The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-09

trollable nature, some day when she was
beaping approaches upon him, hat he muir
| dered her with a kick" II is certain that
these pictures, though realistic, are those
OF IN observer who has gone about in the
world, who has not acquired all his knowl-
edge OF man from books, but has beheld him
close, and TO whom the study OF men and
women whom he has seen with his own eyes
has given a better comprehension Of those
he meets in history.
HI.
Assuming, as we may, that the education
OF Tacitus was completed in the earlier
years OF Vespasian's principate, which be-
gan in A.. d. 10, we can see that the moment
was favorable for a young a anxious
10 make a name at the bar. The terrible
crises Of the recent past had been succeeded
by a peaceful and a relatively blissful epoch.
We do not know in what year or before
7 what tribunal he first undertook the func-
ton Of q public advocate, but the younger
| Pliny, who made his own debut but a few
years later, records that Tacitus ever then
was sin the prime Of glory and renown.'
Reputation, therefore, must have been
-oompassed speedily. None Of his speeches
have come down to US, but Pliny throws
some light upon their quality when, coming
from a sitting Of the Senate, he writes to a
correspondent: "Tacitus spoke with great
eloquence and. what is Characteristic Of his
talent, with dignity" The forensic sue
cess which placed Tacitus in the front rank
OF the young men Of his time had for him
weighty coLse quences. We may reasonably
suppose that Il facilitated his marriage to
49, l,,whAaw ~ A1rso1ln rwhtoh konlr wIoAo
in A. n. ~. It was for him a very great
match. Julius Agricola, his father -in-law
was by birth Of that healthy and vigorous
provincial nobility which formed the strength
Of the Empire. The father OF Agricola had
been a Senator. Agricola himself was an
orator and philosopher, but before all else
a good man. A soldier Of preeminent abil-
ity, he did not conline his talents to the BUSH
ness Of his profession. He was, on occa-
sion, a man OF the world. a highly intelligent
administrator, a very skilful politician,
as well as an excellent General. Al the time
OF his daughters marriage he held a high
position at Rorhe-he was consul-and on the
eve Of setting forth for Britain, the conquest
Of which he was to complete" II is, perhaps,
not surprising when VIZ note the aversion
Of Tacitus to introducing the public to his
DTlVdU0 Iu6 LuAJ uo bUOulu nave bdlu DuJ
q word about his wife. When in the "Agri-
cola" he mentions his hetrothal to her he
calls her "a young maiden Of rare promise"
(egreoi9 spei flidm). NJ. Boissier comedies
that this at first sight seems faint praise;
but he points out that the grief in which
the historian was plunged by Agricola's
death and the book consecrated to the SOL
dier's memory show how grateful the his
torian was for the gift OF the daughter.
Another consequence of the early oratori-
cal success OF Tacitus was his entrance on
political functions. MY political posi-
ton" he says in his History. was begun
by vespasian, augmented by Titus, and
carried still higher by Domitian.' We
seem justified in inferring that Vespasian
made him questor; Titus, eddie, or peoples
tribune, and Domitian, pretor. In this
career. the first step, the qu@storship, must
have been the most difficult for a young
man not belonging by birth to the Sena
torial ~apstocracy, for the twenty annual
appointments to the questorship were
holly contested. Since Tacitus had no
inherited claim his appointment must rave
been the direct gift Of the ~princeps. There
are other reasons for believing that in
all the magistrates preceding the con-
sulate he was a candidate OF Caesars"
He was So when Domitian made him pretor,
in the year when it pleased that prince
to celebrate the secular games. In A. d.
80, after his pretorship had ended, Tacitus
left Rome to fill one Of the offices open to an
ex-prRtor and remained away four years.
We know not whether he chose to take
command OF a legion or to govern what
was called an imperial province" nor, il
we adopt the second hypothesis, do we
know what province was allotted to him.
Inasmuch, however, as the materials m
bodied in his "Germania" we're evidently
collected at first hand, there seems some
ground for the belief that he amassed them
during the four years Of his absence from
Rome in Belgic Gaul, the only province
Non the Rhine frontier which then could be
governed by IN e~x-pretor. In view of
the fact that in II the morals of the Ger
CONS are co ntrasted fRvornbly with the
morals OF Rome, the query has been put
whether the work is not merely a satire on
Roman manners. NJ. Boissier, for his
part. would not answer the query in the
Affirmative. He points out that the lessons
in morality occupy Only a few chapters, so
that the book can hardly nave been CON-
posed solely for them. He thinks that
the motive Of Tacitus for writing it il obvious
enough. He wished, as Seneca had wished
before him, to interest the Romans in a
northern barbarian people which, as both
authors believed, their fellow countrymen
had cause to dread. Tacitus, who NJ.
Boissier takes for granted had seen that
people close at hand, perceived what mem
aces were pregnant in tho Teutonic bar
bsrism which civilized nations affected to
despise, but which seemed to him much
more formidable than the Parthians, OF
whom 30 much was noised.
~.
When TacitUs returned TO Rom in A. y.
Os the political situation had become much
worse. At the outset OF his principate
Domitian had tried To contain himsalf