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graeme fife tacitus
Gloomy, nay despondent, as I am to hear that we have to wait for the next edition of this peerless,irreplaceable gem of radio, I write to say Thankyou for this past series, rich and full of good things as ever. About Tacitus: I knew robert Graves very well - perhaps you heard my recent essays on Robert Graves and poetic myth on R3 - and he told me once, à propos of Claudius that, having read the Annales, he concluded that 'Tacitus got it all wrong'. This was typical hyperbole in him. However, in A Journal of Curiosities in his book But It Still Goes On, publ 1930, in a lengthy entry about Claudius he concludes: 'I record all this here tolay the ghost of an idea which might otherwise continue to plead for execution.'
Ian Buist. Tacitus
I was a bit disappointed by this programme. I felt it inappropriate for Melvyn to keep on about the sexual mores of the various Emperors, That would have been fine for a discussion of Suetonius (who characterised them all carefully); but there are other points.First, no mention was made of the hugely effective literary style of Tacitus. His epigrams (eg "capax imperii, nisi imperasset", or Livia's "novercali odio" really skewered each character and situation. His prose is tight and elegant. How much better than eg Livy!Second, the reason for Augustus' "will" advising no more conquests was the destruction of his three legions in Germany in AD9. Others had hastily to be raised, but with only 30 or so for the whole imperium he felt - as did Hadrian later - that there was a real risk of overextension.Third, why is Tacitus so "down" on Tiberius? My tutors at Oxford believed it was because Tiberius' succession put the lid on any possibility of a "restoration of the Republic", after which Tacitus hankered - though knowing that it could not cope with the task of ruling effectively (as shown in the century before Actium). Tiberius in fact tried to keep the deal that Augustus had cut intact (his watchword was "Tiberius and the Senate", against Augustus' "Rome and Augustus"). The division between Senatorial and Imperial Provinces (vital to leaving Senators with a career structure) was maintained. Augustus himself had tried to stay within the system, by having himself elected as one of the Consuls each year after Actium. But this cut by half the opportunities for Senators to get to the legal top. As a result he nearly came to grief in BC 23 when his fellow-Consul made trouble and had (literally) to be erased from history. After that Augustus invented the "tribunician power" and relied on that and the imperium over the Army (which made a "sacramentum" or personal oath to the Princeps - not to the State).It seems to me that Tacitus was preoccupied by the problem of how power was effectively to be exercised *and transferred*. Clearly he was against the system of Claudius, which relied on his freedmen, who held no real place in society. (Which was why young Nero's "restoration of the Republic" at the start of his reign went down so well). He had himself experienced the "year of the four Emperors" in AD 68/69 when he was just a boy. The search for biological successors (even if they were adopted into a nearer family relationship) had not proved a success either - witness Domitian. Only the wider use of adoption - tried by the Julio-Claudians, and even in AD68/9 - looked like working properly, as it came into its own with Nerva/Trajan and Trajan/Hadrian.As for Agricola, Tacitus was furious that he had not been allowed to complete two full three-year terms as Governor of Britain by Domitian; but the latter may well have felt, not so much envy as the same fear as Augustus. Why waste resources chasing the unprofitable Scots among the midges of Caledonia? This question, of course, returned time and again [and maybe the forthcoming British Museum exhibition on Hadrian will throw more light on it, since the latter's Wall was not the solution adopted by some later successors].I agree that the recovery of the lost volumes of the Annals would be the finest addition to the classical corpus. I think it would prove my point that Tacitus' real concern is the exercise and transfer of power, a contrast with the more popular "Lives" approach of Suetonius, Plutarch and the Scriptores Historiae Augustae - amusing and vivid though their anecdotes so often are.A postscript: the invention of speeches (including before Mons Graupius) was a recognised device, and it forms a most interesting link between the provinces of history and of drama.
G Doyle. Tacitus and series generally
As always, sitting in my car, parked up and late for work. Thanks for a wonderful series, rounded off nicely with today's offering. Of course, there could have been a bit more sex and violence, but I'll go back to Graves for that.Doyle
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