Roman History Books and More

bryn mawr classical review of a german book on tacitus

I'm currently reading Tacitus by Stephan Schmal (Studienbücher Antike, Band 14) and find it very helpful.  So I googled Schmal and did find this Bryn Mawr Classical Review of the book.  (There is also a review on Schmal's Sallust in the same series.)  There is a rider in the review of the absence of certain epigraphic sources.

On a general note, I find the closing sentences of the review interesting:

… as Schmal points out, the difficulty of Tacitus is what makes him so good.  Tacitean complexity is becoming more and more understandable in a world where nothing is as it seems, where wars are fought on television, and where nations and their citizens are constantly forced to question their identity.

tacitus' dialogus de oratoribus

While reading up on Tacitus, I frequently come across mention of the Dialogus (dialogus de oratoribus), in chronological order most commonly assumed – although there have been and still are discussions raging about the dating – to fall between "Germania" and "The Histories," our current read.  I'm sure readers of the Introduction in the various versions of "The Histories" will have noticed this also.  Here are two translations of the Dialogus online for those interested:

• Church & Brodribb (1876) (Project Gutenberg). Also at corpus scriptorum latinorum.
• Murphy (1811) (Wikisource)

on 'credentials' and the 'credulity of men'

Yesterday, I posed the question on Facebook: 'Do you tend to look for the "About Us" page when visiting a website?' (This in connection with web design.) All respondents did, and there was concern about quality and credentials of a website.

So here comes David Powell with a note by Bill Thayer about credentials, which leads into Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Vulgar Errors, Chapter V, Of Credulity and Supinity, at the same site.

Enjoy the read!  (image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

another translation of tacitus' histories online: w. hamilton fyfe 1912

Another easy to read online translation of Tacitus' The Histories, by W. Hamilton Fyfe, 1912, at Project Gutenberg.

Hat tip to Robert. He tells us that his print edition, The Histories (Oxford World Classics), represents an updated version of the Fyfe translation.

The more I get into The Histories, the more fascinated I am by the vivid description and assessment of the civil war in the year of the four emperors.

support americares haiti relief

I'm proud of our local organization!

Update:  first airlift has reached Haiti, delivering more than $6 million of antibiotics, IV solutions, hospital supplies and other essential aid. Our emergency response team on the ground is working with our partners already distributing this aid as quickly as possible.

tacitus' histories online

There are several online versions of Tacitus' Histories texts online:

Church & Brodribb

Internet Sacred Text Archive (English & Latin texts side-by-side)
Internet Classics Archive
Ancient History, Archaeology and Biblical Studies
eBooks@Adelaide

C.H. Moore

LacusCurtius (Loeb's Classical)

good historical fiction creates a 'hallucination of experience'

Children's books author Vicky Alvear Shecter added some further thoughts to our discussion of Eagle of the Ninth:

You asked me to share my thoughts on EAGLE OF THE NINTH from last week's book club.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book for many reasons, including the presence of a likeable, imperfect but brave main character; as well as rich descriptions, and excellent suspense. I read somewhere that good historical fiction creates a "hallucination of experience," which I thought perfectly described Sutcliff's mastery.  I really felt like I was marching with the legions or hiding from enemies near mist-covered bogs. As a result, I didn't really get tripped up by the occasional credulity-stretching coincidence and the too-tidy, happy ending.  By the way, I think the master of creating "hallucinatory experiences" of the ancient world is Steven Saylor. When will we discuss one of his works?

We did, some years back, and should do so again, Steven Saylor is a favorite of most of our book chat members. And he could join us for the chat ... we are fully booked this year, but there is always the next year.

Comments on "hallucination of experience"  historical fiction are welcome.

haiti earthquake relief effort: how to contribute

Not since the Tsunami has there been a catastrophe of this magnitude, I think. PBS posted this list of organizations collecting donations:

Haiti Relief Effort: How to Contribute

calleva atrebatum – eagle of the ninth

Our friend Robert happened to be in England when we discussed Eagle of the Ninth and took the occasion to visit Calleva Atrebatum:

The Roman History Reading Group's first read for 2010 is Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, part of which is set in Calleva Atrebatum. As it's quite near where my parents live, I set out one cold and frosty morning to have a look at what remains of Calleva Atrebatum today. The remains are near the village of Silchester, not far from Reading.
read on

 
more images on his blog

I would have liked to show the photo of the actual eagle from the museum here, alas, I did not get permission. So here is a  file with and about the eagle which inspired Rosemary Sutcliff to write the novel.

ancient biographies relating to the year of the four emperors

Rhiannon Ash, in her introduction to Tacitus' Histories at Penguin Classics (2009), discusses "The Parallel Tradition" and writes that we are "extremely fortunate that the extant portion of Tacitus' Histories coincides with other surviving accounts of the same events and characters."  These are biographies by Plutarch and Suetonius, contemporaries of Tacitus.  Plutarch predates the Histories, but Suetonius "may well have executed his project at the same time as Tacitus was gathering material for his narrative, even if he had a very different agenda."  As Ash points out, biographies deal with their subjects differently than historiography does, so the following nicely complements Tacitus' writings:

Plutarch:

• Life of Galba
• Life of Otho

Suetonius:

• The Life of Galba
• The Life of Otho
• The Life of Vitellius
• The Life of Vespasian
• The Life of Titus
• The Life of Domitian

Thanks as always to Bill Thayer!

the history of make-believe: tacitus on imperial rome by holly haynes – online

Robert commented earlier, alerting us to this title, and since the comment might easily get overlooked, here it is again:  The History of Make-Believe: Tacitus on Imperial Rome by Holly Haynes, University of California Press, an online edition from Questia (subscription required).

In Print:
The History of Make-Believe: Tacitus on Imperial Rome.
Introduction can be read in LOOK INSIDE.

tacitus' histories on jstor

For those readers with access to JSTOR: I performed a limited search on Tacitus and The Histories, limiting the search parameter to "Article":

1. Tacitus (full-text) AND histories (title) generates 47 entries.

2. Articles by Ronald Syme, the foremost authority on Tacitus:

• HOW TACITUS CAME TO HISTORY
• TACITUS: SOME SOURCES OF HIS INFORMATION
• THE CONSULS OF A.D. 97: ADDENDUM
• THE FRIEND OF TACITUS

3. There is also: "Tacitus' Dangerous World" by Holly Haynes (2004)

Note: I'd love to lay my hands on Ronald Syme's "Tacitus" ( 2 volumes), but the prices for these out of print books are pretty steep. This is the only major work of his that I do not own. :(

background readings related to tacitus' histories

There are several imperial biographies out and a book about the "Year of the Four Emperors."

• The Year of the Four Emperors by Kenneth Wellesley
• Vespasian by Barbara Levick
• Domitian: Tragic Tyrant by Pat Southern

I also discovered, via Google Books, Ordering anarchy: armies and leaders in Tacitus' Histories by Rhiannon Ash.The Google Book edition has a useful but also truncated introduction. The author also wrote the introduction to the Penguin Classics Histories edition used in this blog.

            

Update 1: A Bryn Mawr review of Ordering Anarchy.

introduction to tacitus' histories

As promised yesterday, I've been looking for online introductions to Tacitus' "Histories," for those chat members who are depending on the online text of the Histories only.

Unfortunately, I have not had much success. The only modern introduction I can find is in the Google Book of the Oxford World Classics edition, D. S. Levene (Editor), W. H. Fyfe (Translator), and this introduction online is somewhat truncated.

A 1912 edition by Hamilton Fyfe, Oxford Press is available at the Internet Archive. An HTML version which maybe more readable.

Postscript later today: There is another modern (slightly truncated again) introduction on Google Books, see my post above.

bbc podcast on tacitus

(Hat tip to Robert)

The BBC Radio 4 program In our Time has a 2008 podcast Tacitus.

Warning: 43 minutes long!

our next read: the histories by tacitus breakdown into three chats

This is a brief notice of how we are going to break down the three chats on The Histories by Tacitus.

I do think it would be useful if participants familiarize themselves with the subject of ancient historiography and with Tacitus as such, thus we should not ignore the introduction to whatever edition each of us uses. For those who'll stick with the online edition, I'll find something on the internet and will post it a.s.a.p.

So here goes:

January 20: Introduction, Books 1 & 2

February 3: through Book 3

February 17: through Books 4 & 5 (Book 5 breaks off soon, unfortunately)

happy new year!

A Happy New Year to all readers, friends and fellow bloggers!