Essay on Tacitus' The Agricola and The Germania

Between 500 BCE and 500 CE, the Roman civilization experienced changes both politically and culturally. Firstly, Rome’s government transitioned from a Republic to an Empire. Later, that empire was split into two parts; east and west. In terms of changes in culture, it was impacted by the shift in religion, as the Romans shifted from polytheism to monotheism. Despite all the changes, Rome still remained culturally diverse.

Entertainment wise the people of Rome and the people of American share some what the same interest in the same things. For example gladiators and horse races evolved to boxing and Nascar. Also physically demanding things

Compare the following descriptions of Augustus’ rise to power, one by Augustus himself and one by Tacitus (the second-century historian), and discuss their historical validity.

Tacitus’ motivations for writing The Annals are multifaceted. First, he was promoting the stance that the empire, despite its shortcomings, was necessary for the stability of Rome at the time. Secondly, he wanted to give an honest and fair account of Rome during the reigns of four emperors of the principate: Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius and Nero.

The Germania written by Tacitus served as an ethnography of Germans that lived in the lands beyond Roman control. Tacitus goes through every aspect of culture and in some cases compares Germans to Romans. He describes German culture as a whole in the first half of the reading, then moves on to discuss each individual tribe and their customs. Tacitus defines race in very broad sense, drawn from how he depicts Germans in contrast to Romans. We see that geography and culture play a large role, although they differ slightly from tribe to tribe, many maintain similar customs. Through the Germania, we see that Tacitus differentiates race on the basis of physical appearance, lifestyle, and regard for women.

In examining the histories presented by Livy and Tacitus, it is crucial to take into account the agendas of the respective authors. While both set out to portray as accurate of a historical representation as possible, it is evident that both renowned historians and rhetoricians intended to deliver several significant messages regarding their thoughts on Rome. Both authors do, indeed, acknowledge the greatness of Rome and champion the core of Roman values; however, Livy and Tacitus tactfully elaborate on different troubles that face the Roman Empire. The histories put forth by these great men aim to present the past as an aid to promote

The era dominated by Roman empire is one the most well-known and influential periods of history, home to famous names from Julius Caesar to Jesus Christ. At its height, Rome’s territory stretched from the Atlantic coastline to the Middle East, reigning over 60 million people, one-fifth of the population of the ancient world. However, the Roman empire’s treatment of their conquered people’s and their own citizens ultimately led to the permanent downfall of Rome.

Tacitus believes that Roman Imperialism has a variety of attributes that include prosperity, cruelty, and jealousy. He is more so critical of conquests attempted by people he does not favor. Tacitus is a great source of the Roman imperialist results as he lived through emperor’s who were thought to be effective and others who were unsatisfactory to say the least. He favored the Trajanic regime that he was serving under while criticized Domitian’s reign undoubtedly. Overall, his opinion on imperial rule was mostly negative since it promoted the corruption of the ruler and the ruled, increased secrecy, paranoia, cruelty and moral downgrades in the emperors, and an increase in greed, hypocrisy, and cowardice in the subjects. While he talks

These Germanic soldiers were not loyal to Rome and were therefore not as motivated to keep Rome afloat. Because of the undersized, lethargic Roman military and its aggressive opposition, Rome was very much open to foreign invasions.

One of the greatest empires began to fall to its knees after hundreds of years, but the question is, how? Rome was one of the greatest empires for a long time, but then they started to decline. The Roman Military started to become lazy, which lead to failure. Then between 220-476 CE the Roman Empire started to be sacked by foreign invaders. Although, some researchers may say that natural disasters led to the fall of Rome, nevertheless the primary reasons for the decline of Rome are foreign invasions, and military mistakes.

Moving forward to Germania, which contained much more social criticism than Agricola did by comparing the cultural difference of Germania and Rome. Tacitus described Germania as an empire that revolves strictly around their freedom. The kings of Germania did not hold absolute control over the German citizens. "But even the power of the kings is not absolute or arbitrary. As for the leaders, it is their example rather than their authority that wins them special admiration" (Tacitus, 38). In contrast, the citizens of Rome strongly believed that they attained their own freedom, however they were wrong in the fact that it was the Emperor who held all power in the Roman empire.

The Romans were civilised in war because of the following answers, when they fought they had superior equipment, they had been well trained by a professional, they took advantage of their terrain and they were organised.

Tacitus wrote the Germania as history of the past defeated Germanic tribe the Gaul’s. His book begins with a description of Germanic tribe’s customs, religious beliefs, geography and laws of the more well known Germanic tribes. Tacitus then describes some of the individual Germanic tribes that live close to the Roman Empire which most information was known about. Then Tacitus talks about the unknown tribes far away from the Roman Empire and describes them as being part animals, with horse hooves. Tacitus praises the barbarian tribes and frowns upon certain aspects of Roman life.

After decades of confrontation between Romans and Germanic tribes, who were more commonly known as barbarians, alliances began to form between the two groups. When the barbarians allied themselves with the Roman Empire, they were not considered Roman colonies or citizens, but instead known as ‘foederati’. They received the benefit of the Roman Empire’s support, sometimes with land, food, or money, in exchange for the barbarian’s military service in the Roman armies. One of the most well-known barbarian foederati groups were the Goths, however, their position as allies of the Empire was never permanent, nor were the relations ever completely peaceful. Despite the usually temporary nature of these alliances, both the Goths and the Romans benefited for several reasons. When the Goths were part of the Foederati they stopped hostilities between themselves and the Empire, gained mutual security from the threat posed by Hunnic aggression, and their people benefited from the introduction of Romanic society.

Ancient Rome, the period between the 8th and 1st centuries B.C. in which Rome grew from a little colony to an emerging empire. "Roman imperialism introduced extremes of wealth and poverty that honed social and economic conflict within the Roman state ." The enormous army and their countless loots, as well as their captured slaves, produced many changes along the countryside such as small farms becoming large plantations, and peasants left without lands decided to journey to Rome and other cities. "Immense wealth inflamed the ambitions of Roman nobles who struggled for personal domination rather than collective rule ." This dominant emergence of power and rule thus led to the conquering and control of other societies. The