Essays on Tacitus

Introduction

The Annals is a collection of sixteen books that survive, written by Cornelius Tacitus who was an historian of the Roman Empire as well as a Roman senator. In what remains of his final writings, Tacitus describes the Roman Empire beginning with Tiberius’ reign in 14 AD 14 up to and including Nero’s reign in 68 AD. The estimated date of the Annals is around 166 AD. The personages and events described in the Annals include Caligula, Claudius, Tiberius Nero, and Messalina. While Tacitus was writing from the perspective of an elitist and a scholar, it is evident ...

When Pliny the Younger wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan, Christianity was an inferior religion to Judaism, and did not receive recognition. Many Christians faced persecution for their faith as was the case with those who Pliny the Younger killed. According to Tacitus what made the Christians very disagreeable to the Romans was that Christians did not supplicate to the Roman gods. His accusation was that all libels sent with no author must have come from the Christians, and by that claim, Tacitus meant that only Christians wrote libels. For that reason, the implication of the same is that ...

Rome brought light to the darkest and the most barbaric places of the world, and if and when it did, these were areas that posed value to the strategic interests of the empire rather than be regions that needed civilizing. Britain was the island whose unique geography allowed founding a city serving the imperial interests well. Its conquest improved the image of the empire as a formidable force to reckon with and enhanced the reputation of the emperor. Furthermore, the introduction of religious and cultural buildings into Londinium served the ideological purpose of exposing the new subjects to the ...

Augustus Caesar First Emperor of Rome: Despot or Good Leader?

Augustus Julius Caesar the First Emperor of Rome has a mythological presence in the history of Western Civilization. This paper discusses two contrasting views of his leadership qualities. Was Caesar a despot or was he a great leader? His legacy and the mark he left on history leaves no room for a moderate stand on this Caesar. Two articles will be used to help judge whether he was a positive force or a negative force. Both were written after the death of the First Emperor. The Deeds of the Divine Augustus by Augustus was published ...