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

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who had made vows for his health when he was sick kept them after his return to health (27): Votum exegit ab eo, qui pro salute sua gladiatoriam operam promiserat, spectavitque ferro dimicantem nec dimisit nisi victorem et post multas preces. alterum, qui se periturum ea de causa voverat, cunctantem pueris tradidit, verbenatum infulatumque votum reposcentes per vicos agerent, quoad praecipitaretur ex aggere. [A man who had made a vow to fight in the arena, if the emperor recovered, he compelled to keep his word, watched him as he fought sword in hand, and would not let him go until he was victorious, and then only after many entreaties. Another who had offered his life for the same reason, but delayed to kill himself, he turned over to his slaves, with orders to drive him decked with sacred boughs and fillets through the streets, calling for the fulfilment of his vow, and finally hurl him from the embankment.] Nevertheless, the practice remained a standard element in the peculiar social dynamic that unfolded between the emperor and other members of Rome’s ruling élite in imperial times. We (and Tacitus) tend to see the proposed honours as manifestations of corporate servility. It is therefore useful to recall that there is another cultural logic in play. Thus Ittai Gradel argues that this was a technique for the senators to get some purchase on the behaviour of the princeps: ‘Honours were a way to define the status or social position of the person or god honoured, but it was also a way to tie him down. The bestowal of honours to someone socially superior, whether man or god, obliged him to return them with benefactions. Or, we might say, to rule well. It could indeed be honourable to reject excessive honours, and for example, the elder Scipio had excelled in this gloria recusandi. On the other hand, refusing honours also entailed rejecting the moral obligations that went with them, even to the point of recognizing no bonds whatsoever. So it would be socially irresponsible to reject all such proposals.’ 109 iam senatus uterum Poppaeae commendaverat dis votaque publice susceperat, quae multiplicata exsolutaque [sc. sunt]As with his account of Nero’s reaction, Tacitus manages to convey his distaste in how he represents the senate. The front position of the adverb iam helps to generate the impression of escalation: already during Poppaea’s pregnancy, the senate had decided to turn the wellbeing of her unborn child into an affair of state. 109 Gradel (2002) 59.
The priesthood of the Arval Brothers, which consisted of senators, vowed sacrifices in case of a successful delivery. After the birth, the manifestations of joy, so Tacitus implies, knew no bounds: collectively, the senate joined in with the emperor’s excessive reaction to the birth by multiplying and fulfilling their – proliferating – vows. The Arval Brothers too fulfilled their vows, as recorded in their Acta under 21 January 63: in Capitolio uota soluta quae susceperant pro partu et incolumitate Poppaeae. 110 When the couple returned from Antium with their newborn, the Arval Brotherhood celebrated their arrival with sacrifices to Spes, Felicitas (or Fecunditas), and Salus Publica. (Tacitus’ publice possibly alludes to the occasion, though he refrains from providing details.) aureae in solio Capitolini Iovis locarentur, ludicrum circense, ut Iuliae Tacitus now gives more specific details of what the vows consisted in, in his usual elliptical style: – et additae [sc. sunt] supplicationes – templumque fecunditatis et certamen ad exemplar Actiacae religionis decretum [sc. est] Tacitus now switches construction, using decretum [est] as an elegant pivot: the verb governs both the nouns templum and certamen (as subjects) and the following ut-clause (analysed in more detail below): – utque Fortunarum effigies aureae in solio Capitolini Iovis locarentur, ludicrum circense, ut Iuliae genti apud Bovillas, ita Claudiae Domitiaeque apud Antium ederetur In other words, we have (i) public thanksgivings (supplicationes); (ii) a temple to Fertility (templum); (iii) highly prestigious public games (certamen); (iv) the dedication of two golden statues to the two Fortunes (effigies); and (v) circus races (ludicrum circense). Polysyndeton (the alternating et ... -que ... et ... -que) underscores the impression of excess – just as Tacitus’ persistent use of the passive voice from multiplicata exsolutaque onwards (additae, decretum, locarentur, ederetur) suggests a loss of purposeful agency on the part of the senate. 110 See Smallwood (1967) 24; Scheid (1998) 76.
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Mathew Owen and Ingo Gildenhard Tac
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Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45 La
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Contents 1. Preface and acknowledge
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1. Preface and acknowledgements
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as to inform. Finally, for each cha
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At the outset of his Annals, which
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69 - 79 Vespasian In Rome from 75 o
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It would be misleading... to concep
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the Roman aristocracy remained a hi
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a text, early imperial Rome comes a
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in which he employed yet another ge
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Period Regime/ emperor in charge Ch
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In his history of Rome and Roman hi
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to the two high magistrates who ent
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One conspicuous aspect of the Annal
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centre of gravity is displaced to a
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judiciously aporetic stance on whet
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Stage 1: AD 54-58 Stage 2: AD 59-63
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this policy involves his presence i
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The passage offers excellent insigh
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interfered. Moreover, he identifies
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3. Latin text with study questions
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exim Cretensis, -e reus agor, agi,
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privatus, -i, m. viso, -ere, visi,
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adsensus, -us, m. celebro, -are, -a
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ultra (+ acc.) appello, -are, -avi,
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in dies cupido, -inis, f. adigo, -e
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arbitror, -ari, -atus sum providus,
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munus, -eris, n. frequento, -are, -
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omitto, -ere, -misi, -missum in inc
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adquiro, -ere, -quisivi, -quisitum
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prodo, -ere, -didi, -ditum circus,
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ago, -ere, egi, actum Palatium, -ii
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demum imus, -a, -um Esquiliae, -aru
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insula, -ae, f. numerum ineo, -ire,
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ceterum ruina, -ae, f. proinde ...
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Gallicus, -a, -um distinctio, -onis
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piaculum, -i, n. Sibyllae libri, -o
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confero, -ferre, -tuli, -latum perv
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Page 86 and 87: Then a sudden transition in narrati
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Page 90 and 91: conveys a sense of function, purpos
Page 92 and 93: additional offence outweighs the ot
Page 94 and 95: e (or traditionally were)? We may a
Page 96 and 97: . Illustration (sic...) c. Gnomic g
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Page 110 and 111: thinly masked by rhetorical general
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Page 116 and 117: for almost everyone else the mind a
Page 118 and 119: We are still in AD 62, but Tacitus
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Page 124 and 125: Tacitus thus twins the abomination
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Page 168 and 169: Tacitus endows Nero’s formulation
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Page 174 and 175: Tacitus goes on to explain why the
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Page 178 and 179: A purpose clause: quo = ut eo.
Page 180 and 181: The general Agrippa was one of Augu
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With ipse, Tacitus introduces a shi
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moral pollution of these men. The m
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The asyndeton of the previous two p
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Tacitus here records a telling dyna
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consumed by fire’, he rejoined
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The author of the Octavia (a so-cal
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The parallels between Quintilian’
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hunc morem cursus atque haec certam
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His (and Nero’s) assimilation of
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sed omnibus quae huic urbi per viol
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An ablative of manner, which amount
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After a long and twisting sentence
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... audebat), he again continues wi
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The subject of patefecit and extrux
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The sack of the mighty city of Troy
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conflagration; and given the number
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But one could turn this around if o
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Romani opes ornarent potius quam au
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and the variation in constructions
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first and the second item with et a
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The (Senonian) Gauls had captured a
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[There was nothing however in which
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36) in the striking phrase patriae
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inritae spei. The idea of the canal
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Chapter 43 nulla distinctione nec
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In Tacitus, the emphatic nulla and
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uinis erat; vacuas areas occupare e
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were meant to patrol the aqueducts
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( Chapter 44 44.1 Et haec quidem h
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quam mulierum disciplinam contineri
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offering up scapegoats to cover his
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the Romans’ point of view - a con
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c-alliteration conveying Tacitus’
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After dilaceration, Tacitus lists t
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he aimed at. Tacitus could almost c
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etiam. As often, Tacitus does not l
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onis artibus) he received. Tacitus
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The failure of the plan is stressed
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Fisher, C. D. (ed.) (1906), Corneli
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—. (2010), Monument und Inschrift
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Kraus, C. S. and Woodman, A. J. (19
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Sumi, G. S. (2005), Ceremony and Po
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Rome’ by Richardprints @ Wikimedi
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This book does not end here... At O
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Tacitus, Annals, 15.20­-23, 33­-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a

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