I. The fifteenth century an age of imposture3, shown in the invention of printing.—II. The curious discovery of the first six books of the Annals.—III. The blunders it has in common with all forged documents.—IV. The Twelve Tables.—V. The Speech of Claudius in the Eleventh Book of the Annals.—VI. Brutus creating the second class of nobility.—VII. Camillus and his grandson.— VIII. The Marching of Germanicus.—IX. Description of London in the time of Nero.—X. Labeo Antistius and Capito Ateius; the number of people executed for their attachment4 to Sejanus; and the marriage of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, to the Elder Antonia.
I. I have now so far cleared the way as to be in a fair position to enter with feasibleness into an investigation5 of the Annals, with the view of proving that it was not written by Tacitus.
In beginning the investigation, I shall proceed on the assumption that it is a modern forgery of the fifteenth century, having as grounds for this assumption that it was the age when the original MSS. containing the work were discovered; that the existence of those MSS. cannot be traced farther than that century; that (which is of vast consequence in an inquiry6 of this description) it was an age of imposture; of credulity so immoderate that people were easily imposed upon, believing, as they did, without sufficient evidence, or on slight evidence, or no evidence at all, whatever was foisted7 upon them; when, too, the love of lucre8 was such that for money men willingly forewent the reputation that is the accompaniment of the grandest achievements of the intellect. Take, for example, the noble art of printing; for inventing it any man of genius might reasonably be proud. His name, if known, would be emblazoned on the scroll9 of imperishable fame; be displayed for ever on the highest pyramid of mind; and his country would receive an additional beam of splendor10 to its previous blaze of renown11. But who, for a certainty, knows the inventor of printing? or the country of its origin? Was it Holland in the person of Coster of Haarlem? Or Germany in the person of Mentel, the nobleman, of Strasburg? Or Guttenberg, the goldsmith, of Mayence? Was it neither of these countries? or none of these men? And why this uncertainty12? Because a few men possessing the secret, which they kept cautiously to themselves, of printing by means of movable blocks of wood, preferred accumulating enormous sums, equivalent to fair fortunes, by receiving five, six and even between seven and eight hundred gold sequins from a King of France or a Pope of Rome, a Cardinal13 or an Archbishop, for a bible, which, printed, was passed off as written. We all know how the whole imposture exploded, by the King of France and the Archbishop of Paris comparing the bibles which they had bought of Faust during his stay at the Soleil d'Or in the Rue15 St. Jacques, Paris. Each thought his bible so superb that the whole world could not produce such another for beauty,—the books being fine vellum copies of what are now known as the Mazarin Bible;—and what was their amazement16 on discovering, after a very close comparison, that everything was exactly alike in the two copies,—the flower-pieces in gold, green and blue, with grouped and single birds amid tendrils and leaves, the illuminated17 letters at the beginning of books with variegated18 embellishments and brilliant hues19 of scarlet20 and azure21, the crimson22 initials to each chapter and sentence, along with astonishing and incomprehensible conformity23 in letters, words, pagination and lines on every page.
II. The temptation was great to palm off literary forgeries24, especially of the chief writers of antiquity25, on account of the Popes, in their efforts to revive learning, giving money rewards and indulgences to those who should procure26 MS. copies of any of the ancient Greek or Roman authors. Manuscripts turned up, as if by magic, in every direction; from libraries of monasteries27, obscure as well as famous; from the most out-of-the-way places,— the bottom of exhausted28 wells, besmeared by snails29, as the History of Velleius Paterculus; or from garrets, where they had been contending with cobwebs and dust, as the Poems of Catullus. So long as the work had an appearance of high antiquity, it passed muster30 as an old classic; and no doubt could be entertained of its genuineness, if, in addition to its ancient look, it was brought in a fragmentary form. We have no history of the last six fragmentary books of the Annals—at least, up to this time; though I shall give it towards the end of this inquiry; but we are told all about the discovery of the fragmentary first six books by Meibomius, the Westphalian historian, and Professor of Poetry and History at Helmst?dt at the close of the sixteenth century in his Opuscula Historica Rerum Germianicarum, while telling the story of the life of Witikind, the monk31 of the Abbey of Corvey; by Justus Lipsius in note 34 to the second book of the Annals; by Brotier, and other editors of Tacitus.
John de Medici, that magnificent Pope, had been scarcely elected to the Pontifical32 chair by the title of Leo X. in the spring of 1513, when he caused it to be publicly made known that he would increase the price of rewards given by his predecessors33 to persons who procured34 new MS. copies of ancient Greek and Roman works. More than a year, nearly two years elapsed; then his own "Thesaurum Quaestor Pontificius"—"steward," "receiver," or "collector",— Angelo Arcomboldi, brought to him a new MS. of the works of Tacitus, with a most startling novelty—THE FIRST SIX (or, as then divided, FIVE) BOOKS OF THE ANNALS! Everybody was amazed; and everybody was extremely anxious to know where and how it had been obtained. The story of Arcomboldi was that he had found the stranger among the treasures on the well-stored shelves in the Library of the Benedictine monastery36 on the banks of the Weser, at Corvey, in Westphalia, long famed for the high culture of its learned inmates37. The MS. was given out as being of great antiquity, traceable to, at the very least, the commencement of the ninth century; for it was said to have belonged to one of the most distinguished38 and accomplished39 scholars of the abbey, Anschaire, whom Gregory IV. in the year 835 appointed his Legate Apostolic in Denmark and Sweden, and who Christianized the whole northern parts of Europe. The MS. was conned40 with care: it was musty, discoloured and antique-looking; furthermore, it was of the usual orthodox nature of recovered ancient MSS.—it was fragmentary: the genius of Tacitus was believed to be detected in the newly found books: 500 gold sequins were counted out from the Papal Treasury41 to the greedy discoverer: at the expense of Leo, the scholastic42 Philippo Beroaldi the Younger, who was Professor of the learned languages in the University of Rome, and who wrote Latin lyric43 poetry (in the opinion of Paulus Jovius) with the elegance44 and correctness of Horace, superintended the text; the celebrated45 Stephen Guilleret came all the way from Lorraine to print it; and the "Historiarum Libri quinque nuper in Germania inventi" were ushered46 forth47 to the world in Rome literis rotundis on the first day of March, 1515. From that day to this the imposture has slumbered48; the counterfeit49 coin has passed current, nobody having noticed the absence of the true ring of the genuine metal.
III. The books of the Annals must not merely be assumed to be forgeries; they must be proved to be so; for, if forgeries, they cannot be as invulnerable as walls of adamant51. It is nothing that nobody has suspected they were forged;—nothing that the editors and commentators52, who, for the most part possessed53 of remarkable54 perspicacity55 and discernment, have applied56 their minds to minute revision and close examination of these books, have, after such diligent57 attention never considered them to be spurious, but belonging to the domain58 of true history;—nothing that they have stood for close on four hundred years unchallenged, deceiving the wisest and the most learned as well as the best and the most experienced in matters of this description. The cause is obvious: the forger1 fabricated with the decided59 determination of defying detection. He did not rely upon his own sagacity alone: he called in the assistance of two of his cleverest friends: three of the astutest men in the most enlightened portion then of Europe,— Italy,—sat in conclave60 over the matter for nearly three years, deliberating in every possible way how to avoid suspicious management and faulty performance: consequently, the forgery is anything but plain and palpable; nay61, it is wonderfully obscure and monstrously63 difficult: nevertheless, like all forged documents, it is bungled64—ay, in spite of the pains taken to keep free from bad and blundering work, it is, occasionally (as will be seen in the present book, from this point until the close), clumsily, awkwardly, grossly, ridiculously bungled.
In the last generation there was a famous trial for forgery in Edinburgh. A number of documents, thirty-three, were impounded as forged to obtain for the forger the title of a Scotch65 Earl and domains66 covering many millions of acres,—a larger area of square miles than were included in the whole united territories of the now dethroned Dukes of Tuscany, Parma and Modena, or all the possessions put together of the German Electors, Margraves and Landgraves. In such a number of legal documents executed by one man, and that man, too, a civilian67, it was almost next to an impossibility that there should not be a good deal of bungling68. One of the blunders was the King of Scotland giving away lands and provinces that never belonged to Scotland, for they were lands and provinces in New England; another was the name of Archbishop Spottiswoode as witness to a document executed by King James I. at Whitehall on the 7th of December, 1639, whereas Archbishop Spottiswoode had been dead eleven days, his monument in Westminster Abbey bearing as the date of his death, the 26th of November in that year. So the author of the Annals, who, as will be hereafter shown, lived in the fifteenth century, could not possibly write many books of ancient Roman History without, every now and then doing or saying something that was attended with dreadful fatality69 to his fraud; for he could not write them without palpable blunders; and some are so clumsy as to surpass conception what bungling can do.
IV. He makes Tacitus commit an error about the contents of the Twelve Tables, which is really as monstrous62 as if we could fancy ourselves reading in the pages of a native historian of mark, Hume, Henry, or Lingard, some blunder, into which a schoolboy could not fall, about the contents of Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Rights, or any other well known English law, on which the constitution of the country is primarily founded. In a work given out as written by Tacitus we are told that the Twelve Tables first fixed70 interest for usury72 at an "uncia," or twelfth part of an as per hundred asses73 per month, or one per cent per annum:—"Primo Duodecim Tabulis sanctum 'ne quis unciario foenore amplius exerceret,' cum antea ex libidine locupletium agitaretur" (An. VI. 16). Into this error the Author of the Annals must surely have been seduced74 by some shocking mediaeval writer of ancient Roman history or antiquities75, under whose guidance he again falls into another mistake when ascribing to tribunitian regulations the reduction of the interest to one-half per cent. per annum, or the sixth part of an as per hundred asses a month:—"dein rogatione tribuncia ad semuncias redacta" (L. c.). The truth is that, in the year of Rome 398, a hundred and four years after the Twelve Tables were composed,—the Tribunes Duillius and Moenius passed the original law of interest at one per cent: twelve years after,—in the year 410,—the interest was reduced to one half per cent. under the consulate76 of Lucius Manlius Torquatus and Caius Plautius;—as may be seen by referring to the seventh book (16, 27) of Livy,—or still better, the clear exposition of this error by Montesquieu in the 22nd chapter of the 22nd book of his "Esprit des Loix." The author of the Annals is then only right when stating that originally the interest was one per cent. per annum, and afterwards reduced to half that amount. In everything else he blunders to an extent that is inexplicable78 in an ancient Roman. Were any staunch upholder of the authenticity79 of the Annals to be here called upon compulsorily80 to give a reason, unprepared or premeditated, plausible81 or probable, why, after this exposure of such an error, he still believed it possible that the blunder could have been made by Tacitus, who achieved a brilliant reputation as an historian writing truthfully of his countrymen, as a lawyer practising successfully among them, as a statesman filling with ability exalted82 offices, and thus possessed such pledges for being admirably informed and exceedingly cautious, he would be reluctantly forced to take refuge in the quibbling of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff: —"I would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason on compulsion, I!"
The Twelve Tables are most fatal for the author of the Annals; they bring out his imposture so clearly to the broad glare of noonday. Tacitus is made to place on record for the enlightenment of posterity83 that, after those Tables were composed, his countrymen ceased making just and equal laws, only occasionally penal84 enactments85; but more frequently, on account of the differences between the two orders, decrees for attaining86 illegitimate honours and for banishing87 distinguished citizens, along with other sinister88 legislation:—"Compositae Duodecim Tabulae, finis aequi juris; nam secutae leges, etsi aliquando in maleficos ex delicto, saepius tamen dissensione ordinum, et apiscendi illicitos honores, aut pellendi claros viros, aliaque ob prava, per vim89 latae sunt" (III. 27). The statement is about as contrary to fact as if an English historian were to assert that after Charles I. assented90 to the Petition of Rights, there was an end to all further enlargement in this country of the rights, liberties and privileges of the subject,—the only laws passed since then being for the repression91 of crime, the mitigation of the penal code, and the establishment of religious equality; because if we set aside all the laws that were passed by the Romans for the bettering of their State after the year 449 before our aera,—which is the date of the composition of the Twelve Tables,—and look only at those which extended social equality, we find enactments "aequi juris," such as the Lex Canuleia which allowed the intermarriage of patricians92 and plebeians94, and the Leges Liciniae, which put both orders on a par14 in holding public offices. It is clear that these laws never came to the knowledge of the author of the Annals; and it is for the reader to decide for himself whether he thinks it likely that a lawyer and statesman of the stamp of Tacitus could have been ignorant of the removal of these weighty and vexatious class inconveniences.
V. Had Tacitus written the Annals, he would have known more of the speech which Claudius spake in the Senate (XI. 24), when the inhabitants of Transalpine Gaul petitioned to be rendered eligible95 to the highest offices of the State, than to direct the eloquence96 of the Emperor in favour of all the extra-provincial Gauls in general, and the Aedui in particular. From the way in which he wrote harangues—that of Galgacus in his Agricola, for instance, —he would have caught in his alembic the essence of the original, and sublimated97 it; but he would not have placed before us an offspring that does not reflect one feature of its parent. Yet that is what the author of the Annals did with the speech of Claudius: he fabricated that which bears not the faintest resemblance to the original. If the assumption be considered as true that he forged the Annals, he could not have done otherwise; for when he was engaged in the business of forgery, the speech was not in existence, it not being until 1528, more than a hundred years after the Eleventh Book of the Annals was written by him, and considerably98 over half a century after it was first printed in Venice, that a copy of the speech of the Emperor Claudius, which had long been lost, was found again buried within the earth at Lyons, and as so discovered is still preserved, engraved99 on two brass100 plates in the vestibule of the Town Hall of Lyons, a lasting101 memento102 of the modern fabrication of the Annals.
VI. The author of the Annals ascribes to Brutus the creation of the second class of nobility, which Brutus no more created than (as Famianus Strada observes,) "Pythagoras originated the idea of the transmigration of souls." The statement that "few were left of the families to which Romulus gave the title, the 'gentes majores,' or 'old clans,' and Lucius Brutus the 'gentes minores,' or 'young clans'":—"paucis jam reliquis familiarum, quas Romulus 'majorum,' et Lucius Brutus 'minorum gentium' adpellaverant" (XI.25):—could never have been written by a Roman; because, in the first place, it was not Romulus who created the whole patrician93 body known as the "majores gentes"; the only senators whom he created were the "decuriones," or heads of the various "gentes" of the united Romans and Sabines; to these Tullus Hostilius added the most distinguished citizens of the Albans, when they were removed to Rome in his reign103;—and it was the united descendants of these two sets of patricians who were called by subsequent generations "patricii majorum gentium": in the second place, it was Tarquinius Priscus who enlarged the patrician body by creating the 100 representatives of the Luceres, or Etruscans, senators, and it was the descendants of these who were "called," by way of distinction from the others, "patricii minorum gentium." The new sort of nobility which originated with Brutus was a very different kind of thing: the new eminence104 or dignity conferred on the senators elected by Brutus was confined to themselves only, being strictly105 personal and purely106 titular107: until then Roman senators had been styled simply "Patres," but from that time downwards108 they were denominated "Patres CONSCRIPTI." No Roman could have been ignorant of this; and if the author of the Annals did not know it, we ought not to be too severe upon him, when we shall see afterwards that he was a Florentine of the fifteenth century: then on account of his having lived so many centuries after the events of which he writes, it is quite excusable that he should fall into a state of confusion with respect to this rather out of the way matter, though into such a state of confusion no Roman could have fallen on account of his intimate acquaintance with the outlines of his constitution, the customs of his country, and the distinctions of rank in native society.
VII. The author of the Annals takes the grandson of the great dictator Camillus to have been his son, when he observes: "after the illustrious recoverer of the city" (meaning Rome) "and his son Camillus": "post illum reciperatorem urbis, filiumque ejus Camillum," (II. 52). In that case what becomes of the exclamation109 of Spartian in his Life of the Emperor Severus, when speaking of great Romans who had no illustrious children: "What of Camillus? For had he children like himself?" "Quid Camillus? Nam sui similes110 liberos habuit?" Why, certainly, "he had children like himself," if Marcus Furius had been his son, and not his grandson; for he was Consul77 and Dictator like the renowned111 and noble-minded Lucius Furius. The mistake is easily accounted for in a modern European writing Roman history from the famous Marcus Furius Camillus being Consul only eleven years after his grandfather, which makes it look as if it was the son who succeeded, and not the grandson. But it cannot be explained in a Roman, who must have taken so much pride in the second Romulus of his country as to have known all about his family relations. The error is only comparable to the extreme case of an Englishman being supposed to take such very little interest in Queen Victoria as to mistake her for a daughter of William IV.
VIII. To be called upon to believe that these blunders could have been committed by Tacitus, is to ask one to believe that he, who made no such mistakes in his History, ceased to write like a Roman when composing the Annals. It is truly writing, not like an ancient Roman, but a modern European, when in the first book of the Annals Germanicus is represented consulting whether he will take a short and well known road, or one untried and difficult, though the reason is, that by going the longer, he would go the unguarded way, and really do things quicker: "consultatque, ex duobus itineribus breve et solitum sequatur, an impeditius et intentatum, eoque hostibus incautum. Delecta longiore via, cetera adcelerantur" (I. 50). Were it not for this passage, one would have thought that, in the days of Tiberius, Germany was almost as bare of roads as the present interior of Arabia and Chinese Tartary; and that each tribe in that enormous wilderness112 of wood and morass113 was approached, as the present people of Dahomey, Ashantee and Timbucto, by a single path; and that it was only, after the lapse35 of centuries, when, in the due course of things, Germany had assumed a more civilised character, that there were two, three, or more roads; so that we can quite understand it being said of the Bavarian general, John de Werth, in the seventeenth century, that he did this,—march out of the direct way, which was watched, by another road, which was longer because it was unguarded: thus pouncing114 on the enemy by night, and taking them so by surprise that they fled in alarm, he gained a bloodless victory, without the drawing of a sword from its scabbard. Any advantage that a modern general would gain in this way was not open to an ancient general, particularly when invading the country of a people like the Germans, mere50 savages115, who knew no more of such arts of warfare116, as guarding roads and sending out scouts117, than Red Indians, Maoris and Hottentots of the present time. Sir Garnet Wolseley, making his way to Coomassie, as a crow would fly, is just about the manner in which we may be sure that Germanicus made his way into Germany—as straight as he could go. But military history is not the forte118 of the author of the Annals. He knew it and avoided it as much as he could,—very unlike Tacitus, who, practically acquainted with military as well as civil affairs, writes with an obvious liking119, of combats and civil wars, and, according to military authorities competent to pass an opinion, shows everywhere familiarity with battles, marches, management of armies and conduct of generals.
One cannot understand how Tacitus, whose youth was passed in a camp, should not have known the whole minutiae120 about the Roman army; and that he should, with respect to its ensigns, exhibit extraordinary ignorance. The fact stood thus:—the legions had "signa," or standards; the "socii," or allies, that is, the Latins, had "vexilla," or flags; so, perhaps, had the Romans when marching under arms to a new settlement, or "colony"; but, certainly, soldiers raised in the provinces had no ensigns at all, neither standards nor flags; yet in the first book of the Annals we hear of some "maniples," or "infantry121 companies" of the legions that had been raised in Pannonia, when the news reached them of the breaking out of a mutiny in the camp, tearing to pieces their flags: "manipuli … postquam turbatum in castris accepere, vexilla convellunt" (I. 20). The mistake is similar to that which would be made if any one among ourselves were to give colours to our volunteers or standards to our yeomanry.
Here it may be noticed that the figures of speech of Tacitus are, like those of most ancient Romans, chiefly military. To be of the highest rank is, with him, "to lead the van,"—"primum pilum ducere" (Hist. IV. 3), or to set about a thing, "to be girt" (as with a sword),—"accingi" (Hist. IV. 79). The author of the Annals, though borrowing the latter phrase, goes anywhere but to the field of battle for his figures; he takes them mostly from the ways of ordinary civil life, selecting his metaphors122, now from the trader's shop or the merchant's counting-house, as "ratio constat" (An. I. 6), used when the debtor123 and creditor124 sides of an account balance one another; now from seamen125 steering126 and tacking127 vessels128, or coachmen driving horses, as "verbis moderans" (An. VI. 2), which Nipperdey says ought to be rendered, "touching-up and reining-in his words, and driving only at this."
IX. When Julius Caesar came to this country, he found the Britons, without an exception, thorough barbarians129, the best of them living in places that were fortified130 woods. The author of the Annals, only a century after this wild state of things in the barbarism of the inhabitants and the rudeness of their abodes131, speaks of London, in the reign of Nero, in the year 60, as if it were the chief residence of merchants and their principal mart of trade in the civilized132 world. If there be one thing certain, it is that centuries after,—in the middle of the fourth,—the people of London were only exporters of corn;—no certainty that they carried on any other kind of commerce, except it might be doing a little business in dogs, and slaves whom they captured from neighbouring barbarians,—their imports being polished bits of bone, toys and horse-collars. Progressing, rapidly under the Romans, Saxons, Danes, Normans, and in the time of the Plantagenets, they were in the fifteenth century a great and wealthy people, illustrious for their commercial transactions, dealing133 in every species of commodity, visited by merchants from every part of Europe, and envied by the most flourishing communities, such as the trading oligarchies134 of Italy. Any one living at that time,—especially in Italy (where many circumstances induce me to believe that the author or forger of the "Annals of Tacitus" lived),—and hearing a great deal of the wealth, greatness and immense antiquity of London, might easily fall into this mistake, grievous in its enormity as it is. But any one living about the time of Nero, as Tacitus did, could never have described London in this flourishing state of commercial greatness and prosperity. The chances are he never would have heard of London; for that would be supposing in a Roman at the close of the first or the commencement of the second century of our aera a geographical135 knowledge more minute than that of the President of the Royal Geographical Society, unless at the haphazard136 mention of any particular village in the newly annexed137 Fiji Islands, Sir Henry Rawlinson could enter into a correct account of its chief characteristic. But if we are to go to the extreme length of supposing that Tacitus had heard of London, he would know that it was a place of no repute, utterly138 insignificant139, far inferior in importance to two now almost forgotten places in Essex and Hertfordshire,—Maldon and St. Alban's,—called then respectively Camelodunum and Verulamium,—the former being a "colonia," and the latter a "municipium,"—London being a mere "praefectura." It is then the height of absurdity140 to believe that if Tacitus wrote the Annals we should have heard in that work London spoken of as "remarkably141 celebrated for the multiplicity of its merchants and its commodities": "copia negotiatorum et commeatuum maxime celebre" (XIV. 33).
X. The author of the Annals pretends to know more about prominent individuals in Rome than was known to their distinguished contemporaneous countrymen. He writes of Labeo Antistius, as if that jurisconsult were an example to the age in which he lived of all the virtues142 and all goodness, and possessed, to a masterly extent, accomplishments143 and acquirements; for thus he speaks of him in conjunction with Capito Ateius: "Capito Ateius … principem in civitate locum studiis adsecutus—Labeonem Antistium, iisdem artibus praecellentem … namque illa aetas duo pacis decora simul tulit; sed Labeo incorrupta libertate … celebratior" (An. III. 75). Horace, who was a contemporary of Labeo's, says that he was a maniac144, or, at any rate—"considered very crazy in the company of the sane":—
"Labeone insanior inter71
Sanos dicatur." (Sat. I. III. 82.)
Hitherto Horace by the side of "Tacitus" has been no better than a clay pitcher145 by a porcelain146 vase; thus his disparaging147, but, doubtless, quite correct estimate of Labeo has been till now altogether disregarded, in consequence of this passage in the Annals, from its author being credited with having exceeded what the ancient Romans had left us in the way of history.
So great is the repute of the Author of the Annals for supremacy148 in the historian's art that Justus Lipsius places no faith whatever in Suetonius when that, possibly, most veracious149 historian records in his Life of Tiberius (61) the number of the people who were executed for their attachment to Sejanus as amounting to twenty; the universally applauded, and, generally considered, most judicious150 Batavian critic of the sixteenth century, without a manuscript or edition for his authority, alters this number for One Thousand, because the author of the Annals speaks of a "countless151" mass of slain152 of all ranks, ages, and both (he says "all") sexes, and further describes corpses153 as lying about singly or piled up in heaps: "jacuit immensa strages, omnis sexus, omnis aetas, illustres, ignobiles, dispersi aut aggerati" (VI. 19).
Hence, too, Dr. Nipperdey, in drawing up a table of the Augustan family, in order to guard the reader against being perplexed154 by the relationships of that house, treats the same Suetonius as of no account when he says,—and Suetonius twice says it (Cal. I., Ner. 5),—that Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, married "the younger Antonia." "In default of other evidence on the question of fact," says the learned professor, "we must follow the better author, Tacitus,"—the better author being the writer of the Annals, who, on two occasions (I. 42; XII. 64), makes the "elder Antonia" the wife of Drusus.
Examples of this description could be multiplied. But it is not necessary to pursue this line of argument farther,—at least, at present. What is required just now is not so much proof that the author of the Annals did not write like the Romans, but that he did not write like Tacitus, notwithstanding the strenuous155 efforts he made to imitate him, and be mistaken for him by contemporaries and posterity. To do this I must bring forward from the History and the Annals an accumulation of coincidences, seeing that the fabricator, being a most acute person, must have proceeded upon the same principle as a man who forges a cheque upon a banker, and who, in the prosecution156 of his design, endeavours to imitate, as closely as he can, the handwriting of his victim, and do everything carefully enough to escape immediate157 detection, whatever may afterwards ensue.
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forger
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| v.伪造；n.（钱、文件等的）伪造者 | |
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forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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imposture
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| n.冒名顶替，欺骗 | |
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attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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foisted
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| 强迫接受，把…强加于( foist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lucre
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scroll
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| n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡 | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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13
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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14
par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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15
rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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16
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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17
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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18
variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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19
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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20
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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21
azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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22
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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23
conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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24
forgeries
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| 伪造( forgery的名词复数 )； 伪造的文件、签名等 | |
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25
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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26
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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27
monasteries
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| 修道院( monastery的名词复数 ) | |
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28
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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29
snails
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| n.蜗牛；迟钝的人；蜗牛( snail的名词复数 ) | |
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30
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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31
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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32
pontifical
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| adj.自以为是的，武断的 | |
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33
predecessors
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|
| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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34
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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35
lapse
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|
| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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36
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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37
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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38
distinguished
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|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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39
accomplished
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|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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40
conned
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|
| adj.被骗了v.指挥操舵( conn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
treasury
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|
| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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42
scholastic
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|
| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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43
lyric
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| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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44
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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45
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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46
ushered
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|
| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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48
slumbered
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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49
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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50
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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51
adamant
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| adj.坚硬的，固执的 | |
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52
commentators
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| n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员 | |
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53
possessed
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|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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54
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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55
perspicacity
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|
| n. 敏锐, 聪明, 洞察力 | |
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56
applied
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|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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57
diligent
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|
| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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58
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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59
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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60
conclave
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| n.秘密会议，红衣主教团 | |
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61
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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62
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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63
monstrously
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64
bungled
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|
| v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的过去式和过去分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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65
scotch
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|
| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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66
domains
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| n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产 | |
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67
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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68
bungling
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|
| adj.笨拙的，粗劣的v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的现在分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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69
fatality
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| n.不幸，灾祸，天命 | |
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70
fixed
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|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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71
inter
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| v.埋葬 | |
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72
usury
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| n.高利贷 | |
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73
asses
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|
| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
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74
seduced
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|
| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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75
antiquities
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|
| n.古老( antiquity的名词复数 )；古迹；古人们；古代的风俗习惯 | |
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76
consulate
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| n.领事馆 | |
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77
consul
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|
| n.领事；执政官 | |
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78
inexplicable
|
|
| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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79
authenticity
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|
| n.真实性 | |
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80
compulsorily
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| 强迫地，强制地 | |
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81
plausible
|
|
| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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82
exalted
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|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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83
posterity
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|
| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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84
penal
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|
| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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85
enactments
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| n.演出( enactment的名词复数 )；展现；规定；通过 | |
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86
attaining
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|
| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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87
banishing
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|
| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的现在分词 ) | |
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88
sinister
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|
| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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89
vim
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| n.精力，活力 | |
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90
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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91
repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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92
patricians
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|
| n.（古罗马的）统治阶层成员( patrician的名词复数 )；贵族，显贵 | |
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93
patrician
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|
| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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94
plebeians
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|
| n.平民( plebeian的名词复数 )；庶民；平民百姓；平庸粗俗的人 | |
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95
eligible
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| adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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96
eloquence
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|
| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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97
sublimated
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|
| v.（使某物质）升华( sublimate的过去式和过去分词 )；使净化；纯化 | |
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98
considerably
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|
| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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99
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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100
brass
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|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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101
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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102
memento
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| n.纪念品，令人回忆的东西 | |
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103
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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104
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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105
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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106
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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107
titular
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| adj.名义上的，有名无实的；n.只有名义（或头衔）的人 | |
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108
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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109
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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110
similes
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| （使用like或as等词语的）明喻( simile的名词复数 ) | |
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111
renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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112
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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113
morass
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| n.沼泽，困境 | |
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114
pouncing
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的现在分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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115
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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116
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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117
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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118
forte
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| n.长处，擅长；adj.(音乐)强音的 | |
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119
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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120
minutiae
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| n.微小的细节，细枝末节；（常复数）细节，小事( minutia的名词复数 ) | |
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121
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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122
metaphors
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| 隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 ) | |
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123
debtor
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|
| n.借方，债务人 | |
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124
creditor
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| n.债仅人，债主，贷方 | |
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125
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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126
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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127
tacking
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| （帆船）抢风行驶，定位焊[铆]紧钉 | |
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128
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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129
barbarians
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|
| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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130
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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131
abodes
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| 住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留 | |
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132
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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133
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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134
oligarchies
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|
| n.寡头统治的政府( oligarchy的名词复数 )；寡头政治的执政集团；寡头统治的国家 | |
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135
geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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136
haphazard
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| adj.无计划的，随意的，杂乱无章的 | |
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137
annexed
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| [法] 附加的，附属的 | |
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138
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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139
insignificant
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|
| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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140
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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141
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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142
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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143
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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144
maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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145
pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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146
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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147
disparaging
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| adj.轻蔑的，毁谤的v.轻视( disparage的现在分词 )；贬低；批评；非难 | |
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148
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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149
veracious
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| adj.诚实可靠的 | |
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150
judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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151
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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152
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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153
corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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154
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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155
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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156
prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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157
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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