Tacitus

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 117 ) is one of the important historians of Roman Antiquity. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—treat the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors. These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus in 14 to (presumably) the death of emperor Domitian in 96. There are significant lacunae(gaps) in the surviving texts.

Tacitus also wrote The Germania (Latin title: De Origine et situ Germanorum) an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. Ethnography had a long and distinguished heritage in classical literature, and the Germania fits squarely within the tradition established by authors from Herodotus to Julius Caesar. Tacitus himself had already written a similar, albeit shorter, piece in his Agricola (chapters 10–13). The book begins with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the Germans (chapters 1–27); it then segues into descriptions of individual tribes, beginning with those dwelling closest to Roman lands and ending on the uttermost shores of the Baltic Sea, with a description of the primitive and savage Fenni and the unknown tribes beyond them.