The Annals: The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero

585 Pages·2008·2.29 MB·English

by  Cornelius Tacitus, Anthony A. Barrett, J. C. Yardley

oxford world’s classics
THE ANNALS
Gaius (or Publius: the evidence is ambiguous) Cornelius Tacitus
is widely regarded as the greatest of all Roman historians. We know
relatively little about his life. He was born around ad 56, and is
known to have engaged in the standard political career of a young
Roman aristocrat, holding the offices of quaestor (in 81 or 82), prae-
tor (in 88), and consul (in 97), along with a variety of other admin-
istrative and military posts, including (by 88) membership of the
college of priests known as the quindecimviri sacris faciundis. He was
governor of Asia (a province of the empire consisting of part of
modern Turkey) 112–13. In a high-profile trial in 99–100 he and
his friend Pliny the Younger successfully prosecuted Marius Priscus
for corruption while governor of Africa. Tacitus probably lived
beyond 117; but his precise date of death is unknown. He was
betrothed in 77 to the daughter of Julius Agricola, later governor of
Britain, and married her shortly afterwards: her name, however, is
unknown.
Tacitus’ writings include the Agricola and the Germania, both
published in 98. The date of a third work, the Dialogue on Orators,
is disputed; some have thought it his first work, but it may well post-
date both the Agricola and the Germania. All three of these survive
complete. His major works were the Histories (published around
109) and the Annals (published some time after 117); only about a
third of the former and just over half of the latter survive.
J. C. Yardley has translated Livy’s The Dawn of the Roman
Empire (Books 31–40) and Hannibal’s War (Books 21–30) for
Oxford World’s Classics, Justin for the American Philological
Association’s Classical Resources series, and Curtius Rufus for
Penguin Classics. He is also the author of Justin and Pompeius Trogus
(2003) and (with Waldemar Heckel) Alexander the Great (2004).
Anthony A. Barrett was formerly Professor and Distinguished
University Scholar at the University of British Columbia. He is cur-
rently studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Sidney Sussex
College, Cambridge. His most recent books are Livia: First Lady of
Imperial Rome (2002) and (as editor and contributor) Lives of the
Caesars (2007).
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OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
TACITUS
The Annals
The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius,
and Nero
Translated by
J. C. YARDLEY
With an Introduction and Notes by
ANTHONY A. BARRETT
1
3
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Translation © J. C. Yardley 2008
Introduction, glossaries, select bibliography, explanatory notes © Anthony A. Barrett 2008
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ISBN 978-0-19-282421-9
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
CONTENTS
Abbreviations vii
Introduction ix
Note on the Text and Translation xxx
Select Bibliography xxxii
Chronology of Significant Events xxxiv
Map of the Roman Empire in the Julio-Claudian
Period xxxvi
THE ANNALS 1
book one 3
book two 50
book three 95
book four 136
book five (fragment) 179
book six 182
book eleven 215
book twelve 236
book thirteen 270
book fourteen 303
book fifteen 338
book sixteen 377
Appendix 1: List of Variations from the Teubner Text 394
Appendix 2: The Julio-Claudian Family Tree 395
Explanatory Notes 397
Glossary of Roman Terms 503
Glossary of Peoples and Places 510
Index 527
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ABBREVIATIONS
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
Josephus, AJ Josephus, Jewish Antiquities
Livy, Per. Livy, Periochae
Ovid, Ex P. Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto
Philo, Leg. Philo, Legatio ad Gaium
Pliny, NH Pliny the Elder, Natural History
Pliny, Ep. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae
Plutarch, Caes. Plutarch, Caesar
RG Res Gestae
Seneca, Contr. Seneca the Elder, Controversiae
Seneca, Apoc. Seneca the Younger, Apocolocyntosis
Ep. Epistulae
QN Quaestiones naturales
Suetonius, Aug. Suetonius, Augustus
Cal. Caligula
Claud. Claudius
Jul. The Deified Julius
Tib. Tiberius
Vesp. Vespasian
Vit. Vitellius
Tacitus, Agr. Tacitus, Agricola
Ann. Annals
Germ. Germania
Hist. Histories
Val. Max. Valerius Maximus
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INTRODUCTION
Tacitus’ Life
The life of ancient Rome’s greatest historian, Publius Cornelius
Tacitus, is known in broad outline, but many of the important details
are either missing or contentious. Even his name is uncertain. The
only surviving manuscript of the opening books of the Annals, the
Medicean, dating to the ninth century ad and carrying considerable
authority, calls him Publius, and that name has become more or less
established by tradition. But Sidonius Apollonaris, a bishop and poet
of considerable standing in the fifth century, creates an element of
doubt, giving him the praenomen Gaius. A letter about Tacitus writ-
ten by his good friend Pliny the Younger (Ep. 9.23) suggests very
strongly that the two men came from the same general area. Pliny
was a native of Como, in northern Italy. Tacitus may likewise have
originated from the Gallic area of northern Italy or perhaps from the
highly Romanized province of Gallia Narbonensis in what is now
southern France. His forebears would at some point have received
citizenship under the patronage of a now unknown Roman official
with the distinguished nomen of ‘Cornelius’ who would have con-
tinued to be honoured in the names of the descendants of the newly
enfranchised Italians (just as many ‘Gallic’ Italians bore Julius Caesar’s
nomen Julius). The final element of his name, the cognomen ‘Tacitus’,
is not a common one, and it is very possible that the historian is the
son of the Cornelius Tacitus, equestrian procurator (financial officer)
of Gallia Belgica, mentioned by his friend’s uncle, Pliny the Elder, in
his encyclopaedic work, the Historia Naturalis (NH 7.76). If this
identification is correct, it would make Tacitus a member of the
equestrian class, in the rank below that of senator, and his entry into
the Roman Senate would have marked him as a novus homo, a ‘new
man’, who obtained access to that body despite having no senators in
his family line.
A number of rules prescribed the age at which ambitious Romans
could enter the various magistracies open to them. Since we know
the dates when Tacitus assumed some of his offices (see below), we
can be reasonably confident that he was born not long after ad 55 and