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

centre of gravity is displaced to appended, syntactically subordinate,
elements.’ 43 The first sentence of the set text (15.20.1) is an excellent
case in point.
(e) More generally, Cicero and Tacitus differ in their deployment of
irony – which advances to something of a master-trope in Tacitus.
O’Gorman defines irony as ‘a mode of speaking which establishes an
unquantifiable distinction between a statement and “its” meaning’
and adds an important clarification: ‘A crude definition of an ironic
statement would define the meaning as opposite to what is said, but it
is better to conceive of the meaning of an ironic statement as different
from what is said, not exclusively or even necessarily its opposite.’ 44
She aptly calls on Cicero, who equates irony with dissimulation (de
Oratore/ On the Ideal Orator 2.269): 45
Urbana etiam dissimulatio est, cum alia dicuntur ac sentias, non illo
genere, de quo ante dixi, cum contraria dicas, ut Lamiae Crassus, sed
cum toto genere orationis severe ludas, cum aliter sentias ac loquare.
Irony, that is, saying something different from what you think, is also
elegant and witty. I don’t mean the kind I mentioned earlier, saying
the exact opposite (as Crassus did to Lamia), but being mock-serious
in your whole manner of speaking, while thinking something different
from what you are saying.
As O’Gorman puts it: ‘Irony depends upon the divergence in sense
between utterance (quae dicuntur) and the unsaid (quae sentias). But
the nature of the unsaid is indeterminable; all we know about it is
that it is aliud – other than what is uttered.’ 46 In the case of irony in
Cicero’s orations, however, it is often rather obvious what Cicero
thinks, even if it is not what he says: an orator, after all, relies on his
eloquence to produce tangible results (a verdict of innocence or guilt,
a decision on a matter of policy) and therefore must communicate
what he means. Also, for an ironic utterance to be witty, both
meanings, the stated and the implied, must resonate simultaneously.
In contrast, Tacitus’ use of irony is more opaque. And indeed he often
leaves it unstated of what precisely he means – even if we realize
43 Martin (1981) 221.
44 O’Gorman (2000) 11.
45 O’Gorman (2000) 11; we give the translation of J. M. May and J. Wisse, Cicero On the Ideal
Orator (De Oratore), New York and Oxford 2001.
46 O’Gorman (2000) 11.