. Our bodily frame takes years to grow, but in the twinkling of an eye it returns to its dust : so in like manner it is easier to quench the generous ardours of the mind than to re- kindle them again. Nay, inaction itself benumbs us with its charm, and the passiveness we loathe at the first becomes a passion in the end. Those fifteen years have made a great gap in our little span of life. The ordinary chances of man's lot have removed not a few of our number, but all our boldest spirits were cut off by the ruthless hand of the tyrant. We, the survivors of that generation, are but a handful, and we, I may say, have survived not only our fellows but our very selves. Those years were an absolute blank, during which in unbroken silence we who were in the prime of life grew old and those of us who were already old reached the very verge of the grave. Nevertheless, though it be with rude and stam- mering tongue, I shall not regret my task when I have succeeded in telling the story of our days of bondage and bearing my testimony to the blessings of the present epoch. In the meantime, this work, which is intended as a tribute to my father-in-law Agricola, must base upon the filial piety that it displays whatever claims it may possess to the indulgence, if not the praise, of the reader. IV. Gnaeus Julius Agricola was sprung from the old THE AG RICOLA OF TACITUS 1 and illustrious colony of Forumjulii. Either of his grandfathers had held office as the imperial commissioner of a province, which confers a title to nobility among 2 men of equestrian rank. His father, Julius Graecinus,' rose to be a senator, and was distinguished for his devo- tion to eloquence and philosophy, thereby earning destruction for himself at the hands of for Caligula ; he 3 was ordered to impeach Marcus Silanus : he declined to obey, and he was put to death. The mother of Agricola was Julia Procilla, a woman of singular virtue. At her side he was brought up with fond affection, and spent his boyhood and his youth in the acquisition of all honourable accomplishments. He was protected from the snares of vice not only by his own 1 Frejus on the Riviera, about 75 miles east from Marseilles. 2 Seneca is our authority for the following story of Graecinus. had incurred in the He heavy expenses exhibiting public games ; and a base creature, Fabius Persicus, sent him a liberal subscrip- tion towards defraying them. Graecinus politely returned it, and " on being remonstrated with by his friends, said : Shall I allow a man to do me a favour whom I would not allow to propose my " health ? Another man, equally base, Rebilius, sent him a still larger subscription, and was likewise refused. Rebilius would not be denied, and sent it in again. It was again declined, with the " I : apology : must really beg you to excuse me I have declined Persicus' subscription too ". 3 Caligula's own father-in-law, who was rash enough to give the mad emperor good advice.
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