Tacitus

Couverture
Psychology Press, 1993 - 211 pages
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The histories of Roman senator Cornelius Tacitus constitute the most influential examination of tyranny, political behavior and public morality from the classical age. For centuries these portraits of courageous martyrs to freedom, of paranoid tyrants, and of sycophantic flatteres and informers shaped modern political attitudes. Ronald Mellor provides a compelling analysis of the ideas of the greatest historian of evil in the western intellectual tradition.

In Tacitus, Ronald Mellor passionately argues for reclaiming this ironic genius whose cynical world view is particularly well-suited to an analysis of the tyranny and brutality in our own century.

Tacitus is presented as a moralist, psychologist, political analyst and literary artist. Tacitus' greatest impact has never been on historians. Rather, his political vision and dramatic images left their mark on painters, poets and thinkers.
 

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Table des matières

The Historian as Literary Artist
113
The Impact of Tacitus
137
Editions and Translations
194
Droits d'auteur

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Expressions et termes fréquents

Fréquemment cités

Page 154 - In their primitive state of simplicity and independence, the Germans were surveyed by the discerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil, of Tacitus, the first of historians who applied the science of philosophy to the study of facts.
Page 113 - Time that is intolerant Of the brave and innocent, And indifferent in a week To a beautiful physique, Worships language and forgives Everyone by whom it lives; Pardons cowardice, conceit, Lays its honours at their feet. Time that with this strange excuse Pardoned Kipling and his views, And will pardon Paul Claudel, Pardons him for writing well.
Page 153 - It would require the pen of Tacitus (if Tacitus had assisted at this assembly) to describe the various emotions of the senate; those that were suppressed, and those that were affected. It was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus ; to seem to distrust it was still more dangerous. The respective advantages of monarchy and a republic have often divided speculative inquirers; the present greatness of the Roman state, the corruption of manners, and the...
Page 163 - We need a man can speak of the intents, The councils, actions, orders, and events Of state, and censure them. We need his pen Can write the things, the causes, and the men. But most we need his faith— and all have you— That dares nor write things false nor hide things true.
Page 127 - When we see a natural style, we are astonished and delighted; for we expected to see an author, and we find a man.
Page 150 - It is a poem, that, if I well remember, in your lordship's sight, suffered no less violence from our people here, than the subject of it did from the rage of the people of Rome ; but with a different fate, as, I hope, merit ; for this hath outlived their malice, and begot itself a.
Page 35 - For who does not know history's first law to be that an author must not dare to tell anything but the truth'' And its second that he must make bold to tell the whole truth?
Page 88 - ... the functions of the senate, the magistrates, and the laws. No one opposed him, for the most courageous had fallen in battle or in the proscription.

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À propos de l'auteur (1993)

Ronald Mellor is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has published From Augustus to Nero: The First Emperors of Imperial Rome and The Worship of the Goddess Roma in the Greek World.

Informations bibliographiques