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

starring Thrasea Paetus, are an excellent example of his practice. An
interesting tension ensues between Tacitus’ artful design and strategic
selectivity on the one hand and, on the other, the apparently artless
recording of events in chronological order implied by temporal markers
such as exim.
Claudius Timarchus is otherwise
unknown, yet is clearly a powerful Cretan, whose name specifies a hybrid
freedman combining hints of the doddery emperor with Greek ‘Ruling-
Élite’ (as Tacitus’ indignant remarks on jumped-up nouveaux provincial
types caustically spell out: see below). 70 Crete (along with Cyrenaica) was a
‘senatorial’ province governed by an ex-praetor (‘pro-consul’) – as opposed
to an ‘imperial’ province under the direct control of the princeps. In his
Geography, Strabo (c. 63 BC – AD 23) includes an extensive discussion of
this split, which was a key feature of the reorganization of the Roman
empire under Augustus. The passage is worth citing in full since it yields
valuable insights into the logic of the Augustan settlement that defined the
career opportunities of the senatorial élite under the principate (17.3.25): 71
But the Provinces have been divided in different ways at different times,
though at the present time they are as Augustus Caesar arranged them; for
when his native land committed to him the foremost place of authority and
he became established for life as lord of war and peace, he divided the whole
empire into two parts, and assigned one portion to himself and the other to
the Roman people; to himself, all parts that had need of a military guard (that
is, the part that was barbarian and in the neighbourhood of tribes not yet
subdued, or lands that were sterile and difficult to bring under cultivation,
so that, being unprovided with everything else, but well provided with
strongholds, they would try to throw off the bridle and refuse obedience),
and to the Roman people all the rest, in so far as it was peaceable and easy
to rule without arms; and he divided each of the two portions into several
Provinces, of which some are called ‘Provinces of Caesar’ and the others
‘Provinces of the People.’ And to the ‘Provinces of Caesar’ Caesar sends legati
and procurators, dividing the countries in different ways at different times
and administering them as the occasion requires, whereas to the ‘Provinces
of the People’ the people send praetors or proconsuls, and these Provinces
also are brought under different divisions whenever expediency requires.
70 We owe this observation to John Henderson: ‘Claudius’ recalls Nero’s predecessor
the emperor Claudius (the hero of Robert Graves’ I, Claudius), whereas ‘Timarchus’
combines the two Greek words timê (‘honour’, ‘distinction’) and archê (‘power’, ‘rule’).
71 We cite the translation by H. L. Jones in the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.
and London, 1932), slightly adjusted.