Though the rapid southern gales To eschew should'st thou incline, Thou must change thy postures all; JAMES ELPHINSTON. DEATH OF A CHARIOTEER (Epigrams, X., 50.) LET Victory, sorrowing, cast her palm away, GOLDWIN SMITH. 1 The awning which protected the spectators from the sun. TACITUS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH LITTLE or nothing is known about the early life of Tacitus. The year of his birth can only be approximately given as 54 A. D., and the assertion sometimes made that Interamna in Umbria was his birthplace rests on extremely unsubstantial evidence. It is quite possible that he was born at Rome, and we know for certain that he studied rhetoric there. It has been suggested that possibly the Cornelius Tacitus mentioned by the elder Pliny as procurator of Belgic Gaul was the historian's father, but there is no proof of this, and the details of his family relations are unknown to us, except the fact that in 78 he married the daughter of Julius Agricola, the famous governor of Britain. Tacitus' career was at first pursued along political lines. He held some minor office under Vespasian, was quaestor under Titus, and praetor under Domitian. After his praetorship (88 A. D.), he was absent from Rome for some years, possibly serving as propraetor of Belgic Gaul. He returned in 93, the year of Agricola's death, but does not seem to have taken any part in public life during the remainder of Domitian's reign. In 97, under Nerva, he was made consul. A few years later we hear of him as associated with his friend the younger Pliny in the indictment of Marius Priscus for extortion in the province of Africa. After this he retired, and devoted himself exclusively to his literary and historical pursuits. His death probably took place about 116 A. D. His first literary work was the Dialogus de Oratoribus, a charming little dialogue on the decline of oratory under the empire. The style, which differs in a striking manner from that of his other works, shows many signs of Ciceronian influence. In the Agricola and Germania, also of small compass, we see Tacitus tending in the direction of historiography, the field to which he afterwards confined himself. Yet neither of these monographs is, strictly speaking, an historical work. The Agricola is an example of encomiastic biography, in which the historical form is adopted only to give the encomiastic element greater effectiveness; while the Germania, formally and primarily an ethnographical treatise, seems from its idealization of the simplicity and virtue of the northern people to indicate some desire on the part of the author to reflect upon the deterioration of morals among the Romans. Of much wider scope are the two great historical works, the Historiae and the Annales. The former, which in all probability originally consisted of fourteen books, was a history of the empire from 69 A. D. to the death of Domitian. Of this only the first four books and a part of the fifth have survived, containing an account of 69 and 70, the crowded years that saw the reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, and the triumph of the Flavians. The Annales (there were sixteen books in all, but the central portion of the work is lost) dealt with the period from the death of Augustus in 14 A. D. to the fall of Nero. It is the author's masterpiece: of prime importance, historically, for its masterly descriptions of political situations, and its subtle analysis of the characters of the great personages of the early empire; of rare stylistic effectiveness from its wonderful compression, the infinite variety shown in the structure of clause and period, and the skillful use of poetic word and phrase. CUSTOMS OF THE GERMANS1 (Germania, XVI. - XXVII.) THE Germans, it is well known, have no regular cities; nor do they allow a continuity of houses. They dwell in separate habitations, dispersed up and down as a grove, a meadow, or a fountain happens to invite. They have villages, but not with a series of connected buildings. Every tenement stands detached, with a vacant piece of ground round it, either to prevent accidents by fire, or for want of skill in the art of building. They do not know the use of mortar or of tiles. They build with rude materials, regardless of beauty, order, and proportion. Particular parts are covered over with a kind of earth so smooth and shining that the natural veins have some resemblance to the lights and shades of painting. Besides these habitations they have a number of subterranean caves, dug by their own labor and carefully covered over with dung: in winter their retreat from cold and the repository of their corn. In those recesses they not only find a shelter from the rigor of the season, but in times of foreign invasion their effects are safely concealed. The enemy lays waste the open country, but the hidden treasure escapes the general ravage; safe in its obscurity, or because the search would be attended with too much trouble. The clothing in use is a loose mantle, made fast with a clasp, or, when that cannot be had, with a thorn. With only this on they loiter away whole days by the fire-side. The rich wear a more pretentious 1 This and the following selections are from the translation of Arthur Murphy. garment, not however displayed and flowing like the Parthians or the people of Sarmatia, but drawn so tight that the form of the limbs is palpably expressed. The skins of wild animals are also much in use. Near the frontier, on the borders of the Rhine, the inhabitants wear them, but are wholly indifferent as to the choice. The people who live in the more remote regions near the northern seas, and who have not acquired by commerce a taste for new-fashioned apparel, are more careful in their selection. They choose particular beasts, and having stripped off the furs clothe themselves with the spoil, decorated with parti-colored spots, or fragments taken from the skins of fish that swim the ocean as yet unexplored by the Romans. In point of dress there is no distinction between the sexes, except that the garment of the women is frequently made of linen, adorned with purple spots, but without sleeves, leaving the arms and part of the bosom uncovered. Marriage is considered as a strict and sacred institution. In the national character there is nothing so truly commendable. To be contented with one wife is peculiar to the Germans. They differ in this respect from all other savage nations. There are indeed a few instances of polygamy; not however the effect of loose desire, but occasioned by the ambition of various families, who court the alliance of a chief distinguished by the nobility of his rank and character. The bride brings no portion, but receives a dowry from her husband. In the presence of her parents and relations he makes a tender of part of his wealth; if accepted, the match is approved. In the choice of the presents female vanity is not consulted. There are no frivolous trinkets to adorn the future bride. The whole |