Chapter 13

The history of Agricola during this period is of course the history of Britain. Accordingly the author prefaces it with an outline of the geographical features, the situation, soil, climate, productions and, so far as known to the Romans, the past history of the island. Tacitus possessed peculiar advantages for being the historian of the early Britons. His father-in-law was the first to subject the whole island to the sway of Rome. He traversed the country from south to north at the head of his armies, explored it with his own eyes, and reported what he saw to our author with his own lips. He saw the Britons too, in their native nobleness, in their primitive love of liberty and virtue; before they had become the slaves of Roman arms, the dupes of Roman arts, or the victims of Roman vices. A few paragraphs in the concise and nervous style of Tacitus, have made us quite acquainted with the Britons, as Agricola found them; and on the whole, we have no reason to be ashamed of the primaeval inhabitants of the land of our ancestry. They knew their rights, they prized them, they fought for them bravely and died for them nobly. More harmony among themselves might have delayed, but could not have prevented the final catastrophe. Rome in the age of Trajan was irresistible; and Britain became a Roman province. This portion of the Agricola of Tacitus, and the Germania of the same author, entitle him to the peculiar affection and lasting gratitude of those, whose veins flow with Briton and Anglo-Saxon blood, as the historian, and the contemporary historian too, of their early fathers. It is a notable providence for us, nay it is a kind providence for mankind, that has thus preserved from the pen of the most sagacious and reflecting of all historians an account, too brief though it be, of the origin and antiquities of the people that of all others now exert the widest dominion whether in the political or the moral world, and that have made those countries which were in his day shrouded in darkness, the radiant points for the moral and spiritual illumination of our race. "The child is father to the man," and if we would at this day investigate the elements of English law, we have it on the authority of Sir William Blackstone, that we must trace them back to their founders in the customs of the Britons and Germans, as recorded by Caesar and Tacitus.

With the retirement of Agricola from the command in Britain, the author falls back more into the province of biography. The few occasional strokes, however, in which the pencil of Tacitus has sketched the character of Domitian in the background of the picture of Agricola are the more to be prized, because his history of that reign is lost.

In narrating the closing scenes of Agricola's life, Tacitus breathes the very spirit of an affectionate son, without sacrificing the impartiality and gravity of the historian, and combines all a mourner's simplicity and sincerity with all the orator's dignity and eloquence.

How tenderly he dwells on the wisdom and goodness of his departed father; how artlessly he intersperses his own sympathies and regrets, even as if he were breathing out his sorrows amid a circle of sympathizing friends! At the same time, how instructive are his reflections, how noble his sentiments, and how weighty his words, as if he were pronouncing an eulogium in the hearing of the world and of posterity! The sad experience of the writer in the very troubles through which he follows Agricola, conspires with the affectionate remembrance of his own loss in the death of such a father, to give a tinge of melancholy to the whole biography; and we should not know where to look for the composition, in which so perfect a work of art is animated by so warm a heart. In both these respects, it is decidedly superior to the Germania. It is marked by the same depth of thought and conciseness in diction, but it is a higher effort of the writer, while, at the same time, it gives us more insight into the character of the man. It has less of satire and more of sentiment. Or if it is not richer in refined sentiments and beautiful reflections, they are interwoven with the narrative in a manner more easy and natural. The sentiments seem to be only the language of Agricola's virtuous heart, and the reflections, we feel, could not fail to occur to such a mind in the contemplation of such a character. There is also more ease and flow in the language; for concise as it still is and studied as it may appear, it seems to be the very style which is best suited to the subject and most natural to the author. In another writer we might call it labored and ambitious. But we cannot feel that it cost Tacitus very much effort. Still less can we charge him with an attempt at display. In short, an air of confidence in the dignity of the subject, and in the powers of the author, pervades the entire structure of this fine specimen of biography. And the reader will not deem that confidence ill-grounded. He cannot fail to regard this, as among the noblest, if not the very noblest monument ever reared to the memory of any individual.

"We find in it the flower of all the beauties, which T. has scattered through his other works. It is a chef-d'oeuvre, which satisfies at once the judgment and the fancy, the imagination and the heart. It is justly proposed as a model of historical eulogy. The praises bestowed have in them nothing vague or far-fetched, they rise from the simple facts of the narrative. Every thing produces attachment, every thing conveys instruction. The reader loves Agricola, admires him, conceives a passion for him, accompanies him in his campaigns, shares in his disgrace and profits by his example. The interest goes on growing to the last. And when it seems incapable of further increase, passages pathetic and sublime transport the soul out of itself, and leave it the power of feeling only to detest the tyrant, and to melt into tenderness without weakness over the destiny of the hero." (La Bletterie.)

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I. _Usitatum_. A participle in the acc. agreeing with the preceding clause, and forming with that clause the object of the verb omisit.-- _Nequidem_. Cf. G. 6, note.

_Incuriosa suorum_. So Ann. 2, 88: dum vetera extollimus, recentium incuriosi. _Incuriosus_ is post-Augustan.

_Virtus vicit--vitium_. Alliteration, which is not unfrequent in T. as also homoeoteleuta, words ending with like sounds. Dr.

_Ignorantiam--invidiam_. The gen. _recti_ limits both subs., which properly denote different faults, but since they are usually associated, they are here spoken of as one (_vitium_).

_In aperto_. Literally, _in the open_ field or way; hence, _free from obstructions_. Sal. (Jug. 5) uses it for _in open_ day, or clear light. But that sense would be inappropriate here. _Easy_. Not essentially different from _pronum_, which properly means _inclined_, and hence _easy_. These two words are brought together in like manner in other passages of our author, cf. 33: vota virtusque _in aperto_, omniaque _prona_ victoribus. An inelegant imitation may be thus expressed in English: down-hill and open-ground work.

_Sine gratia aut ambitione. Without courting favor or seeking preferment. Gratia_ properly refers more to the present, _ambitio_ to the future. Cf. Ann. 6, 46: Tiberio non perinde gratia praesentium, quam in posteros ambitio. _Ambitio_ is here used in a bad sense (as it is sometimes in Cic.) For still another bad sense of the word, cf. G. 27.

_Celeberrimus quisque_. Such men as Pliny the elder, Claudius Pollio, and Julius Secundus, wrote biographies. Also Rusticus and Senecio. See chap. 2.

_Plerique_. Not most persons, but _many_, or _very many_. Cf. His. 1, 86, and 4, 84, where it denotes a less number than _plures_ and _plurimi_, to which it is allied in its root (ple, ple-us, plus, plerus. See Freund ad v.)

_Suam ipsi vitam. Autobiography_. Cic. in his Epist. to Lucceius says: If I cannot obtain this favor from you, I shall perhaps be compelled to write my own biography, _multorum exemplo et clarorum virorum_. When _ipse_ is joined to a possessive pronoun in a reflexive clause, it takes the case of the subject of the clause. Cf. Z. 696, Note; H. 452, 1.

_Fiduciam morum_. _A mark of conscious integrity_; literally confidence of, i.e. in their morals. _Morum_ is objective gen. For the two accusatives (one of which however is the clause _suam--narrare_) after _arbitrati sunt_, see Z. 394; H. 373. A gen. may take the place of the latter acc., _esse_ being understood, Z. 448.

_Rutilio_. Rutilius Rufus, consul A.U.C. 649, whom Cic. (Brut. 30, 114.) names as a profound scholar in Greek literature and philosophy, and Velleius (2, 13, 2.) calls the best man, not merely of his own, but of any age. He wrote a Roman history in Greek. Plut. Mar. 28. His autobiography is mentioned only by Tacitus.

_Scauro_. M. Aemilius Scaurus, consul A.U.C. 639, who wrote an autobiography, which Cic. (Brut. 29, 112.) compares favorably with the Cyropaedia of Xenophon.

_Citra fidem_. Cf. note G. 16.--_Aut obtrectationi_. Enallage, cf. note, G. 15. Render: _This in the case of Rutilius and Scaurus did not impair_ (public) _confidence or incur_ (public) _censure_.

_Adeo_. _To such a degree_, or _so true it is_. _Adeo_ conclusiva, et in initio sententiae collocata, ad _mediam_ latinitatem pertinet. Dr. Livy uses _adeo_ in this way often; Cic. uses _tantum_.

_At nunc_, etc. _But now_ (in our age so different from those better days) _in undertaking to write_ (i.e. if I had undertaken to write) _the life of a man at the time of his death, I should have needed permission; which I would not have asked_, since in that case _I should have fallen on times so cruel and hostile to virtue_. The reference is particularly to the time of Domitian, whose jealousy perhaps occasioned the death of Agricola, and would have been offended by the very asking of permission to write his biography. Accordingly the historian proceeds in the next chapter to illustrate the treatment, which the biographers of eminent men met with from that cruel tyrant. _Opus fuit_ stands instead of _opus fuisset_. Cf. His. 1, 16: _dignus eram_; 3, 22: _ratio fuit_; and Z. 518, 519. The concise mode of using the future participles _narraturo_ and _incursaturus_ (in place of the verb in the proper mood and with the proper conjunctions, if, when, since) belongs to the silver age, and is foreign to the language of Cicero. Such is the interpretation, which after a thorough reinvestigation, I am now inclined to apply to this much disputed passage. It is that of Ritter. It will be seen that the text also differs slightly from that of the first edition (_in-cursaturus_ instead of _ni cursaturus_). Besides the authority of Rit., Död., Freund and others, I have been influenced by a regard to the usage of Tacitus, which lends no sanction to a transitive sense of _cursare_. Cf. Ann. 15, 50; His. 5, 20. In many editions, _mihi_ stands before _nunc narraturo_. But _nunc_ is the emphatic word, and should stand first, as it does in the best MSS.

II. _Legimus_. Quis? Tacitus ejusdemque aetatis homines alii. Ubi? In actis diurnis. Wr. These _journals_ (Fiske's Man. p. 626., 4. ed.) published such events (cf. Dio. 67, 11), and were read through the empire (Ann. 16, 22). T. was absent from Rome when the events here referred to took place (cf. 45: longae absentiae). Hence the propriety of his saying _legimus_, rather than _vidimus_ or _meminimus_, which have been proposed as corrections.

_Aruleno Rustico_. Put to death by Domitian for writing a memoir or penegyric on Paetus Thrasea, cf. Suet. Dom. 10.

_Paetus Thrasea_. Cf. Ann. 16, 21: Trucidatis tot insignibus viris, ad postremum Nero _virtutem ipsam_ exscindere concupivit, interfecto Thrasea Paeto.

_Herennio Senecioni_. Cf. Plin. (Epist. 7, 19), where Senecio is said to have written the life of Helvidius at the request of Fannia, wife of Helvidius, who was also banished, as accessory to the crime, but who bore into exile the very books which had been the cause of her exile. For the dat. cf. note, G. 3: _Ulixi_.

_Priscus Helvidius_, son-in-law of Thrasea and friend of the younger Pliny, was put to death by Vespasian. Suet. Vesp. 15; His. 4, 5; Juv. Sat. 5, 36.

_Laudati essent_. The imp. and plup. subj. are used in narration after _cum_, even when it denotes time merely. Here however a causal connection is also intended. H. 518, II.; Z. 577, 578.

_Triumviris_. The Triumviri at Rome, like the Undecimviri (_oi endeka_) at Athens, had charge of the prisons and executions, for which purpose they had eight lictors at their command.

_Comitio ac foro_. The comitium was a _part_ of the forum. Yet the words are often used together (cf. Suet. Caes. 10). The _comitium_ was the proper place for the punishment of criminals, and the word _forum_ suggests the further idea of the publicity of the book-burning in the presence of the assembled people.

_Conscientiam_, etc. _The consciousness_, i.e. _common knowledge of mankind_; for _conscientia_ denotes what one knows in common with others, as well as what he is conscious of in himself. Cf. His. 1, 25: _conscientiam facinoris_; Cic. Cat. 1. 1: _omnium horum conscientia_. In his Annals (4, 35), T. ridicules the stupidity of those who expect by any _present_ power, to extinguish the memory also of the _next_ generation. The sentiment of both passages is just and fine.

_Sapientiae professoribus. Philosophers_, who were banished by Domitian, A.D. 94, on the occasion of Rusticus's panegyric on Thrasea. T. not unfrequently introduces an _additional circumstance_ by the abl. abs., as here.

_Ne occurreret. Ne_ with the subj. expresses a negative intention; _ut non_ a negative result. H. 490; Z. 532.

_Inquisitiones. A system of espionage_, sc. by the Emperor's tools and informers.--_Et_==etiam, _even_. Cf. note, 11. Al. _etiam_.

_Memoriam--perdidissemus_, i.e. we should not have _dared_ to remember, if we could have helped it.

III. _Et quanquam. Et_ pro _sed_. So Dr. But _nunc demum animus redit_ implies, that confidence is hardly restored yet; and the reason for so slow a recovery is given in the following clause. Hence _et_ is used in its proper copulative or explicative sense. So Wr. _Demum_ is a lengthened form of the demonstrative _dem_. Cf. i-_dem_, tan-_dem_, _dae_. _Nunc demum_==_nun dae_. Freund.

_Primo statim. Statim_ gives emphasis: _at the very commencement_, etc.; cf. note, 20.--_Dissociabiles, incompatible_.

_Augeatque--Trajanus_. This marks the date of the composition early in the reign of Trajan, cf. G. 37; also p. 139 supra.

_Securitas publica. "And public security has assumed not only hopes and wishes, but has seen those wishes arise to confidence and, stability. Securitas publica_ was a current expression and wish, and was frequently inscribed on medals." Ky.

_Assumpserit_. This word properly belongs only to _fiduciam ac robur. Spem ac votum_ would require rather _conceperit_. Zeugma.

_Subit_. _Steals in_, lit. creeps under. Cf. note, H. 1, 13.

_Invisa primo--amatur_. The original perhaps of Pope's lines Vice is a monster, &c.

_Quindecim annos_. The reign of Domitian from A.D. 81, to A.D. 96.

_Fortuitis casibus_. Natural and ordinary death, as opposed to death by violence, _saevitia principis_.--_Promptissimus quisque. The ablest, or all the ablest_. _Quisque_ with a superlative, whether singular or plural, is in general equivalent to _omnes_ with the positive, with the additional idea however of a reciprocal comparison among the persons denoted by _quisque_, Z. 710, 6.

_Ut ita dixerim_. An apology for the strong expression _nostri superstites: survivors not of others only, but so to speak, of ourselves also_; for we can hardly be said to have _lived_ under the tyranny of Dom., and our present happy life is, as it were, a renewed existence, after being buried for fifteen years. A beautiful conception! The use of _dixerim_ in preference to _dicam_ in this formula is characteristic of the later Latin. Cf. Z. 528. The _et_ before this clause is omitted by some editors. But it is susceptible of an explanation, which adds spirit to the passage: A few of us survive, _and that_ not merely ourselves, but so to speak, others also. In the Augustan age _superstes_ was, for the most part, followed by the dative.

_Tamen_. Notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstances in which I write, after so long a period of deathlike silence, in winch we have almost lost the gift of speech, _yet_ I shall not regret to have composed _even in rude and inelegant language_, etc. For the construction of _pigebit_, cf. Z. 441, and H. 410, 6.

_Memoriam--composuisse_. Supposed to refer to his forthcoming history, written, or planned and announced, but not yet published. Some understand it of the present treatise. But then _interim_ would have no meaning; nor indeed is the language applicable to his _Agricola_.

_Interim_, sc. _editus_ or vulgatus, _published meanwhile_, i.e. while preparing the history.

The reader cannot but be struck with the beauty of this introduction. It is modest, and at the same time replete with the dignity of conscious worth. It is drawn out to considerable length, yet it is all so pertinent and tasteful, that we would not spare a sentence or a word. With all the thoughtful and sententious brevity of the exordiums of Sallust, it has far more of natural ease and the beauty of appropriateness.

IV. _Cnaeus Julius Agricola_. Every Roman had at least three names: the nomen or name of the gens, which always ended in _ius_ (Julius); the praenomen or individual name ending in _us_ (Cnaeus); and the cognomen or family name (Agricola). See a brief account of A. in Dion Cassius 66, 20. Mentioned only by Dion and T. Al. Gnaeus, C. and G. being originally identical.

_Forojuliensium colonia_. Now _Frejus_. A walled town of Gallia Narbonensis, built by Julius Caesar, and used as a _naval station_ by Augustus (cf. His. 3, 43: _claustra maris_). Augustus sent thither the beaked ships captured in the battle of Actium, Ann. 4, 5. Hence perhaps called _illustris_.

_Procuratorem Caesarum_. Collector of imperial revenues in the Roman Provinces.

_Quae equestris--est_, i.e. the procurator was, as we say, ex officio, a Roman knight. The office was not conferred on senators.

_Julius Graecinus_. Cf. Sen. de Benef. 2, 21: Si exemplo magni animi opus est, utemur _Graecini Julii_, viri egregii, quem C. Caesar occidit ob hoc unum, quod melior vir esset, quam esse quemquam tyranno expediret.

_Senatorii ordinis_. Pred. after _fuit_ understood, with ellipsis of _vir_. H. 402, III.; Z. 426.

_Sapientiae. Philosophy_, cf. 1.--_Caii Caesaris_. Known in English histories by the name of Caligula.

_Marcum Silanum_. Father-in-law of Caligula, cf. Suet. Calig. 23: Silanum item _socerum_ ad necem, secandasque novacula fauces compulit.

_Jussus_. Supply _est_. T. often omits _est_ in the first of two passive verbs, cf. 9: detentus ac statim ... revocatus est. In Hand's Tursellinus (2, 474) however, jussus is explained as a participle, and _quia abnuerat_ as equivalent to another participle==_having been commanded and having refused_.

_Abnuerat_, lit. _had_ refused, because the refusal was prior to the slaying. We, with less accuracy, say _refused_. Z. 505.

_Rarae castitatis_. Ellipsis of _mulier_. H. 402, III.; Z. 426.

_In--indulgentiaque. Brought up in her bosom and tender love. Indulgentia_ is more frequently used to denote excessive tenderness.

_Arcebat_ has for its subject the clause, _quod statim_, etc. He was guarded against the allurements of vice by the wholesome influences thrown around him in the place of his early education.

_Massiliam_. Now Marseilles. It was settled by a colony of Phocaeans. Hence _Graeca comitate_. Cf also Cicero's account of the high culture and refinement of Massilia (Cic. pro Flacco, 26).--_Provinciali parsimonia. Parsimonia_ in a good sense; _economy_, as opposed to the luxury and extravagance of Italy and the City.

_Locum--mixtum_. Enallage for _locus_, in quo mixta erant, etc. H. 704, III., cf. 25: mixti copiis et laetitia.--_Bene compositum_ denotes _a happy combination_ of the elements, of which _mixtum_ expresses only the _co-existence_.

_Acrius_, sc. aequo==too eagerly. H. 444, 1, and Z. 104, 1. note.

_Concessum--senatori_. Military and civil studies were deemed more appropriate to noble Roman youth, than literature and philosophy. _Senatori_ must of course refer, not to the office of A., but to his rank by birth, cf. _senatorii ordinis_ above.

_Hausisse, ni--coercuisset_. An analysis of this sentence shows, that there is an ellipsis of _hausurum_ fuisse: _he imbibed_, and would have continued to imbibe, _had not_, &c. In such sentences, which abound in T. but are rarely found in Cic., _ni_ is more readily translated by _but_. Cf. Z. 519. _b_; and note, His. 3, 28. For the application of _haurire_ to the eager study of philosophy, cf. Hor. Sat. 2, 4, 95: _haurire vitae praecepta beatae_, and note, His. 1, 51: _hauserunt animo_.

_Prudentia matris_. So Nero's mother deterred him from the study of philosophy. Suet. Ner. 52.

_Pulchritudinem ac speciem. The beautiful image_, or beau ideal, by hendiadys. Cf. Cic. Or. 2: _species pulchritudinis_. See Rit. in loc.

_Vehementius quam caute_. For _vehementius quam cautius_, which is the regular Latin construction. T. uses both. Cf. Z. 690, and note, His. 1, 83.

_Mox_. In T. subsequently, not presently. R.

_Retinuitque--modum. And, what is most difficult, he retained from philosophy moderation_--moderation in all things, but especially in devotion to philosophy itself, where moderation is difficult in proportion to the excellence of the pursuit, as was shown by the extravagance of the Stoics and some other Grecian sects. As to the sense of _modum_, cf. Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 106: _est modus in rebus_; and for the sentiment, Hor. Ep. 1, 6, 15: _Insani sapiens nomen ferat, aequus iniqui, ultra quam satis est virtutem si petat ipsam_.

V. _Castrorum_. This word is used to express whatever pertains to military life, education, &c., as the context may require. Every Roman youth who aspired to civil office, must have a military education.

_Diligenti ac moderato. Careful and prudent_, cf. our author's character of the same commander, His. 2, 25: _cunctator natura_, etc.

_Approbavit_==fecit, ut ei probarentur. Dr. It is a constructio praegnans. He obtained the first rudiments of a military education under Paullinus, and he gained his approbation.

_Electus--aestimaret. Having been chosen as one whom he would estimate_ (i.e. test his merit) _by tenting together_, i.e. by making him his companion and aid. Young men of rank and promise were thus associated with Roman commanders. Cf. Suet., Caes. 2. T., as usual, avoids the technical way of expressing the relation. Ad verbum, _contubernium_, cf. note, His. 1, 43. Others make _aestimaret==dignum aestimaret_, and _contubernio_ abl. of price. Cf. Död. and Dr.

_Licenter--segniter_, sc. agens. _Licenter_ refers to _voluptates, segniter_ to _commeatus.--Commeatus==furloughs, absence from duty.-- Inscitiam_, sc. tribunatus==_ignorance of his official duty or inexperience in war.--Retulit. Referre ad_ is used very much like the corresponding English, viz. to _refer to_ an object, or devote to an end. Sense: _He did not take advantage of his official standing and his military inexperience, to give up his time to ease and pleasure_. Wr. takes _retulit_ in the more ordinary sense of brought back, thus: A. did not bring back (to Rome) the empty name of Tribune and no military experience, there to give himself up to leisure and pleasure. The former version accords better with the language of the whole passage. Wr. questions the authority for such a use of _referre_. But it may be found, e.g. Plin. Epist. 1, 22: nihil _ad_ ostentationem, omnia _ad_ conscientiam _refert_.