THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOtmOED BY JAMES LOEB, LL.D. EDITED BY tT. E. PAGE, C.H., LITT.D. tE. CAPPS, PH.D., LL.D. tW. H. D. ROUSE, litt.d. L. A. POST, L.H.D. E. H. WARMINGTON, m.a., f.b.hist.soc. TACITUS 1 V TACITUS THE HISTORIES WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY CLIFFORD H. MOORE OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY THE ANNALS WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY JOHN JACKSON IN FOUR VOLUMES I THE HISTORIES, Books I-III LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS MOMLXII First printed 192o Reprinted 1936, 1952, 1966, 1962 Printed in Great Britain — CONTENTS 7A0« INTRODUCTION LIFE AND WORKS OF TACITUS Vli BIBLIOGKAl'HY xiv HISTORICAL NOTE Xvii BOOK I : TEXT AND TRANSLATION 1 BOOK II : TEXT AND TRANSLATION 159 BOOK III : TEXT AND TRANSLATION 327 MAP OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE At end MAP OF NORTHERN ITALY ,, INTRODUCTION Life and Works of Tacitus Our scanty knowledge of the life of Cornelius Taci- tus is derived chiefly from his own works and from the letters of his intimate friend, the younger Pliny. The onl}' certain dates are the following : in 78 ad. he married the daughter of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, whose life he later wrote ;^ in 88 he was praetor and a member of the college of the XVviri, but he may have been appointed to this sacred office before this year.2 The consulship he obtained in 97 (or 98),^ and between 113-116 (or 111—112) he governed the province of Asia as proconsul.* His earlier political career can be determined with somewhat less ^ Agric. 9: consul (77 a.d. ) egregiae turn spei filiam iuveni mihi desponclit et post consulatum coUocavit ; et statim Britanniae praepositus est. * Ann. xi. 11 : is quoque (Domitianus) edidit ludos saecu- lares, iisque inteiitius adfiii sacerdotio quindecimvirali praeditus ac tunc praetor. ' Pliny, Epist ii. i. 6: laudatus est (Verginius Riifus) a coiisule Cornelio Tacito ; nam hie supremus felicitati eius cumulus accessit, laudator eloquentissimus. The question as to the year obviously de])ends on the date of the death of Verginius. For the lilerature on the dispute seeSchanz: Geschichte der rom. Litteralur, § 427. * See an inscription from Mylasa, published in the Btl'etin de Correspondance HelUnique, 1890, p. 62! f. ^ INTRODUCTION accuracy from his own words: dignitatem iiostraiii a Vespasiano inchoatam, a Tito auctam, a Domitiano longius provectam non abnuerim.^ According to this we may conjecture that he had been tribunus militum laticlavius, and had held some of the vigintivirate offices of the under Vespasian (69-79) ; the quaestorship then would have come to him between 79 and 81. From the above facts we can believe that Tacitus was born not far from 55-56 a.d. This date fits the course of his political career; besides, we know that he was only a few years older than his devoted friend, the younger Pliny, who was born in 61 or 62. The place of his birth is unknown, and in fact his praenomen is uncertain ; the codex Mediceus I gives it as Publius, but ApoUinaris Sidonius, writing in the fifth century, names him Gaius.^ His father may have been a procurator of Belgic Gaul.^ Cer- tainly the historian was descended from well-to-do, if not wealthy, parents, for he enjoyed the best education of his day, had the full political career of the nobility, and early married well. Moreover, his attitude of mind is always that of a proud and aristo- cratic Roman, without sympathy or interest in the » Hist. i. 1. * Pliii., Epist. VII. XX. 3 ; eritrarum et insigne duos homines aetate dignitate propemodiim aequales, non nullius in litteris nominis — cogor enim de te quoque parcius dicere quiade me simul dico—alterum alterius studia fovisse. equidem adule- scentulus cum iam tu fama gloriaque floreres, te sequi, tibi ' longo sed proximus intervallo' et esse et haberi concupis- cebam. (Written probably in 107.) 3 Epist. IV. 14. 1 ; 22. 2. Cf. Mommsen, Hermes, III., p. 108, 1 ; Studeniund, ibid. viii. 2.32 f. « Plinv, N.H. vii. 76. INTRODUCTION affairs of the lower classes ; his occasional admiration for an independent and free spirit in foreigners is prompted by his desire to secure a clear contrast for Roman vices. The influence of Tacitus's rhetorical studies is clearly seen in all his writings, and he won reputa- tion as an orator.^ It was natural, then, that his earliest extant work, the Dialogiis de Oratorihus, should be an inquiry into the reasons for the decay of oratory under the empire. Modelled on Cicero's rhetorical works, it shows in form and style the effects of its author's study. The scene of the dialogue is placed in the year 74—75 a.d., but the date of com- position is unknown ; apparently it was not published until after Domitian's death (96). His other works belong to the field of history. Two small volumes preceded his larger studies. The Agiicola is an encomiastic biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola. A considerable portion of this little book is given to a description of Britain and to an account of the Roman conquest, so that a triple interest— in geography and ethnography, history, and biography— is secured on the i-eadcr's part. The book was composed, or at least published, in 98 A.D.^ The Gennania, published at about the same time, gives an ethnographic account of Germany, in which the Romans then had an especial interest because of Trajan's projected expedition thither. There is idealization of the Germanic peoples at the expense of the Romans, but also much ^ Cf. Pliny, Epist. ii. i. 6, quoted above, and ihid. il. xi. 17 : respondit Cornelius Tacitus eloquentissime et, quod eximium otationi eius inest, aeiivws. ^ Agricola., 3. 44. INTRODUCTION sober and valuable matter with regard to the Germanic tribes ; the booklet is the earliest signifi- cant account that we possess of these peoples, for the chapters dealing with Germany in the sixth book of Caesar's Gallic War are too slight to give us more than a glimpse of the Germanic peoples and their ways. However, as early as Tacitus was writing his Agricola, he was planning a larger historical work which should deal with his own era.^ But with the passage of time his plan was somewhat changed : he first composed the Histories, a. translation of which is here presented. This work began with January 1, 69 A.D., and was carried through to the death ot Domitian (96). Then he turned to an earlier time, and wrote a history of the period from the death of Augustus to the end of 68. He seems to have entitled tiiis work Ah excessii divi Augusti, but he refers to it also as Annnlcs, and this is the name by which it is generally known. Our slight evidence shows that Tacitus was working on his Histories between the years 104 and 109 ; the latest chrono- logical reference in the Annals is to 117. Apparently death prevented him from carrying out his cherished ))urpose of writing the historv of the happy reigns of Nerva and Trajan. The fourteen books of the Histories covered the period from January 1, 69, ^to the death of Domitian in 96, as stated above ; of these onlv Books I.—IV. are preserved complete, while Book V, breaks off" with chapter 26, at about August, 70 a.d. ^ Agric. 3: Non tamen pigebit vel incondita ac rudi voce raemoriam prioris servitutis ac testimonium praesentium bononim composuisse. INTRODUCTION The first book contains an account of the brief reign of Galba, of the adoption of Piso as his successor, and of the revolution that placed Otlio in the imperial power and cost Galba and Piso their lives (1-49). Then follow (50-90) the story of the uprising of the legions in Germany, where V'itellius was proclaimed emperor, the advance of these troops toward Italy, and Otho's preparations to oppose them. With the beginning of the second book (1—10) Tacitus directs our attention to the East, where Vespasian and his son Titus begin to jilay an important role. He then turns back to Italy and to the struggle between the opposing forces of Otho and Vitellius, which ends with Otho's defeat at the battle of liedriacum and his suicide (11-50). The rest of the book (51-101) contains an account of the reign of Vitellius, which is quickly threatened by the proclamation in Egy])t and Syria of Vesjiasian as em- peror. The general Mucianus, as chief of Vespasian's forces, advances toward the West. The legions of Moesia, Pannonia, and Dalmatia join Vespasian's cause. The news from the East finally causes Vitellius to despatch some forces to the north of Italy. "Phe third book gives an account of the struggle between the adherents of Vespasian and those of Vitellius. This finally conies to a close with the defeat of the latter, who meets a miserable end at the hands of a mob of soldiers and civilians. With the fourth book we find Vespasian supreme. On Jamiary 1, 70, the emperor and his son Titus entered on office as consuls, although both were still in the East. The greater part of the book, however (12-37; 54-79; 85-86), is taken up with INTRODUCTION an account of the threatening uprising of . the Batavians under Civilis ; this story is continued in the fifth book (14-26), although the opening chapters (1-13) claim a greater interest from the modern reader with their history of the expedition led by Titus against Jerusalem.