Book 1 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 3 [50] 50. Marcus Lepidus spoke against the sentence as follows: - "Senators, if we look to the single fact of the infamous utterance with which Lutorius has polluted his own mind and the ears of the public, neither dungeon nor halter nor tortures fit for a slave would be...
Book 4. Part 8 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 11 Translator's Note: The four following books and the beginning of Book XI, which are lost, contained the history of a period of nearly ten years, from A.D. 37 to A.D. 47. These years included the reign of Caius Caesar (Caligula), the son of Germanicus by the elder Agripp...
Book 1. Part 10 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 [30] 30. Besides Trio and Catus, Fonteius Agrippa and Caius Vibius were among his accusers, and claimed with eager rivalry the privilege of conducting the case for the prosecution, till Vibius, as they would not yield one to the other, and Libo had entered without counsel...
Book 1. Part 19 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 [20] 20. Meanwhile the companies which previous to the mutiny had been sent to Nauportus to make roads and bridges and for other purposes, when they heard of the tumult in the camp, tore up the standards, and having plundered the neighbouring villages and Nauportus itself...
Book 4. Part 1 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 12 [40] 40. The emperor on hearing of the death of his representative appointed Aulus Didius in his place, that the province might not be left without a governor. Didius, though he quickly arrived, found matters far from prosperous, for the legion under the command of Manlius...
Book 2. Part 22 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [60] 60. Then the bravest centurions among the Othonianists were put to death. This, more than anything else, alienated from Vitellius the armies of Illyricum. At the same time the other legions, influenced by the contagion of example, and by their dislike of the Germ...
Agricola. Book 1 : TACITUS: AGRICOLA BOOK 1 [40] 40. For Agricola was still the governor of Britain. Accordingly the Emperor ordered that the usual triumphal decorations, the honour of a laurelled statue, and all that is commonly given in place of the triumphal procession, with the addition of many laudatory...
Book 14. Part 6 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 1. I BEGIN my work with the time when Servius Galba was consul for the second time with Titus Vinius for his colleague. Of the former period, the 820 years dating from the founding of the city, many authors have treated; and while they had to record the transactions...
Germany. Book 1 : TACITUS: GERMANY BOOK 1 [40] 40. To the Langobardi, on the contrary, their scanty numbers are a distinction. Though surrounded by a host of most powerful tribes, they are safe, not by submitting, but by daring the perils of war. Next come the Reudigni, the Aviones, the Anglii, the Varini...
Next. Book 12 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 13 [30] 30. During the same consulship, Vipsanius Laenas was condemned for rapacity in his administration of the province of Sardinia. Cestius Proculus was acquitted of extortion, his accusers dropping the charge. Clodius Quirinalis, having, when in command of the crews...
Book 14. Part 12 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 15 [40] 40. At last, after five days, an end was put to the conflagration at the foot of the Esquiline hill, by the destruction of all buildings on a vast space, so that the violence of the fire was met by clear ground and an open sky. But before people had laid aside their...
Next. Book 16 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [70] 70. Caecina while halting for a few days in the Helvetian territory, till he could learn the decision of Vitellius, and at the same time making preparations for the passage of the Alps, received from Italy the good news, that Silius' Horse, which was quartered...
Book 2. Part 26 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [20] 20. Caecina, who seemed to have left his cruelty and profligacy on the other side of the Alps, advanced through Italy with his army under excellent discipline. The towns and colonies, however, found indications of a haughty spirit in the general's dress, when they saw...
Book 14. Part 16 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 15 1. MEANWHILE, the Parthian king, Vologeses, when he heard of Corbulo's achievements and of a foreign prince, Tigranes, having been set over Armenia, though he longed at the same time to avenge the majesty of the Arsacids, which had been insulted by the expulsion of his...
Annals. Book 14 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 14 1. In the year of the consulship of Caius Vipstanus and Caius Fonteius, Nero deferred no more a long meditated crime. Length of power had matured his daring, and his passion for Poppaea daily grew more ardent. As the woman had no hope of marriage for herself or of Octavia's...
Book 1. Part 14 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 [70] 70. Of the legions which he had conveyed by ship, Germanicus gave the second and fourteenth to Publius Vitellius, to be marched by land, so that the fleet might sail more easily over a sea full of shoals, or take the ground more lightly at the ebb-tide. Vitellius...
Book 4. Part 5 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 12 1. THE destruction of Messalina shook the imperial house; for a strife arose among the freedmen, who should choose a wife for Claudius, impatient as he was of a single life and submissive to the rule of wives. The ladies were fired with no less jealousy. Each insisted on her...
Book 14. Part 2 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [40] 40. Galba was hurried to and fro with every movement of the surging crowd; the halls and temples all around were thronged with spectators of this mournful sight. Not a voice was heard from the people or even from the rabble. Everywhere were terror-stricken countenances...
Book 4 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 12 [50] 50. For Vologeses, thinking that an opportunity presented itself of invading Armenia, which, though the possession of his ancestors, was now through a monstrous crime held by a foreign prince, raised an army and prepared to establish Tiridates on the throne, so that not...
Book 14. Part 3 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [30] 30. "I will lay no claim to nobleness, or moderation, for indeed, to count up virtues in comparing oneself with Otho is needless. The vices, of which alone he boasts, overthrew the Empire, even when he was but the Emperor's friend. Shall he earn that Empire now by his...
Book 14. Part 17 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 14 [60] 60. Nero, on receiving this decree of the Senate and seeing that every piece of his wickedness was regarded as a conspicuous merit, drove Octavia from him, alleging that she was barren, and then married Poppaea. The woman who had long been Nero's mistress and ruled him...
Next. Book 13 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 13 [40] 40. Meantime Tiridates, ashamed of seeming utterly powerless by not interfering with the siege, and afraid that, in attempting to stop it, he would entangle himself and his cavalry on difficult ground, resolved finally to display his forces and either give battle...
Book 14. Part 13 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 15 [30] 30. To military glory Corbulo added courtesy and hospitality. When the king continually asked the reason of whatever he noticed which was new to him, the announcements, for example, by a centurion of the beginnings of each watch, the dismissal of the guests by the sound...
Book 14. Part 7 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 16 [20] 20. When Nero was in doubt how the ingenious varieties of his nightly revels became notorious, Silia came into his mind, who, as a senator's wife, was a conspicuous person, and who had been his chosen associate in all his profligacy and was very intimate with Petronius...
Book 4. Part 9 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 6 [40] 40. Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius were the next consuls. The fact that that year Lucius Aruseius was put to death did not strike men as anything horrible, from their familiarity with evil deeds. But there was a panic when Vibulenus Agrippa, a Roman knight, as so...
Book 1. Part 18 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 [30] 30. Search was then made for all the chief mutineers. Some as they roamed outside the camp were cut down by the centurions or by soldiers of the praetorian cohorts. Some even the companies gave up in proof of their loyalty. The men's troubles were increased by an early...
Book 4. Part 3 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 12 [20] 20. Claudius, though merciful to foreign princes, was yet in doubt whether it were better to receive the captive with a promise of safety or to claim his surrender by the sword. To this last he was urged by resentment at his wrongs, and by thirst for vengeance...
Book 1. Part 12 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 [10] 10. Then began a controversy. The one spoke of the greatness of Rome, the resources of Caesar, the dreadful punishment in store for the vanquished, the ready mercy for him who surrenders, and the fact that neither Arminius's wife nor his son were treated as enemies;...
Book 2 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 5 [10] 10. Yet the endurance of the Jews lasted till Gessius Florus was procurator. In his time the war broke out. Cestius Gallus, legate of Syria, who attempted to crush it, had to fight several battles, generally with ill-success. Cestius dying, either in the course...
Annals. Book 12 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 12 [60] 60. That same year the emperor was often heard to say that the legal decisions of the commissioners of the imperial treasury ought to have the same force as if pronounced by himself. Lest it might be supposed that he had stumbled inadvertently into this opinion, its...
Book 14. Part 19 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 14 [40] 40. That same year two remarkable crimes were committed at Rome, one by a senator, the other by the daring of a slave. Domitius Balbus, an ex-praetor, from his prolonged old age, his childlessness and his wealth, was exposed to many a plot. His kinsman, Valerius...
Book 2. Part 20 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [80] 80. While they were seeking a suitable time and place, and for that which in such an affair is the great difficulty, the first man to speak, while hope, fear, the chances of success or of disaster, were present to their minds, one day, on Vespasian quitting his chamber...
Annals. Book 16 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 16 [30] 30. And meanwhile Ostorius Sabinus, the accuser of Soranus, entered, and began by speaking of his friendship with Rubellius Plautus and of his proconsulate in Asia which he had, he said, adapted to his own glory rather than to the public welfare, by fostering seditious...
Book 2. Part 24 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [40] 40. They started for a campaign rather than for a battle, making for the confluence of the Padus and Addua, a distance of sixteen miles from their position. Celsus and Paullinus remonstrated against exposing troops wearied with a march and encumbered with baggage to any...
Book 14. Part 9 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 16 1. FORTUNE soon afterwards made a dupe of Nero through his own credulity and the promises of Caesellius Bassus, a Carthaginian by birth and a man of a crazed imagination, who wrested a vision seen in the slumber of night into a confident expectation. He sailed to Rome...
Book 4. Part 7 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 11 [10] 10. He then visited the strongest governments, and was eager to recover Armenia, but was stopped by Vibius Marsus, governor of Syria, who threatened war. Meanwhile Gotarzes, who repented of having relinquished his throne, at the solicitation of the nobility, to whom...
Book 1. Part 16 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 [50] 50. There was exultation among the Germans, not far off, as long as we were detained by the public mourning for the loss of Augustus, and then by our dissensions. But the Roman general in a forced march, cut through the Caesian forest and the barrier which had been begun...
Book 14. Part 1 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [80] 80. Meanwhile, from a trifling cause, whence nothing was apprehended, there arose a tumult, which had nearly proved fatal to the capital. Otho had ordered the 7th cohort to be brought up to Rome from Ostia, and the charge of arming it was entrusted to Varius Crispinus...
Book 14. Part 15 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 15 [10] 10. Paetus, ignorant of the impending danger, was keeping the 5th legion at a distance in Pontus; the rest he had weakened by indiscriminate furloughs, till it was heard that Vologeses was approaching with a powerful force bent on war. He summoned the 12th legi...
Next. Book 15 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [60] 60. Of that province Trebellius Maximus was governor, a man whose sordid avarice made him an object of contempt and hatred to the army. His unpopularity was heightened by the efforts of Roscius Caelius, the legate of the 20th legion, who had long been on bad terms with...
Book 14. Part 11 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 15 [50] 50. So, while they dropped hints among themselves or among their friends about the emperor's crimes, the approaching end of empire, and the importance of choosing some one to rescue the State in its distress, they associated with them Tullius Senecio, Cervarius Proculus...
Next. Book 11 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 13 [20] 20. Night was far advanced and Nero was still sitting over his cups, when Paris entered, who was generally wont at such times to heighten the emperor's enjoyments, but who now wore a gloomy expression. He went through the whole evidence in order, and so frightened his...
Book 14. Part 5 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [10] 10. In the East there was as yet no movement. Syria and its four legions were under the command of Licinius Mucianus, a man whose good and bad fortune were equally famous. In his youth he had cultivated with many intrigues the friendship of the great. His resources so...
Next. Book 2 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 4 1. THE year when Caius Asinius and Caius Antistius were consuls was the ninth of Tiberius's reign, a period of tranquillity for the State and prosperity for his own house, for he counted Germanicus's death a happy incident. Suddenly fortune deranged everything; the emper...
Book 1. Part 32 : TACITUS: GERMANY BOOK 1 [10] 10. Augury and divination by lot no people practise more diligently. The use of the lots is simple. A little bough is lopped off a fruit-bearing tree, and cut into small pieces; these are distinguished by certain marks, and thrown carelessly and at random over a white...
Book 1. Part 28 : TACITUS: AGRICOLA BOOK 1 [10] 10. The geography and inhabitants of Britain, already described by many writers, I will speak of, not that my research and ability may be compared with theirs, but because the country was then for the first time thoroughly subdued. And so matters, which as being still...
Next. Book 6 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 13 [10] 10. The emperor in the same year asked the Senate for a statue to his father Domitius, and also that the consular decorations might be conferred on Asconius Labeo, who had been his guardian. Statues to himself of solid gold and silver he forbade, in opposition to offers...
Book 1. Part 6 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 [70] 70. Germanicus heard of all this with anger, no less than with fear. "If my doors," he said, "are to be besieged, if I must gasp out my last breath under my enemies' eyes, what will then be the lot of my most unhappy wife, of my infant children? Poisoning seems tedious;...
Book 2. Part 12 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 [50] 50. As winter was approaching, and the low country was flooded by the Padus, the army marched on without its heavy baggage. The standards and eagles of the victorious legions, the old and wounded soldiers, and even many effective men, were left at Verona. The auxiliary...
Book 2. Part 3 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 [60] 60. The ties of loyalty on the one hand, and the necessities of famine on the other, kept the besieged wavering between the alternatives of glory and infamy. While they thus hesitated, all usual and even unusual kinds of food failed them, for they had consumed their...
Book 1. Part 20 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 [10] 10. It was said, on the other hand, "that filial duty and State necessity were merely assumed as a mask. It was really from a lust of sovereignty that he had excited the veterans by bribery, had, when a young man and a subject, raised an army, tampered with the Consul's...
Book 4. Part 17 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 4 [50] 50. One of their chiefs, Dinis, an old man who well knew by long experience both the strength and clemency of Rome, maintained that they must lay down their arms, this being the only remedy for their wretched plight, and he was the first to give himself up with his wife...
History. Book 1 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [90] 90. On the 14th of March, after commending the State to the care of the Senate, he presented to those who had been recalled from exile what was left of the Neronian confiscations, or had not yet been paid into the Imperial treasury, a most equitable and apparently most...
Book 4. Part 13 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 6 1. CNEIUS Domitius and Camillus Scribonianus had entered on the consulship when the emperor, after crossing the channel which divides Capreae from Surrentum, sailed along Campania, in doubt whether he should enter Rome, or, possibly, simulating the intention of going thither...
Book 1. Part 24 : TACITUS: DIALOG ON ORATORY BOOK 1 [10] 10. Nor again do even reputation and fame, the only object of their devotion, the sole reward of their labours, by their own confession, cling to the poet as much as to the orator; for indifferent poets are known to none, and the good but to a few. When does...
History. Book 5 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 5 [20] 20. The war was so far from being at an end, that Civilis in one day attacked on four points the positions of the auxiliary infantry and cavalry and of the legions, assailing the tenth legion at Arenacum, the second at Batavodurum, and the camp of the auxiliary infantry...
Book 2. Part 16 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 [10] 10. On the subsequent arrival of two legions, the third commanded by Dillius Aponianus, the eighth by Numisius Lupus, it was resolved to make a demonstration of their strength, and to surround Verona with military lines. It so happened that Galba's legion had had their...
Book 2. Part 7 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 [20] 20. When the Batavians were near the camp at Bonna, they sent on before them delegates, commissioned to deliver to Herennius Gallus a message from the cohorts. It was to this effect: "We have no quarrel with the Romans, for whom we have so often fought. Wearied with...
Annals. Book 4 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 4 [30] 30. The Senate then gave their votes that Serenus should be punished according to ancient precedent, when the emperor, to soften the odium of the affair, interposed with his veto. Next, Gallus Asinius proposed that he should be confined in Gyaros or Donusa, but this he...
Book 1. Part 2 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 3 [30] 30. Two remarkable men died at the end of the year, Lucius Volusius and Sallustius Crispus. Volusius was of an old family, which had however never risen beyond the praetorship. He brought into it the consulship; he also held the office of censor for arranging the classes...
Book 1. Part 8 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 [50] 50. Meantime the law of treason was gaining strength. Appuleia Varilia, grand-niece of Augustus, was accused of treason by an informer for having ridiculed the Divine Augustus, Tiberius, and Tiberius's mother, in some insulting remarks, and for having been convicted...
Book 1. Part 30 : TACITUS: GERMANY BOOK 1 [30] 30. Beyond them are the Chatti, whose settlements begin at the Hercynian forest, where the country is not so open and marshy as in the other cantons into which Germany stretches. They are found where there are hills, and with them grow less frequent, for the Hercyni...
Book 2. Part 18 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [100] 100. Caecina, having embraced Vitellius and received tokens of high distinction, left him, and sent a detachment of cavalry to occupy Cremona. It was followed by the veteran troops of the 4th, 10th, and 16th legions, by the 5th and 22nd legions, and the rear w...
Book 14. Part 21 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 14 [20] 20. In Nero's fourth consulship with Cornelius Cossus for his colleague, a theatrical entertainment to be repeated every five years was established at Rome in imitation of the Greek festival. Like all novelties, it was variously canvassed. There were some who declared...
Next. Book 4 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 4 [20] 20. Yet there was a merciless confiscation of his property, though not to refund their money to the provincials, none of whom pressed any demand. But Augustus's bounty was wrested from him, and the claims of the imperial exchequer were computed in detail. This w...
Book 2. Part 9 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 1. WHEN Vitellius was dead, the war had indeed come to an end, but peace had yet to begin. Sword in hand, throughout the capital, the conquerors hunted down the conquered with merciless hatred. The streets were choked with carnage, the squares and temples reeked with blood...
Book 2. Part 1 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 5 1. EARLY in this year Titus Caesar, who had been selected by his father to complete the subjugation of Judaea, and who had gained distinction as a soldier while both were still subjects, began to rise in power and reputation, as armies and provinces emulated each other...
Book 2. Part 10 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 [70] 70. At dawn of day, before either side commenced hostilities, Sabinus sent Cornelius Martialis, a centurion of the first rank, to Vitellius, with instructions to complain of the infraction of the stipulated terms. "There has evidently," he said, "been a mere show...
Annals. Book 2 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 [80] 80. Piso, too, though his first attempts were unsuccessful, did not omit the safest precautions under present circumstances, but occupied a very strongly fortified position in Cilicia, named, Celenderis. He had raised to the strength of a legion the Cilician auxiliaries...
Book 1. Part 4 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 3 [10] 10. Next day, Fulcinius Trio asked the consul's leave to prosecute Piso. It was contended against him by Vitellius and Veranius and the others who had been the companions of Germanicus, that this was not Trio's proper part, and that they themselves meant to report their...
History. Book 3 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 [80] 80. By this success the zeal of the people was increased. The mob of the city armed itself. Some few had military shields, the greater part seized such arms as came to hand, and loudly demanded the signal of battle. Vitellius expressed his thanks to them, and bade them...
Book 4. Part 15 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 4 [70] 70. The emperor in his letter on the first of January, after offering the usual prayers for the new year, referred to Sabinus, whom he reproached with having corrupted some of his freedmen and having attempted his life, and he claimed vengeance in no obscure language. It...
Book 1. Part 22 : TACITUS: DIALOG ON ORATORY BOOK 1 [30] 30. I say nothing about the learners' first rudiments. Even with these little pains are taken, and on the reading of authors, on the study of antiquity and a knowledge of facts, of men and of periods, by no means enough labour is bestowed. It is rhetoricians...
Book 1. Part 26 : TACITUS: AGRICOLA BOOK 1 [30] 30. "Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence that this day, and this union of yours, will be the beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain. To all of us slavery is a thing unknown; there are no lands...
Book 4. Part 11 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 6 [20] 20. About this time Caius Caesar, who became his grandfather's companion on his retirement to Capreae, married Claudia, daughter of Marcus Silanus. He was a man who masked a savage temper under an artful guise of self-restraint, and neither his mother's doom n...
Annals. Book 6 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 6 [50] 50. Tiberius's bodily powers were now leaving him, but not his skill in dissembling. There was the same stern spirit; he had his words and looks under strict control, and occasionally would try to hide his weakness, evident as it was, by a forced politeness. After...
Book 2. Part 5 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 [40] 40. Domitian, on the day of his taking his seat in the Senate, made a brief and measured speech in reference to the absence of his father and brother, and to his own youth. He was graceful in his bearing, and, his real character being yet unknown, the frequent blush...
Book 2. Part 14 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 [30] 30. Difficulties of another kind presented themselves in the lofty walls of the town, its stone towers, its iron-barred gates, in the garrison who stood brandishing their weapons, in its numerous population devoted to the interests of Vitellius, and in the vast conflux...
Book 2. Part 19 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [90] 90. The next day, as if he were addressing the Senate and people of another State, he pronounced a high panegyric on himself, extolling his own energy and moderation, though his enormities were known to the very persons who were present and to the whole of Italy, his...
Book 14. Part 20 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 14 [30] 30. On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between the ranks dashed women, in black attire like the Furies, with hair dishevelled, waving brands. All around, the Druids, lifting up their hands to heaven, and pouring forth...
Next. Book 5 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 13 1. THE first death under the new emperor, that of Junius Silanus, proconsul of Asia, was, without Nero's knowledge, planned by the treachery of Agrippina. Not that Silanus had provoked destruction by any violence of temper, apathetic as he was, and so utterly despised under...
Book 2. Part 8 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 [10] 10. Musonius Rufus then made a violent attack on Publius Celer, accusing him of having brought about the destruction of Barea Soranus by perjury. By this impeachment all the hatreds of the days of the informers seemed to be revived; but the accused person was so...
Book 1. Part 31 : TACITUS: GERMANY BOOK 1 [20] 20. In every household the children, naked and filthy, grow up with those stout frames and limbs which we so much admire. Every mother suckles her own offspring, and never entrusts it to servants and nurses. The master is not distinguished from the slave by being...
Book 4. Part 18 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 4 [40] 40. Tiberius, in reply, after praising the loyal sentiments of Sejanus and briefly enumerating the favours he had bestowed on him, asked time for impartial consideration, adding that while other men's plans depended on their ideas of their own interest, princes, who had...
Next. Book 1 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 3 [60] 60. Tiberius meantime, while securing to himself the substance of imperial power, allowed the Senate some shadow of its old constitution by referring to its investigation certain demands of the provinces. In the Greek cities license and impunity in establishing...
Book 1. Part 9 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 [40] 40. It was rumoured meanwhile throughout Italy, and was believed at Rome, that Agrippa had been saved by the blessing of Heaven. Already at Ostia, where he had arrived, he was the centre of interest to a vast concourse as well as to secret gatherings in the capital...
Book 2. Part 4 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 [50] 50. But when the agitation of the people, the execution of the centurion, and other news, true or false, exaggerated as usual by report, came to the ears of Festus, he sent some cavalry to put Piso to death. They rode over at full speed, and broke into the dwelling...
Book 2. Part 15 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 [20] 20. Antonius then made his way into the companies. When his presence and personal authority had restored silence, he declared, "I would not snatch their glory or their reward from those who have deserved them so well. Yet there is a division of duties between the army...
Book 1. Part 1 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 3 [40] 40. That same year, some states of Gaul, under the pressure of heavy debts, attempted a revolt. Its most active instigators were Julius Florus among the Treveri and Julius Sacrovir among the Aedui. Both could show noble birth and signal services rendered by ancestors...
Book 1. Part 27 : TACITUS: AGRICOLA BOOK 1 [20] 20. Agricola, by the repression of these abuses in his very first year of office, restored to peace its good name, when, from either the indifference or the harshness of his predecessors, it had come to be as much dreaded as war. When, however, summer came, assembling...
Book 4. Part 10 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 6 [30] 30. Still the informers were punished when ever an opportunity occurred. Servilius and Cornelius, for example, whom the destruction of Scaurus had made notorious, were outlawed and transported to some islands for having taken money from Varius Ligur for dropping...
History. Book 2 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [10] 10. In a state that was distracted by strife, and that from frequent changes in its rulers trembled on the verge between liberty and licence, even little matters were attended with great excitement. Vibius Crispus, whose wealth, power, and ability, made him rank among...
Book 4. Part 14 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 5 1. IN the consulship of Rubellius and Fufius, both of whom had the surname Geminus, died in an advanced old age Julia Augusta. A Claudia by birth and by adoption a Livia and a Julia, she united the noblest blood of Rome. Her first marriage, by which she had children, was with...
Book 1. Part 23 : TACITUS: DIALOG ON ORATORY BOOK 1 [20] 20. Who will now tolerate an advocate who begins by speaking of the feebleness of his constitution, as is usual in the openings of Corvinus? Who will sit out the five books against Verres? Who will endure those huge volumes, on a legal plea or form, which we...
Annals. Book 3 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 3 [70] 70. Audience was next given to the people of Cyrene, and on the prosecution of Ancharius Priscus, Caesius Cordus was convicted of extortion. Lucius Ennius, a Roman knight, was accused of treason, for having converted a statue of the emperor to the common use of silver...
Book 1. Part 5 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 3 1. WITHOUT pausing in her winter voyage Agrippina arrived at the island of Corcyra, facing the shores of Calabria. There she spent a few days to compose her mind, for she was wild with grief and knew not how to endure. Meanwhile on hearing of her arrival, all her intimate...
Book 2. Part 11 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 [60] 60. The Flavianist generals on their arrival at Carsulae took a few days for repose, while the eagles and standards of the legions were coming up. Carsulae appeared a good position for an encampment, for it commanded an extensive prospect, provisions could be safely...
Book 14. Part 22 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 14 [10] 10. But the emperor, when the crime was at last accomplished, realised its portentous guilt. The rest of the night, now silent and stupified, now and still oftener starting up in terror, bereft of reason, he awaited the dawn as if it would bring with it his doom. He w...
Book 1. Part 29 : TACITUS: AGRICOLA BOOK 1 1. To bequeath to posterity a record of the deeds and characters of distinguished men is an ancient practice which even the present age, careless as it is of its own sons, has not abandoned whenever some great and conspicuous excellence has conquered and risen superi...
Book 1. Part 33 : TACITUS: GERMANY BOOK 1 1. Germany is separated from the Galli, the Rhti, and Pannonii, by the rivers Rhine and Danube; mountain ranges, or the fear which each feels for the other, divide it from the Sarmat and Daci. Elsewhere ocean girds it, embracing broad peninsulas and islands of unexplored...
Next. Book 3 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 4 [10] 10. In relating the death of Drusus I have followed the narrative of most of the best historians. But I would not pass over a rumour of the time, the strength of which is not even yet exhausted. Sejanus, it is said, having seduced Livia into crime, next secured, by...
Annals. Book 5 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 5 [10] 10. About the same time Asia and Achaia were alarmed by a prevalent but short-lived rumour that Drusus, the son of Germanicus, had been seen in the Cyclades and subsequently on the mainland. There was indeed a young man of much the same age, whom some of the emperor's...
Book 1. Part 3 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 3 [20] 20. That same year Tacfarinas who had been defeated, as I have related, by Camillus in the previous summer, renewed hostilities in Africa, first by mere desultory raids, so swift as to be unpunished; next, by destroying villages and carrying off plunder wholesale...
Book 2. Part 17 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 1. UNDER happier auspices and in a more loyal spirit the Flavianist leaders were discussing the plans of the campaign. They had assembled at Petovio, the winter-quarters of the 13th legion. There they debated, whether they should blockade the passes of the Pannonian Alps...
Book 2. Part 6 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 [30] 30. The Batavians had raised a tower two stories high, which they brought up to the Praetorian gate of the camp, where the ground was most level. But our men, pushing forward strong poles, and battering it with beams, broke it down, causing great destruction among...
Book 4. Part 12 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 6 [10] 10. Even women were not exempt from danger. Where they could not be accused of grasping at political power, their tears were made a crime. Vitia, an aged woman, mother of Fufius Geminus, was executed for bewailing the death of her son. Such were the proceedings...
Book 1. Part 25 : TACITUS: DIALOG ON ORATORY BOOK 1 1. You often ask me, Justus Fabius, how it is that while the genius and the fame of so many distinguished orators have shed a lustre on the past, our age is so forlorn and so destitute of the glory of eloquence that it scarce retains the very name of orator. Th...
History. Book 4 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 [80] 80. About the same time Mucianus ordered the son of Vitellius to be put to death, alleging that dissension would never cease, if he did not destroy all seeds of civil war. Nor would he suffer Antonius Primus to be taken into the number of Domitian's attendants, for he...
Book 1. Part 21 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 1. ROME at the beginning was ruled by kings. Freedom and the consulship were established by Lucius Brutus. Dictatorships were held for a temporary crisis. The power of the decemvirs did not last beyond two years, nor was the consular jurisdiction of the military tribunes...
Book 4. Part 16 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 4 [60] 60. Nero, while he listened to this and like talk, was not indeed inspired with any guilty ambition, but still occasionally there would break from him wilful and thoughtless expressions which spies about his person caught up and reported with exaggeration, and this he...
Book 2. Part 13 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 3 [40] 40. Meanwhile Fabius Valens, who was moving along with a vast and luxurious train of concubines and eunuchs too tardily for a general about to take the field, received speedy intelligence of the betrayal of the Ravenna fleet by Lucilius Bassus. Had he hastened the march...
Book 2. Part 2 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 4 [70] 70. Accordingly neither the Treveri, the Lingones, nor the other revolted States, took measures at all proportioned to the magnitude of the peril they had incurred. Even their generals did not act in concert. Civilis was traversing the pathless wilds of the Belgae...
Book 1. Part 7 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 [60] 60. Germanicus, however, who had not yet learnt how much he was blamed for his expedition, sailed up the Nile from the city of Canopus as his starting-point. Spartans founded the place because Canopus, pilot of one of their ships, had been buried there, when Menelaus...
Annals. Book 1 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 [80] 80. Poppaeus Sabinus was continued in his government of the province of Moesia with the addition of Achaia and Macedonia. It was part of Tiberius' character to prolong indefinitely military commands and to keep many men to the end of their life with the same armies...
Dialog On Oratory. Book 1 : TACITUS: DIALOG ON ORATORY BOOK 1 [40] 40. Again, what stimulus to genius and what fire to the orator was furnished by incessant popular assemblies, by the privilege of attacking the most influential men, and by the very glory of such feuds when most of the good speakers did not spare even...
Book 4. Part 6 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 11 [20] 20. Corbulo was actually preparing to encamp on hostile soil when the despatch reached him. Surprised, as he was, and many as were the thoughts which crowded on him, thoughts of peril from the emperor, of scorn from the barbarians, of ridicule from the allies, he said...
Book 1. Part 17 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 [40] 40. Amid the alarm all condemned Germanicus for not going to the Upper Army, where he might find obedience and help against the rebels. "Enough and more than enough blunders," they said, "had been made by granting discharges and money, indeed, by conciliatory measures...
Book 14. Part 8 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 16 [10] 10. With equal courage Lucius Vetus, his mother-in-law Sextia, and his daughter Pollutia submitted to death. They were hated by the emperor because they seemed a living reproach to him for the murder of Rubellius Plautus, son-in-law of Lucius Vetus. But the first...
Book 2. Part 25 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [30] 30. While they were fortifying a camp at Ticinum, the news of Caecina's defeat reached them, and the mutiny nearly broke out afresh from an impression that underhand dealing and delay on the part of Valens had kept them away from the battle. They refused all rest; they...
Annals. Book 13 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 13 [50] 50. That same year, repeated demands on the part of the people, who denounced the excessive greed of the revenue collectors, made Nero doubt whether he should not order the repeal of all indirect taxes, and so confer a most splendid boon on the human race. But this...
Book 14. Part 18 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 14 [50] 50. A similar accusation caused the downfall of Fabricius Veiento. He had composed many libels on senators and pontiffs in a work to which he gave the title of "Codicils." Talius Geminus, the prosecutor, further stated that he had habitually trafficked in the emperor's...
Book 2. Part 21 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [70] 70. Vitellius then directed his course to Cremona, and after witnessing the spectacle exhibited by Caecina, he conceived a desire to visit the plains of Bedriacum and to survey the scene of the recent victory. It was a hideous and terrible sight. Not forty days had...
Book 4. Part 2 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 12 [30] 30. But the Iazyges, who could not endure a siege, dispersed themselves throughout the surrounding country and rendered an engagement inevitable, as the Ligii and Hermunduri had there rushed to the attack. So Vannius came down out of his fortresses, and though he w...
Book 1. Part 13 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 1. IN the consulship of Sisenna Statilius Taurus and Lucius Libo there was a commotion in the kingdoms and Roman provinces of the East. It had its origin among the Parthians, who disdained as a foreigner a king whom they had sought and received from Rome, though he w...
Book 14. Part 4 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [20] 20. Next came the question of money. On a general inquiry it seemed the fairest course to demand restitution from those who had caused the public poverty. Nero had squandered in presents two thousand two hundred million sesterces. It was ordered that each recipient...
Book 14. Part 10 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 15 [60] 60. In quick succession Nero added the murder of Plautius Lateranus, consul-elect, so promptly that he did not allow him to embrace his children or to have the brief choice of his own death. He was dragged off to a place set apart for the execution of slaves...
Book 14. Part 14 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 15 [20] 20. Next came the prosecution of Claudius Timarchus of Crete, on such charges as often fall on very influential provincials, whom immense wealth has emboldened to the oppression of the weak. But one speech of his had gone to the extremity of a gross insult...
Next. Book 14 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 1 [50] 50. The alarm of the capital, which trembled to see the atrocity of these recent crimes, and to think of the old character of Otho, was heightened into terror by the fresh news about Vitellius, news which had been suppressed before the murder of Galba, in order to make...
Book 14 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 1. IN A distant part of the world fortune was now preparing the origin and rise of a new dynasty, whose varied destinies brought happiness or misery on the State, prosperity or destruction on the Princes of its line. Titus Vespasian had been sent from Judaea by his father...
Book 1. Part 15 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 1 [60] 60. This language roused not only the Cherusci but the neighbouring tribes and drew to their side Inguiomerus, the uncle of Arminius, who had long been respected by the Romans. This increased Caesar's alarm. That the war might not burst in all its fury on one point, he...
Book 4. Part 4 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 12 [10] 10. About the same time an embassy from the Parthians, which had been sent, as I have stated, to solicit the return of Meherdates, was introduced into the Senate, and delivered a message to the following effect:- "They were not," they said, "unaware of the treaty...
Annals. Book 15 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 15 [70] 70. Next he ordered the destruction of Marcus Annaeus Lucanus. As the blood flowed freely from him, and he felt a chill creeping through his feet and hands, and the life gradually ebbing from his extremities, though the heart was still warm and he retained his mental...
Book 2. Part 23 : TACITUS: HISTORY BOOK 2 [50] 50. Thus Otho ended his life in the 37th year of his age. He came from the municipal town of Ferentinum. His father was of consular, his grandfather of praetorian rank. His family on the mother's side was of less distinction, but yet respectable. What his boyhood...
Annals. Book 11 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 11 [30] 30. On this, Calpurnia (that was the woman's name), as soon as she was allowed a private interview, threw herself at the emperor's knees, crying out that Messalina was married to Silius. At the same time she asked Cleopatra, who was standing near and waiting...
Book 1. Part 11 : TACITUS: ANNALS BOOK 2 [20] 20. All this was known to Caesar. He was acquainted with their plans, their positions, with what met the eye, and what was hidden, and he prepared to turn the enemy's stratagems to their own destruction. To Seius Tubero, his chief officer, he assigned the cavalry...
