Tacitus, Annals, 15.20­-23, 33­-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a

peccare posterius. The introductory nam has causal force but is perhaps best
left untranslated (with a footnote to the examiners that this is a deliberate
omission). The repetitious formulation of the argument, the variation of
constructions and the expression of the thought from two opposite angles
serve to emphasise Thrasea’s point that the senators should make use of
Timarchus’ crime to create a good new law. The sentence stands in allusive
dialogue with earlier Latin historiography, recalling passages in both Sallust
and Livy: ‘significant too is its [sc. Thrasea’s speech] markedly Sallustian
language and the fact that in its defence of the established order of things it
echoes the conservatism of Cato the Censor [as reported by Livy] when he
spoke against the repeal of the sumptuary Oppian law.’ 79 Here are the two
most pertinent passages. First, Sallust, Bellum Iugurthinum 85.12:
Atque ego scio, Quirites, qui postquam consules facti sunt et acta maiorum
et Graecorum militaria praecepta legere coeperint: praeposteri homines,
nam gerere quam fieri tempore posterius, re atque usu prius est.
[I personally know of men, citizens, who after being elected consuls began
for the first time to read the history of our forefathers and the military
treatises of the Greeks, preposterous creatures! for though in order of time
administration follows election, yet in actual practice it comes first.]
The passage from Livy to consider concerns an episode from 195 BC. Two
tribunes of the people proposed the abrogation of the Oppian law that had
been passed during the war against Hannibal in 215 BC: it limited public
indulgence in luxury items by women. Repeal of the law found much
support. But the proposal met with adamant opposition from one of the
consuls, Cato the Elder. The speech as given by Livy is too long to be quoted
in its entirety. But the following extract towards the end should suffice to
highlight affinities between his position and that adopted by Thrasea in
Tacitus; it also conveys a good flavour of the period in Roman history and
its most iconic representative that Thrasea is keen to evoke in support of
his argument (34.4): 80
‘Saepe me querentem de feminarum, saepe de virorum nec de privatorum
modo sed etiam magistratuum sumptibus audistis, diversisque duobus vitiis,
avaritia et luxuria, civitatem laborare, quae pestes omnia magna imperia
everterunt. haec ego, quo melior laetiorque in dies fortuna rei publicae est,
quo magis imperium crescit – et iam in Graeciam Asiamque transcendimus
79 Martin (1969) 139.
80 The translation from Livy is taken from the Loeb Classical Library edition by E. T. Sage
(Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1953).