Tacitus | Herbert W. Benario (essay date 1975)
Herbert W. Benario (essay date 1975)
SOURCE: Benario, Herbert W. “The Minor Works.” In An Introduction to Tacitus, pp. 22-42. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1975.
[In the following essay, Benario examines the themes of the Agricola, the Germania, and the Dialogus de oratoribus.]
Early in 98, Tacitus published his first work. It was a biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola. Agricola was a remarkable man, as great, it might be said, as a private citizen could be in this age. He was born in a.d. 40. His political career is marked by a steady advance through the cursus honorum, culminating in the consulship at an age some five years before the normal or customary year, although it is difficult to speak of a norm during the principate when a man could advance by as many as ten years depending upon the prestige of his family and the number of children whom he sired, since each child brought...
[The entire page is 8465 words long]
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