The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Five
P. CORNELII TACITI |
PUBLIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS |
LIBER I |
BOOK 1 |
| Nam post conditam urbem octingentos et viginti prioris aevi annos multi auctores rettulerunt, dum res populi Romani memorabantur pari eloquentia ac libertate: postquam bellatum apud Actium atque omnem potentiam ad unum conferri pacis interfuit, magna illa ingenia cessere; simul veritas pluribus modis infracta, primum inscitia rei publicae ut alienae, mox libidine adsentandi aut rursus odio adversus dominantis. Ita neutris cura posteritatis inter infensos vel obnoxios. Sed ambitionem scriptoris facile averseris, obtrectatio et livor pronis auribus accipiuntur; quippe adulationi foedum crimen servitutis, malignitati falsa species libertatis inest. | For many historians have recorded the 820 years of an earlier period, after Rome had been founded, calling to mind the events of the Roman Republic with both eloquence and freedom: after the battle near Actium and after it was decided in the interest of peace that all power be conferred on one man, those great intellects stopped writing; at the same time, truth was destroyed in many ways, first through the erroneous belief that affairs of state were irrelevant, later through a desire for flattery or, on the other hand, through hatred for masters. Thus on neither side, between hostile and obedient men, was there any concern for posterity. But even if you easily reject the bias of writers, disparaging and envious comments are received by willing ears; to be sure, in flattery there is the shameful accusation of servility, from malignity comes a false image of liberty. |
| II. Opus adgredior opimum casibus, atrox proeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace saevum. Quattuor principes ferro interempti: trina bella civilia, plura externa ac plerumque permixta: prosperae in Oriente, adversae in Occidente res: turbatum Illyricum, Galliae nutantes, perdomita Britannia et statim omissa: coortae in nos Sarmatarum ac Sueborum gentes, nobilitatus cladibus mutuis Dacus, mota prope etiam Parthorum arma falsi Neronis ludibrio. Iam vero Italia novis cladibus vel post longam saeculorum seriem repetitis adflicta. Haustae aut obrutae urbes, fecundissima Campaniae ora; et urbs incendiis vastata, consumptis antiquissimis delubris, ipso Capitolio civium manibus incenso. Pollutae caerimoniae, magna adulteria: plenum exiliis mare, infecti caedibus scopuli. Atrocius in urbe saevitum: nobilitas, opes, omissi gestique honores pro crimine et ob virtutes certissimum exitium. Nec minus praemia delatorum invisa quam scelera, cum alii sacerdotia et consulatus ut spolia adepti, procurationes alii et interiorem potentiam, agerent verterent cuncta odio et terrore. Corrupti in dominos servi, in patronos liberti; et quibus deerat inimicus per amicos oppressi. | 2. I begin a work full of disasters, terrible with battles, troubled with civil strife; even in peace there was violence. Four emperors were killed by the sword: there were three civil wars, even more foreign wars, and frequently they were a combination of both: affairs in the East were prosperous, in the West they were ill-favored: Illyricum was disordered, Gaul was wavering, Britain was thoroughly conquered and then immediately forgotten; the people of the Sarmation and Suebian tribes rose against us, Dacia became famous through defeats both given and received, even the army of the Parthians was almost stirred up by the hoax of a false Nero. Finally, Italy was afflicted by new disasters and, over a long succession of generations, by repeated disasters. Cities on the most fertile coasts of Campania were swallowed up and buried; Rome was destroyed by fires, the most ancient shrines were consumed, and the capitol itself burned by the hands of its citizens. Religious ceremonies were defiled, there was great adultery: the sea was filled with exiles, its cliffs polluted with the dead. More terrible was the savagery in the city; nobility, wealth, and public office (whether rejected or accepted) were treated as crimes, and in return for virtue there was most certain death. The rewards given to informers were no less hateful than the crimes themselves, when some men carried off priesthoods and consulships as spoils, while others obtained financial offices and secret influence; they drove or turned everything into hatred and terror. Servants were turned by bribery against masters, freedmen against patrons; and those who lacked enemies were oppressed by friends. |
| III. Non tamen adeo virtutum sterile saeculum ut non et bona exempla prodiderit. Comitatae profugos liberos matres, secutae maritos in exilia coniuges: propinqui audentes, constantes generi, contumax etiam adversus tormenta servorum fides; supremae clarorum virorum necessitates fortiter toleratae et laudatis antiquorum mortibus pares exitus. Praeter multiplicis rerum humanarum casus caelo terraque prodigia et fulminum monitus et futurorum praesagia, laeta tristia, ambigua manifesta; nec enim umquam atrocioribus populi Romani cladibus magisve iustis indiciis adprobatum est non esse curae deis securitatem nostram, esse ultionem. | 3. Nonetheless, this age was not so barren of virtue that it did not provide good examples as well. Mothers accompanied their banished children, wives followed their husbands into exile: relatives were courageous, sons-in-law were constant, even the faith of servants was unyielding in the face of torture; the final necessities of famous men were bravely endured and their deaths were equal to the praiseworthy deaths of their ancestors. In addition to many human calamities, there were portents in the sky and on the earth, and from thunderbolts came warnings and premonitions of future events, joyful and sad, ambigious and clear; for never before was it demonstrated by the terrible disasters of the Roman people or by more certain proofs that the gods cared not for our safety but for our punishment. |