The annals of Tacitus

xiv TACITUS, ANNALS IV
^''pninitii'^' terse epigram, stately fiip-nit.y. and a stimu -
P'^'^^'''^'lating
vigour natural in tVie fii'st, o ra^T.r- r.f tlm r\-,y — When he
found that the style he had created was eflfective and popular,
he adopted it permanently.
Tacitus is above all things an artist. Racine, quoted by
Boissier (p. 68), calls him the greatest painter of antiquity ;
and 'some of the pictures he has left are among the finest
surviving to us from ancient writers Professional men
charge him with defective information as to topography,
number of combatants, distribution of troops, phases of the
struggle. But let some novel or curious episode intervene ;
and at once the narrative is again brisk, interesting, and full
of colour' (Boissier, p. 69).
Similarly Livy is fond of 'pleasant little resting-places,' as
he says in ix. 17, ut...legentib2is uehtt deuerticula amoena et
requiem animo meo quaererem. Tacitus' love of variety of
expression is very remarkable. Note how in iv 5 (a mere
catalogue of provinces and legions) Tacitus constantly varies
the form of expreasion. His frequent variety of syntax is
well illustrated by iv 38 :
—
quod alii modestiam, multi quia
diffideret, qiddam vt degeneris animi interpretabantur. His
vocabulary is largely made up of poetical words ; and there
are many echoes of Virgilian expression : see these examples
from Book iv :
nobis in arto et inglorius labor (32)
in tenui labor ; at tenuis non gloria {Ueorg. iv 6)
quibus infaustae amicitiae grauis exitus imminebat (74)
nunc manet insontem grauis exitus {Aen. x 630)
ualido cum remige (5)
agit acri remige lyAen. v 116).