The Germania & The Agricola

Cornelius Tacitus (c. 55-c. 117 AD) was a Roman aristocrat, senator and historian, who lived at a time when the Roman Empire was expanding at a prodigious rate. More than half of Tacitus' writings have been lost, but of those that remain, 'The Germania' and 'The Agricola' are perhaps the most interesting and certainly the most accessible. In the 'Germania' Tacitus gives his reader a meticulous report on the appearance, beliefs and customs of the German tribes. But the work is much more than an early ethnographic study, for Tacitus uses the perceived virility and fidelity of the barbarians to contrast their primitive virtues with the sophisticated decadence and corruption of Imperial Rome, which he believed had fallen away from the ancient rectitude of the Republic. 'The Agricola' is a compelling and personal account of Tacitus' father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Roman general responsible for the conquest of most of Britain. Agricola was made governor of 'Britannia' from 75 to 85 AD, and Tacitus' narrative gives the first detailed description of the British Isles and its inhabitants.