A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TACITUS. TACITUS. 971
the shameless man rebels against it. The hypo- the great lawyers of Rome were among the best
critical is the common character, or society could men and the best citizens that she produced. As
not exist. In the Annals of Tacitus we have all to the mass of the people we learn little from Tacharacters; but the hypocritical prevails in a de- citus: they have only become matter for history in
spotic government and a state of loose positive recent days. The superficial suppose, that when
morality. There may be great immorality and also rulers are vicious the people are so too; but the
great shamelessness, but then society is near its dis- mass of the people in all ages are the most virtuous,
solution. Under the empire there was fear, for if not for other reasons, they are so because labour
the government was despotic; but there was not is the condition of their existence. The Satires of
universal shamelessness, at least under Tiberius: Juvenal touch the wealthy and the great, whose
there was an outward respect paid to virtue. The vices are the result of idleness and the command
reign of Tiberius was the reign of hypocrisy in all of money.
its forms, and the emperor himself was the great Tacitus had not the belief in a moral governadept in the science; affectation in Tiberius of un- ment of the world which Aurelius had; or if he
willingness to exercise power, a lesson that he had this belief, he has not expressed it distinctly.
learned from Augustus, and a show of regard to He loved virtue, he abhorred vice; but he has not
decency; flattery and servility on the part of the shown that the constitution of things has an order
great, sometimes under the form of freedom of impressed upon it by the law of its existence, which
speech. To penetrate such a cloud of deception, implies a law-giver. His theology looks something
we must attend even to the most insignificant ex- like the Epicurean, as exhibited by Lucretius. A
ternal signs; for a man's nature will show itself, be belief in existence independent of a corporeal form,
lie ever so cautious and cunning. In detecting these of a life after death, is rather a hope with him than
slight indications of character lies the great power a conviction. (Compare Agricolh, c. 46, Annals,
of Tacitus: he penetrates to the hidden thoughts iii. ] 8, vi. 22, and the ambiguous or corrupt passage,
through the smallest avenue. But the possession Hist. i. 4.)
of such a power implies sonlething of a suspicious The style of Tacitus is peculiar, though it bears
temper, and also cherishes it; and thus Tacitus some resemblance to Sallust. In the Annals it is
sometimes discovers a hidden cause, where an open concise, vigorous, and pregnant with meaning; laone seems to offer a sufficient explanation. Tacitus boured, but elaborated with art, and stripped of
employed this power in the history of Tiberius, every superfluity. A single word sometimes gives
Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. Suetonitis tells us effect to a sentence, and if the meaning of the word
of a man's vices simply and barely; Tacitus dis- is missed, the sense of the writer is not reached.
covers what a man tries to conceal. His Annals He leaves something for the reader to fill up, and
are filled with dramatic scenes and striking cata- does not overpower him with words. The words
strophes. He laboured to produce effect by the that he does use are all intended to have a meanexhibition of great personages on the stage; but ing. Such a work is probably the result of many
this is not the business of an historian. The real transcriptions by the author; if it was produced at
matter of history is a whole people; and their ac- once in its present form, the author must have
tivity or suffering, mainly as affected by systems practised himself till he could write in no other
of government, is that which the historian has to way. Those who have studied Tacitus much, end
contemplate. This is not the method of Tacitus in with admiring a form of expression which at first
his Annals; his treatment is directly biographical, is harsh and almost repulsive. One might cononly indirectly political. His method is inferior to jecture that Tacitus, when he wrote his Annals,
that of Thucydides, and even of Polybius, but it is had by much labour acquired the art of writing
a method almost necessitated by the existence of with difficulty.
political power in the hands of an individual, and The materials which Tacitus had for his hismodern historians, except within the present cen- torical writings were abundant; public docutury, have generally followed in the same track ments; memoirs, as those of Agrippina; histories,
from the same cause. as those of Fabius Rusticus and Vipsanius MesTacitus knew nothing of Christianity, which, sala; the Fasti, Orationes Principuin, and the
says Montaigne, was his misfortune, not his fault. Acta of the Senate; the conversation of his friends,
His practical morality was the Stoical, the only and his own experience. It is not his practice to
one that could give consolation in the age in which give authorities textually, a method which adds to
he lived. The highest example of Stoical morality the value of a history, but impairs its effect simply
among the Romans is the emperor Aurelius, whose as a work of art. He who would erect an historical
golden book is the noblest monument that a Roman monument to his own fame will follow the method
has left behind him. Great and good men were of Tacitus, compress his own researches into a narnot wanting under the worst emperors, and Tacitus row compass, and give them a form which is
has immortalised their names. Germanicus Caesar, stamped with the individuality of the author.
a humane man, and his intrepid wife, lived under Time will confer on him the authority which the
Tiberius; Corbulo, an honest and able soldier, fell rigid critic only allows to real evidence. That
a victim to his fidelity to Nero. The memory of Tacitus, in his Annals, purposely omitted every
Agricola, and his virtues, greater than his talents, thing that could impair the effect of his work as a
has been perpetuated by the affection of his son-in- composition, is evident. The Annals are not longer
law; and his prediction that Agricola will survive than an epitome would be of a more diffuse history;
to future generations is accomplished. Thrasea but they differ altogether from those worthless
Paetus and Helvidius Priscus were models of virtue; literary labours. In the Annals Tacitus is generally
and Arria, the wife of Paetus, remembered the vir- brief and rapid in his sketches; but he is sometues of her mother. The jurists of Rome under the times minute, and almost tedious, when lie comes
empire never forgot the bright example of the to work out a dramatic scene. Nor does he altoScaevolae of the republic: strange, though true, gether neglect his rhetorical art when he has an