Your favourite Tacitus quote.

[WotWotius]

I was dipping into the Tacitus' Histories the other day, and I came across a fine example of his pungently cynical comments (in this case, regarding the last words of Galba):

 

'extremam eius vocem, ut cuique odium aut admiratio fuit, varie prodidere. alii suppliciter interrogasse quid mali meruisset, paucos dies exolvendo donativo deprecatum: plures obtulise ultro percussoribus iugulum: agerent ac ferirent, si ita [e] re publica videretur. non interfuit occidentium quid diceret.'

 

'His last words have been variously reported according to men that hated or admired him. Some have said that he begged and asked what harm he had deserved, imploring for a few days' respite to pay the troops their largess. The majority said that he voluntarily offered his neck to the blow and blade them, 'Come, strike, if it serves the Empire's need'. Whatever he said mattered little to his assassins.' - Histories, Book 1, 41.

 

In your view, what is Tacitus' greatest moment?

Edited June 8, 2007 by WotWotius

[Nephele]

From a libertarian viewpoint, my favorite Tacitus quote is often paraphrased as:

 

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."

 

From Book 3 of The Annals:

 

"Mankind in the earliest age lived for a time without a single vicious impulse, without shame or guilt, and, consequently, without punishment and restraints. Rewards were not needed when everything right was pursued on its own merits; and as men desired nothing against morality, they were debarred from nothing by fear. When however they began to throw off equality, and ambition and violence usurped the place of self-control and modesty, despotisms grew up and became perpetual among many nations. Some from the beginning, or when tired of kings, preferred codes of laws. These were at first simple, while men

[Divi Filius]

"In stirring up tumult and strife the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue."

- TH.IV.i

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

I quite like this little gem.............. "There will be vice as long as there are men"

 

How very true!

[WotWotius]

'Thus encouraged, he made an attempt on the island of Mona, as a place from which the rebels drew reinforcements; but in doing this he left his rear open to attack.' -Tac, Agr, 14.

 

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Tu vero felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis.

Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendour of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death.

Tac, Agr, 45

[Carthago delenda est]

Not sure if I would say it's his 'greatest moment,' but I thought immediately of this quote when I saw your post: "...indeed, when a ruler once becomes unpopular, all his acts, be they good or bad, tell against him."*

 

I think history--all of political history, in any event--is replete with that timeless theme. And vice versa.

 

 

 

*Tacitus, Histories I.5-9

[M. Porcius Cato]

Tu vero felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis.

Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendour of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death.

Tac, Agr, 45

 

This is one of my favorites too. The immediately preceding context reminds me of Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot.

 

From Tacitus:

Agricola did not live to see the senate-house under siege, the senators surrounded by a cordon of troops, and that one fell stroke that sent so many consulars to their death, so many noble ladies into banishment or exile. Only a single victory was credited as yet to Carus Mettius; the four walls of the Alban fortress still kept Messalinus' bellow from reaching our ears; and Massa Baebius was still a prisoner in the dock. But before long we senators led Helvedius to prison, watched in shame the sufferings of Mauricus and Rusticus, and stained ourselves with Senecio's innocent blood. Even Nero used to avert his eyes and, though he ordered abominations, forebore to witness them. The worst of our torments under Domitian was to see him with his eyes fixed upon us. Every sigh was registered against us; and when we all turned pale, he did not scruple to make us marked men by a glance of his savage countenance -- that blood-red countenance which saved him from ever being seen to blush with shame. Happy indeed were you, Agricola, not only in your glorious life, but in your timely death.

 

When you hear of the legacy of Augustus, remember this.

[Ti. Coruncanius]

In Agricola we read the impassioned speech of Galgacus who says:

Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace.

The entire speech is moving, also, (for me) one of the easier to read sections of Tacitus.

[ASCLEPIADES]

I was dipping into the Tacitus' Histories the other day, and I came across a fine example of his pungently cynical comments (in this case, regarding the last words of Galba):

 

'extremam eius vocem, ut cuique odium aut admiratio fuit, varie prodidere. alii suppliciter interrogasse quid mali meruisset, paucos dies exolvendo donativo deprecatum: plures obtulise ultro percussoribus iugulum: agerent ac ferirent, si ita [e] re publica videretur. non interfuit occidentium quid diceret.'

 

'His last words have been variously reported according to men that hated or admired him. Some have said that he begged and asked what harm he had deserved, imploring for a few days' respite to pay the troops their largess. The majority said that he voluntarily offered his neck to the blow and blade them, 'Come, strike, if it serves the Empire's need'. Whatever he said mattered little to his assassins.' - Histories, Book 1, 41.

 

In your view, what is Tacitus' greatest moment?

For me, Tacitus the historian is at his best quoting another historian, the emperor Claudius I:

omnia, patres conscripti, quae nunc vetustissima creduntur, nova fuere... inveterascet hoc quoque, et quod hodie exemplis tuemur, inter exempla erit.'

Everything, Senators, which we now hold to be of the highest antiquity, was once new... This practice too will establish itself, and what we are this day justifying by precedents, will be itself a precedent."

ANNALS: 11, 24

Here, Claudius is justifying the inclusion of gauls in the senate (48 A.D.).

[Gaius Omarius]

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise. At least I think that was Tacitus