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Guide Picks - Top Nine Tacitus Books
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Cornelius Tacitus, senator and consul of Rome, may have been the greatest Roman historian. Since he thought the absolute power wielded by emperors corrupted them, his "Annales" show scorn for the early emperors (Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero). His "Germania" sheds light on the German tribes. His "Historiae" looks at the Empire from A.D. 69-96. He also wrote "Agricola" and a dialogue.
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1) The Complete Works of Tacitus
An all-in-one 773 page edition of the works of Tacitus, edited by Moses Hadas in 1964.
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2) Annals of Imperial Rome
This edition of Tacitus' "Annales" was translated by Michael Grant in 1976. In this work Tacitus claims he is better able to write about the Julio-Claudian emperors than those who wrote while the emperors lived because they had to flatter the emperors.
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3) Agricola and Germany
In "Agricola," Tacitus eulogizes his father-in-law and provides an important account of the Roman conquest of Britain. In "Germany," Tacitus describes tribal customs. Translated by Anthony Birley, this Oxford University Press edition was published in 1999.
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4) Tacitus: Agricola, Germany and Dialogues, Volume I
This Loeb edition provides the original Latin by Tacitus side-by-side with an early twentieth century English translation revised in 1988. Great for students who need to know exactly what the ancient historian said and for those wishing to brush up on their Latin.
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6) Tacitus: Histories 4-5, Annals 1-3, Volume 3
Tacitus continues his historical work on the Flavians and begins his annalistic account of the Julio-Claudian emperors.
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7) Tacitus: Annals 4-6 & 11-12, Volume 4
Tacitus continues his year-by-year account of Rome under the emperors.
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8) Tacitus: Annals 13-16, Volume 5
The last volume of the bi-lingual text of Tacitus' "Annals," which cover the years of the Julio-Claudian emperors.
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9) Tacitus
According to the "Bryn Mawr Review," Ronald Mellor wrote this book for the non-specialist reader "to convey why Tacitus's histories exercised a powerful fascination over centuries of dramatists, philosophers and even politicians."
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