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

One conspicuous aspect of the Annals that the table illustrates nicely is
a change in policy after the Tiberius-narrative in how Tacitus distributed
his material across books. Throughout his account of Tiberius’ reign, a new
book coincides with a new year and hence new consuls – in traditionally
annalistic fashion. In the Claudius- and Nero-narratives, Tacitus abandons
this practice. As a result the beginnings and ends of books – always marked
moments – foreground imperial themes. Consider:
End of Book 11: execution of Claudius’ wife Messalina
Beginning of Book 12: choice of Agrippina (Nero’s mother) as new wife
End of Book 12: death of Claudius and Nero’s ascent to the throne
Beginning of Book 13: murder of Junius Silanus
End of Book 13: the death – and revival (!) – of the arbor ruminalis, the tree that
830 years ago gave shadow to Romulus and Remus when they were babies 34
Beginning of Book 14: Annalistic opening (‘under the consulship of Gaius
Vipstanus and C. Fonteius’, i.e. AD 59), followed by the failed and successful
murder of Agrippina 35
End of Book 14: Exile and murder of Nero’s first wife Octavia; preview of the
conspiracy of Piso
Beginning of Book 15: War in the East
End of Book 15: Honours for Nero in the wake of the conspiracy of Piso
Beginning of Book 16: the ‘treasure of Dido’ (a hare-brained idea to solve a
financial crisis)
34 Spot the odd one out (Annals 13.58): Eodem anno Ruminalem arborem in comitio, quae
octingentos et triginta ante annos Remi Romulique infantiam texerat, mortuis ramalibus et
arescente trunco deminutam prodigii loco habitum est, donec in novos fetus reviresceret (‘In
the same year, the Ruminal tree in the Comitium, which 830 years earlier had sheltered
Remus and Romulus in their infancy, through the death of its boughs and the withering
of its stem reached a stage of decrepitude which was regarded as a portent – until it
revived with fresh shoots’). A portent such as the withering of a sacred tree may well
have been entered in the annalistic record – but also if it then consumes itself? Is Tacitus
pulling our leg here, with an unexpected, yet deconstructive, gesture to a formal device
of annalistic writing?
35 This return to a coincidence of beginning of the year and beginning of the book also
receives instant and ironic qualification: right after the dating, Tacitus drops the acid
remark that the length of his reign (vetustate imperii – a dark-humoured hyperbole that
mockingly asserts the dominance of the imperial principle) had finally rendered Nero
sufficiently audacious to go through with the long-plotted matricide.