TACITUS.  The Agricola and the Germania.     New York:  Viking
Penguin.  1970.  Pp. 175.  $3.70.

Ostensibly, Tacitus wrote Agricola as a eulogy for his father-in
law.  Though Tacitus recorded the campaigns of the title figure
well enough, the Agricola and the Germania serve additional
functions.  Tacitus reported on the customs of the Britannic and
Germanic "barbarians" so that the Roman audience could not help 
contrasting them with their own.  Additionally, the Agricola
allowed Tacitus to illustrate the dilemma of the tyrannized Senate,
so they (and he) might be absolved. 
     The key to understanding Tacitus' motivation is to recall his
placement in time.  It is certain that as a boy he witnessed the
atrocities of Nero or heard them related by his father.  Remembered
from childhood, the stories of Senatorial degradation would have
affected the man who later entered politics himself.  Agricola,
dating from the time of Nerva, was written when the easing of
despotism allowed the luxury of nostalgic tendencies.  Perhaps
Tacitus lamented the distance of the Republic, when politics (and
even the citizens) were "nobler."
     Since the Germania monologue is mainly derivative Tacitus had
little reason to write it unless he wanted the new work to have
more meaning for his contemporaries.<1>  Just as modern students
feel more comfortable with criticism in the form of a non-
threatening fable (e.g., Orwell's Animal Farm) perhaps Romans would
be more receptive to criticism if it came roundabout by way of the
"barbarians."  
     Tacitus laid the vices and virtues of the Germanic peoples for
the listeners to compare and contrast with their own.  The close,
stable German family seems to represent to Tacitus an ideal
relationship.<2>  The reader could not have helped but think this
lifestyle was more admirable than the licentiousness of modern
urban life.  The Teutonic preference of funereal simplicity stood
in direct contrast to Roman life:  forests of monuments populated
the Empire's cities.   Tacitus was also appreciative of a culture
that placed value on its women without deifying them.  This idea
would have been instructional to a misogynist people who regarded
women as a necessary evil, or manipulative murderesses (in the 
case of wives, mothers, and lovers of public officials).  
     Even the vices of the Germanics condemned Tacitus'
contemporaries.  Drunkenness, violence and sloth were becoming more
troublesome when Tacitus wrote the Germania, although the
degradation proceeded at a higher rate later.  These weaknesses in
the Teutonic moral makeup addressed Roman deficiencies, just as the
earlier higher standards did.
     The Agricola served a different purpose.  In the person of
Agricola Tacitus found a model that he could use to explain the
role that the Senate and other aristocrats were forced to play 
under tyrannic rule.<3>  Agricola, although a fierce warrior, was
unobtrusive when back in Roman society.  "He was modest in his
manner of life, courteous in conversation."<4>  Tacitus implies
that this behavior was not only an example of Agricolean moral
sensitivity, but was required by the presence of a jealous and
vengeful despot.  Ultimate validation of Senatorial acquiescence
occurs in this defense of Agricola's self-restraint:  
          "Let it be clear . . . that even under bad
          emperors men can be great, and that a decent
          regard for authority, if backed by industry
          and energy, can reach that . . . distinction
          which most men attain only . . . by an
          ostentatious martyrdom."<5>  
     Although these monologues appear to have moralist or apologist
intent, they are not without enlightening observations.  Tacitus'
explanation of Germanic theology borders on brilliant; the complex
animistic mysticism that still lingers in modern Germans is
explained beautifully in two sentences.<6>  Insight such as this
keeps the Agricola and the Germania from losing their relevance to
our own age.
Jason Carr

 
                             NOTES



<1>Sinnigen, William G., and Arthur Boak.  A History of Rome to
A.D. 565.  1977.  Page 372.

<2>This may also be a reflection of the influence of Greek
political philosophy which saw a parallel, reciprocal relationship
between the man and the politea.  If a man was pious in his
personal affairs he would also be dutiful towards his nation.

<3>Sinnigen, page 372.

<4>Tacitus, page 92.

<5>Ibid, page 95.

<6>"The Germans do not think it in keeping with the divine majesty
to confine gods within walls or to portray them in the likeness of
any human countenance.  Their holy places are woods and groves, and
they apply the names of deities to that hidden presence which is
seen only by the eye of reverence."  Tacitus, page 109.

http://www.mousetrap.net/~mouse/uta/