I. In the qualities of the writers; and why that difference. —II. In the narrative1, and in what respect.—III. In style and language.—IV. The reputation Tacitus has of writing bad Latin due to the mistakes of his imitator.
I. Statesmen learn the things which are of use to them in government by reading the History, because Tacitus recounts the actions of the world under the imperial rule of Rome. All men can profit in the choice of morals from reading the Annals, on account of its writer relating principally the actions of sovereign princes and illustrious persons in their private capacity.
This diversity of treatment results from the difference in the qualities of the writers. Tacitus possessed3 a consummate4 knowledge of the true policy of States, and the use and extent of government. Accordingly, he reveals measures necessary for the successful carrying on of war, or the proper and equitable5 administration of affairs in peace, while he places before us a graphic6 and presumably true picture of the mode in which the Romans ruled their Empire in the first century of the Christian7 aera. The author of the Annals was acquainted with an entirely8 different form and order of statesmanship and politics. Hence he immerses us in crooked10 turnings of false policy and dark intrigues11 of bad ambition, forcibly reminding us of what made the greatest portion of the European art of government in the fifteenth century towards the close of the mediaeval and the commencement of the modern periods. He favours us with a paucity12 of maxims13 relating to government in general, or the different branches and offices which make up the body politic9; but enters, with tedious fulness, into the rise, operation, consequences and proper restraint of the genuine passions and natural propensities14 of mankind in individuals, public and private.
We search in vain in the History for any trace of the melancholy15 that we find in the Annals; and in vain do we look in the Annals for any pictures of virtue16 and lessons of wisdom which in the History are taught us by bright examples and illustrious actions. Had the same hand that wrote the Annals written the History, we should have had in the latter work a very different treatment. The record would have been dark and dismal17, even to repulsion, the opportunities being ample for an historian of gloomy disposition18 to indulge his humour, when the character of the History is thus described with truth in the Preface to Sir Henry Saville's translation of it:—"In these four books we see all the miseries19 of a torn and declining state; the empire usurped20; the princes murdered; the people wandering; the soldiers tumultuous; nothing unlawful to him that hath power, and nothing so unsafe as to be securely innocent." Then, after stating what we learn from the examples of Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian, the writer adds: "In them all, and in the state of Rome under them, we see the calamities22 that follow civil war, where laws lie asleep, and all things are judged by the sword." In going over such a dreary23 period of human history, Tacitus is as composed and cheerful as if he was dwelling24 on the gayest and brightest of themes.
The cause of this is to be found in the fact that there was nothing to overshadow the soul of Tacitus with gloom. However painful and dire25 may have been the constraint26 to other Romans during the fifteen years' rule of Domitian, he had no ground of complaint: far from that; for he says that he was advanced by that Emperor further in dignity than by Vespasian and Titus. In the reign2 of Trajan he must have been supremely27 happy; for he speaks of it himself as "a time of rare felicity,"—"rara temporum felicitate,"—when men might "think what they pleased and express what they thought." His domestic life must have been blest by the perfect devotion and tender attachment28 of a wife, who, then in her prime, had surely verified the brilliant hopes of the promising29 bride. (Agr. 9.) In the maturity30 of his days he lived again in his children; for that he had children we know from the Emperor Tacitus, a century and a half after, boasting of being his descendant, a pride that was shared in the fifth century by Polemius, a Prefect of Gaul, as we learn from a remark of the Prefect's friend, Sidonius Apollinaris. He enjoyed the most brilliant of literary reputations, as the anecdote32 sufficiently33 reveals of a stranger, who, addressing him at a public spectacle, and being informed that he must know him well from his writings, remarked: "Then you must be either Tacitus or Pliny." He was happy in the friendship of Pliny the Younger, and men as good, eminent34 and distinguished35 as that elegant disciple36 of Cicero's.
There was then nothing, in the fortunes of Tacitus to make him trenchant37, biting and cynical38; but, on the contrary, most gentle, as he was, and most placid39 and benign40. Such being his character, a kind interpretation41 and a candid42 sense of actions and individuals meet us on every page of his History. Still in enumerating43 the virtues44 of eminent persons he does not omit their vices45 or failings: his way of doing this is peculiar46. He tells us Sabinus served the State for five and thirty years with great distinction at home and abroad, and was of unquestionable integrity, but adds jestingly "he talked too much."—"Quinque et triginta stipendia in republica fecerat, domi militiaeque clarus; innocentiam justitiamque ejus non argueret: sermonis nimium erat." (Hist. III. 75.) Otho and Vitellius quarrel and charge each other with debaucheries and the grossest crimes; the historian then, with dry humour, remarks, "neither was wrong":—"Mox, quasi rixantes stupra et flagitia invicem objectavere: neuter falso." (Hist. I. 74.) This witty47 and ridiculing48 vein49 does not prevent him from being always kindly50. The benignity51 of his nature is seen in all his portraitures (which look, by the way, like the portraitures of real men); it is observable in his character of Licinius Mucianus (I. 10), Cornelius Fuscus (II. 86), Helvidius Priscus (IV. 5), and others;—lovely portraits where defects or peccadilloes52 are given along with real and positive virtues, and in an antithetical manner. His antithetical manner is preserved in the Annals; but, instead of blandness53, we come across a propensity54 to form unfavourable opinions of character and conduct, as when the Athenians are designated "that scum of nations":—"colluviem illam nationum" (II. 55); and Octavia, "the sprig of a gipsy fiddler" [Endnote 074]:—"tibicinis Aegyptii subolem." (XIV. 61) There is wit and ridicule55 in both works, but it is not the wit and ridicule of the same individual; it is sprightly56 and amusing in the History; it is ungracious and actually cruel in the Annals.
This difference in the writing of Tacitus and the author of the Annals may be accounted for in many ways,—perhaps in none better than this:—When Tacitus lived no one despaired of public cares being attended to, or the plans of the wise being employed in advancing the national welfare; but when the author of the Annals lived, everybody despaired; private profligacy57 was as rampant58 as public misery59, and, amid the universal degeneracy, scheming politicians disregarded the good and greatness of their country to be intriguers at court for the improvement of their position.
Those were the times when Louis XI. supplied the places of the ministers and marshals, the generals and admirals of France, the Dunois, the La Tremoilles, the Brézés and the Chabannes with mere60 creatures—new and obscure men who aided him in his artful schemes and plans of government: he made his barber an ambassador, his tailor a herald61 at arms, and his phlebotomist a chancellor62: he imposed enormous taxes on the people, and when the people revolted, he ordered some of the ringleaders to be torn to pieces alive by horses, and the others to be beheaded, as occurred at Rheims, Angers, Alen?on and Aurillac. Francis of Carrara, the Lord of Padua, cruelly murdered the Venetian General, Galeaz of Mantua, when the Doge and Council of Venice refused to ratify63 the terms of a capitulation. Suspicion attached to the peace in which Ivan Basilowitch lived and ruled in his palace at Moscow, surrounded completely by a wooden wall. Enclosed, too, by a very large tract64 of land, and in a most magnificent mansion65 which he built for himself and his companions at Ripaglia, a place pleasantly situated66 on the Lake of Geneva, Amedeus, the last Count and first Duke of Savoy, so abandoned himself in his unobserved private and solitary67 life, to all kinds of debaucheries, that Desmarets says in his "Tableau68 des Papes" (p. 167) that from that originated the phrase "to feast and make merry,"—"faire repaille"; yet this very Amedeus afterwards acted the part of the only true Pope at Tonon during the greater portion of the two years, 1440 and 1441, having been elected to the Pontificate by the Fathers of Basle during the Papacy of Eugenius IV. When the throne of Don Carlos, the Infant of Navarre, was usurped, on the death of his mother, Blanche of Navarre, by her husband, John I. of Aragon, a disgraceful quarrel and a prolonged war ensued between father and son, when the son, being repeatedly defeated in battle, was finally captured and cast into prison by the father, and poisoned by his mother-in-law; although he was deserving of a better fate, being an enlightened prince who wrote a History of the Kings of Navarre, which is still preserved in the archives of Pampeluna. A blind and feeble old monarch70, Muley Alboha?an, King of Granada, ordered the massacre71 of a number of children by his first marriage; Ziska destroyed 550 churches and monasteries72 in Germany alone; and, for attempting reforms in religion, Huss and Jerome of Prague were cruelly burnt alive at the stake. These and similar horrors of those distressful73 times, which find fit counterparts in revolting incidents in the Annals, could not but deeply affect the soul of a man ardently74 loving liberty and devoted75 to humanity as, unquestionably, was the forger76 of that work: hence throughout his book the sting which misfortune gives, and the moodiness77 which melancholy begets78.
A spirit of liberty runs through his work; but the spirit is not the same as that which pervades79 the History of Tacitus any more than that his merits are like the Roman's in precision of delineating actions and characters. The good temper of Tacitus causes him to differ from other writers in the estimation of character. He gives a better account of Galba and Vitellius than Suetonius; of Vitellius and Nero than the abbreviator of Cassius Dio, Xiphilinus, of Otho than Juvenal; and of Vinius than Plutarch. Galba, who, in Suetonius, puts to death, with their wives and children, the Governors in Spain and Gaul who did not side with his party during the life of Nero, is, with Tacitus, a prince remarkable80 for integrity and justice, and such faults as he has are not, strictly81 speaking, his own, but those of worthless friends who abuse his confidence, for we are told that it is the pernicious counsels of Titus Vinius and Cornelius Laco, the former depraved and profligate82, the other slothful and incapable83, which first lose him the popular favour and ultimately prove his ruin: "Invalidum senem Titus Vinnius et Cornelius Laeo, alter deterrimus mortalium, alter ignavissimus, odio flagitorum oneratum, contemptu inertiae destruebant." (Hist. I. 6 in.) Vitellius, who, according to Suetonius, puts one of his sons to death, and poisons his mother, or starves her to death, is, in Tacitus, a tender father doing all for his offspring that fortune permits him to do in his excess of adversity (Hist. II. 59), and a respectful, sensitive son seeking to abdicate84 his empire in order to rescue his parent from impending85 evils. (Hist. III. 67.) Juvenal shows us Otho carrying into the tumult21 of the battle-field the effeminacy that disgraces him in time of peace; Tacitus represents Otho as an active warrior86 (Hist. II. 11); and convinces us that there was more of good than evil in that emperor. Xiphilinus paints the wife of Vitellius as wickedly dissolute; Tacitus as a respectable woman of whom the State had no complaint to make in her misfortune. He can find virtues even in Vinius (Hist. I. 13), whom the Roman people execrated87 and whom Plutarch castigates88 in terms of unmeasured reprehension89.
The Author of the Annals brings before our vision quite opposite reflections from the mirror of life: his pictures are quite horrid90 of revolting crimes unrelieved by virtuous91 actions in Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Sejanus, Agrippina, Messalina, Albucilla, and other men and women. His character of Tiberius is the wonderfully drawn92 portrait of the most absolute and artful tyrant93 that was ever created by the fancy of man; and we may be as certain that such a character never existed as we may be assured that that the wise maxims and fine things were ever uttered which he tells us passed the lips in private of Emperors and Ministers of State. Though not a single virtue relieves the vices of Tiberius in the Annals, Suetonius speaks of him as showing clemency94 when a public officer; Cassius Dio describes him as so humane95 that he condemned96 nobody for his estate, nor confiscated97 any man's goods, nor exacted money by force; and Velleius Paterculus makes him all but a pattern of the virtues,—if Velleius Paterculus is an authority,—it being just possible that his "Historiae Romanae ad Marcum Vinicium Consulem" may some of these days be as clearly proved to be as glaring a modern forgery98, as I am now attempting to prove the Annals of Tacitus to be: certain it is that what we have of Velleius Paterculus is supplied by only one MS., which was found under very suspicious circumstances in very suspicious times.
II. The general train of the narrative may be as nervous in the Annals as in the History; but the latter is proof against all objections to imperfection and hurry of narrative: every now and then errors of this description mar31 the workmanship of the Annals, showing at once that it was not composed by Tacitus. From what he did in the History, he never would have abruptly99 dropped the proceedings100 in the Senate with regard to Tiberius and the honours paid to his family: there would have been a measure of time and place in the campaigns of Germanicus: he would have told us what urged Piso to his acts of apparent madness; and whether he was guilty or innocent of poisoning Germanicus: we should have known whether the adopted son of Tiberius came to a violent end; whether Agrippina perished on account of food withheld101 from her in her dungeon102; and how Julia, the granddaughter of Augustus died. This habit of occasionally neglecting to impart complete information, which is not at all in the manner of Tacitus, cannot be due to the difference of arrangement in the two works; which, in itself, is a very suspicious difference; for the plan in the Annals is to give the transactions of every year in chronological103 order, whereas that in the History is not to keep each year distinct in itself, but allow occurrences to find their proper place according to their nature, before the time when they happen. [Endnote 081]
In addition to this very suspicious difference, there is another producing so much doubt that alone it seems to stamp with truth the theory of the Annals being a forgery.
Tacitus passes over in silence men renowned104 for learning who took no part in the historical events related by him. The author of the Annals, at the end of one historic year, before passing on to record the events of that which follows, mentions their deaths, as of the two famous juris-consults, Capito Ateius and Labeo Antistius. (III. 74.) In this style of writing we detect two men differing from each other as widely as De Thou differs from Guicciardini: De Thou, confining himself to his own times, descends105 into minutiae106, so as to record the deaths of the great men of his day; Guicciardini, with his eye fixed107 on his country, passes over memorials of individuals to dwell on the various causes which brought about the great changes in the civil and ecclesiastical policy of his stirring period.
Another thing extremely suspicious is that nowhere in his History, nor even in his biographical work, Agricola, does Tacitus introduce a whole letter. All that he does is to give the substance, and not the contents, as the letter from Tiberius to Germanicus in Germany. (Hist. V. 75.) Elsewhere he refers merely to the contents of letters, as in the second book of the History (64). Speeches are found in his works, for this reason:—Speeches form no small part of what is transacted108 in the senate, at the army and before the emperor; they issue to the public, they pass through the mouths of men, and they form much weighty matter. Tacitus then seems to have thought that if he inserted speeches, he would be maintaining the majesty109 of history by attending to great matters, but that if he inserted letters, as they refer generally to private affairs, he would be faulty as an historian, by ceasing to be grave and becoming trifling110. There is no accounting111, then, for the letter that is found in the Annals (III. 53), if we are to assume that that work was the composition of Tacitus, except we are ready to admit that he was capable of descending112 from the accustomed gravity of his lofty historical manner to be a rival for supremacy113 in the small style of such indifferent memoirists, as Vulcatius Gallicanus, who has almost as many letters as there are pages in his very short life of the Emperor Avidius Cassius. [Endnote 083]
Nobody can satisfactorily explain why, or how it was possible that, Tacitus should have contradicted in the Annals what he says in the History of the Legions of Rome and the Praetorian and Urban Cohorts. He tells us in his History that his countrymen had legions in Britain, Gaul, and Italy; in the Annals we are told that the Romans had no troops in those countries. We gather from the Annals, that there were eight legions in Germany, three in Spain, and two each in Moesia, Africa, and Pannonia; from the History we find that there were seven legions in Germany, three in Moesia, two in Spain, and one each in Africa and Pannonia. We are told in the History that the Praetorian Cohorts were nine, in the Annals ten. So we are told in the History that the Urban Cohorts were four (quatuor urbanae cohortes scribebantur) (Hist. II. 93), and in the Annals three (insideret urbem proprius miles, tres urbanae). (An. IV. 5.) It matters not what are the right statements in these several instances; all that concerns us in our inquiry114 is that, here beyond all question are two different men, possessing quite a different knowledge, informing us about the same things; and the disagreements would be mighty115 puzzling on any other theory than that which we are advancing,—that two different men wrote the History and the Annals.
So, again, with respect to the twenty-one, and afterwards twenty-five priests of Apollo, the "Sodales Augustales," otherwise styled "Sacerdotes Titii," the latter name being given to them, according to Varro, after birds similarly called, whose motions it was their duty to watch in certain auguries116 (though what the ancients called the "titius," by the way, is about as little known as what Pliny calls the "spinthurnyx,"—Servius and Isidorus thinking they might have been "doves," from such fowls117 being styled by the common people "tetas" and "tetos"). Livy makes no mention of these priests; neither does Dionysius of Halicarnassus, though Dionysius was very fond of entering into details of Roman antiquities118. Tacitus gives one origin to this priesthood, the author of the Annals another; Tacitus, describing the gladiatorial shows by which the birthday of Vitellius was celebrated119 in the year 15, says, that the Emperor Tiberius consecrated120 those priests to the Julian House, in imitation of their first institutor, Romulus, who consecrated them to King Tatius: (facem Augustales subdidere: quod sacerdotium, ut Romulus Tatio regi, ita Caesar Tiberius Juliae genti, sacravit.) (Hist. II. 95.) The author of the Annals, as if this passage had entirely slipped his attention, or dropped from his memory, or forgetting that he was engaged in the forgery of a work by Tacitus, corrects that view by making quite a different statement, that it was King Tatius, and not Romulus, who first instituted, and apparently121 consecrated that order of priesthood to himself, his exact words being: "that same year saw established a new religious ceremony, by the priesthood being added of the 'Augustales Sodales,' as of yore Titus Tatius, to retain the holy rites122 of the Sabines, had instituted the 'Sodales Titii'":—Idem annus novas caermonias accepit, addito sodalium Augustalium sacerdotio, ut quodam Titus Tatius retinendis Sabinorum sacris sodales Titios instituerat. (An. I. 54.) As many writings bearing upon the remote time of Romulus and the Sabine kings may be lost, and the author of the Annals may have had, in the fifteenth century, authorities not extant now, to warrant him in writing history so very differently from Tacitus; and as that Roman in such matters must have taken what he said on trust from others, we cannot here decide who was right and who wrong; but what is most important in this investigation123 is that the disagreement is quite sufficient to convince us that Tacitus did not write the Annals.
We shall hereafter more particularly distinguish the two works by other differences in their matter and form, the manner of their authors, and the substance of the things treated of: for the present we may proceed to distinguish them by some differences in their style and language.
III. In these respects nothing is easier than to detect two writers, no matter how careful they may be in endeavouring to imitate the style and language of each other: there will always be some shade,—and indeed, a very strong shade,—whereby to distinguish their manner of thinking and their choice and arrangement of words; there will be more or less purity, simplicity124, grace and propriety125 in their choice of language; more or less beauty, precision, cadence126 and harmony in their collocation of words: their cogitative127 faculty128 will vary in measure of thought—in force or tenuity; nor will they resemble in their train of ideas,—be that regular, methodical and uniform, or unsteady, scattered129 and disorderly. There must ever be these important differences; they spring out of individual idiosyncrasy; their exercise is involuntary, being dependent upon the native taste and turn of mind of the writer; from such influence he can no more escape, than he can avoid in his physical qualities a peculiar gait or tone of voice, look, laugh, or mode of bearing. If any one question this, let him take up any of the dramas written conjointly by members of the School of Shakespeare in the reign of James the First. They all tried to shape themselves in the same mould; they served apprentices130 to one another in constructing and composing the drama; Cartwright strove to write like his instructor131, Ben Jonson; Massinger like his master, Shakespeare; Shakespeare, too, like Marston and Robert Green (for Marston taught him how to write tragedy, and Green taught him how to write comedy): they believed that they eminently132 succeeded in catching133 each other's manner, and to such a nicety, that they could write together, without the handiwork of one being distinguishable from the handiwork of the other. In this spirit Shakespeare wrote with Fletcher; Dekker with William Rowley; Ford134, too, with Dekker; numerous others similarly composed in companionship, Middleton, Marston, Day and Heywood; but any one acquainted with their separate productions, consequently, with their style and language can hardly fail to point out what this one wrote, and what was written by the other. Test this by Shakespeare, who, it would be supposed, is the most difficult to detect because it is generally stated and believed that he wrote in a variety of styles; it is only a seeming variety; his mode of versification certainly differs—he changed his measures with his subjects; still the same fancy is always at work, impressing images with strength on the mind; there is no change in the weightiness of the style, the quaintness135 of the language, the justness of the representations, the depth of the reflections, whether he be writing the two worst plays in which he took part (for portions only seem to have been supplied by him), Pericles and Titus Andronicus, or his two best, conceived so massively and executed in such a masterly manner, Macbeth and Othello. In the Two Noble Kinsmen136, which he wrote with Fletcher, any body familiar with his acknowledged dramas, can trace him as easily as a traveller follows with his finger the course of the Rhone while that river is traversing the Lake of Geneva; for one can tell with as much certainty, as if assured of it, that he wrote the whole opening of that tragedy, or First Act, while his light, airy and more sprightly collaborator137 wrote all the closing part, or last Act.
Now, the author of the Annals seems to have displayed remarkable diligence in a careful study of the style and language of Tacitus with the view of reproducing them in the multiplicity and variety of expressions that would necessarily occur in the course of the very long work he meditated138 forging. To judge from his handiwork, he was specially139 struck by certain peculiarities:—such as dignified140 and powerful expression, with extraordinary conciseness141 joined to loftiness of diction;—hence, his brevity, being dissembled, and altogether foreign to his own natural diction, which was most copious142, has a hardness and obscurity, of which the brevity of Tacitus is totally void. He seems to have furthermore observed how the language of Tacitus has a poetical143 complexion144, is figurative, nor altogether free from oratorical145 tinsel with mixture of foreign, especially Greek construction, and the most peculiar, new and unusual turns of expression, alliterations and similar endings of words. Yet notwithstanding all this care and diligence he was utterly146 incapable of approaching in language and style so close to the great original he pretended to be as to be confounded with him; he was, indeed, not a bit more successful in approaching his prototype, than that emulous imitator of Tacitus, Ammianus Marcellinus.
Much might be taken from the Excursus of Roth and the Prolegomena of D?derlein and B?tticher greatly to strengthen this part of my argument; but, their treatises147 being well known, I abstain148, merely observing that, from their remarks, it will be seen that only in the Annals are verbs constructed in a very uncommon149 and frequently archaic150 manner, as the ancient perfect, conpesivere (IV. 32), of which there is no example in Tacitus, as there is in Catullus:
O Latonia, maximi
Magna progenies Jovis,
Quam mater prope Deliam
Deposivit olivam. XXXIV. 5-8.
It will be also seen in the above-mentioned most able production of D?derlein that the infinitive151 and the particles ut, ne and quod are joined with many verbs; that there is an interchange of ad and ut (An. II. 62); a joining of the present and the perfect, and a joining of the infinitive with those two tenses. In the midst of this damaging criticism D?derlein quotes Walther, who has also commented upon the Annals, but in terms of enthusiastic commendation, for he praises such writing as first-rate workmanship—"adjustments by design," says the ingenious German; not, of course, the unconscious errors, that a modern European might make in a case of forgery: the discovery reminds me of Mr. Ruskin's unqualified eulogies152 of everything done by the brush of Turner, which caused the great artist to observe: —"This gentleman has found out to be beauties what I have always considered to be blemishes153."
Professor Hill, also, in his "Essay upon the Principles of Historical Composition" has noticed in the Annals some modes of construction not to be met with in any Roman writer, such as a wrong case after a verb,—a genitive after apiscor which governs an accusative: "dum dominationis apisceretur" (VI. 45); and an accusative after praesideo which governs a dative: "proximum que Galliae litus rostratae naves154 praesidebant" (IV. 5).
IV. Here let me pause for a moment to glance at a prodigious155 thing that has been done to Tacitus: it really has no parallel in literature: a number of foreigners have impugned156 his knowledge of his native tongue. The learned German, Rheinach (Beatus Rhenanus), began, for he could not admit in his Basle edition in 1533 of the works of Tacitus that the language of that Roman was equal to the language of Livy, being florid, affected157, stiff and unnatural158; his observation being, that "though Tacitus was without elegance159 and purity in his language, from Latin in his time being deteriorated160 by foreign turns and figures of speech; yet there was one thing he retained in its entirety, and that was blood and marrow161 in his matter": "Quamvis Tacitus caruerit nitore et puritate linguae, abeunte jam Romano sermone in peregrinas formas atque figuras; succum tamen et sanguinem rerum incorruptum retinuit." Eight years after the famous Tuscan lawyer and scholar, Ferretti, followed by accusing Tacitus in the preface to the edition of his works published at Lyons in 1541, of writing with inelegance and impurity162: "consequently," he says, "in the estimation of eminent literary men Tacitus is not to be ranked after, but rather before Livy; and yet his style, which was florid, though smacking163 of the thought and care that pleased in the days of Vespasian and his son, and which, from that time,—on account of the Latin language gradually declining in purity,—steadily degenerated164 into a kind of affected composition, ought not to be placed on a par69 with nor preferred to Livy's, whose language flows naturally and agreeably, for his was the age of the greatest purity": "Unde factum, ut praestantium in literis virorum judicio Livio non sit postponendus Tacitus, quin potius anteferendus: non quod hujus floridum, ac meditationem et curam olens dicendi genus, quale sub Vespasianis placuit, ac indies exin degeneravit in affectatam quandam compositionem, exolescente paulatim sermonis latini puritate, Livianae dictioni, illi naturaliter amabiliterque fluenti (nam id seculum purissimum fuit), aequari debeat, aut praeferri." Next came the Milanese schoolman, Alciati, who preferred the certainly sometimes elegant and polished phrases of Paulus Jovius (in his letter to Jovius himself prefixed to the edition of 1558 of the renowned Bishop165 of Nocera de' Pagani's principal production, the 45 books of Historia Sui Temporis):—"they will not ask of you the reason why you have not reached the soft exuberance166 of Livy, after you have thoroughly167 regretted imitating the calm solemnity of Sallust, and been satisfied with only the few flowers you have plucked with a discriminative168 hand out of the gardens of Quintus Curtius more frequently than the thorny169 thickets170 of Cornelius Tacitus": "Non reposcent a te rationem, cur lacteam Livii ubertatem non sis assecutus; postquam et te omnino piguerit Sallustii sobrietatem imitari, et satis tibi fuerit pauculos tantum flores ex Quinti Curtii pratis, soepius quam ex Cornelii Taciti senticetis arguta manu decerpsisse." Then succeeded, as fast as flakes171 falling in a snow-storm, a long string of acute critics, each with his just objections, and each more pointed172 than his predecessors173 in his animadversions, down to the present day, when, I suppose it may be said that the eminent Dr. Nipperdey stands foremost amongst the exposers of the bad Latinity of Tacitus. The Tacitus, thus universally proclaimed, and for nearly a dozen generations, not to be a competent master of his own tongue, is not the Tacitus of the History, it is the "Tacitus" of the Annals; and when hereafter I point out who this "Tacitus" of the Annals was,—an Italian "Grammaticus," or "Latin writer" of the fifteenth century,—the reader will not be at all surprised that he every now and then slips and trips in Latin;—on the contrary, the reader would be amazed if it were not so; because he would regard it as a thing more than phenomenal,—as a matter partaking of the miraculous;—he must consider himself as coming in contact with a being altogether superhuman;—if the "Tacitus" of the fifteenth century, who, as a Florentine, may have been a complete master of the choicest Tuscan, had written with the correctness of the Tacitus of the first century, who, as befitted a "civis Romanus" of consular174 rank, was perfectly175 skilled in his native tongue;—aye, quite as much so as Livy, Sallust, or any other accomplished176 man of letters of ancient Rome.
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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equitable
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| adj.公平的；公正的 | |
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6
graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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7
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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8
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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9
politic
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| adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政 | |
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10
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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11
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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12
paucity
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| n.小量，缺乏 | |
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13
maxims
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| n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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14
propensities
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| n.倾向，习性( propensity的名词复数 ) | |
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15
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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16
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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17
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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18
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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19
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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20
usurped
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| 篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权 | |
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21
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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22
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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23
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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24
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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25
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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26
constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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27
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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28
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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29
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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30
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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31
mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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32
anecdote
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|
| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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33
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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34
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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35
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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36
disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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37
trenchant
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| adj.尖刻的，清晰的 | |
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38
cynical
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|
| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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39
placid
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|
| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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40
benign
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| adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的 | |
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41
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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42
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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43
enumerating
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| v.列举，枚举，数( enumerate的现在分词 ) | |
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44
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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45
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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46
peculiar
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|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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47
witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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48
ridiculing
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的现在分词 ) | |
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49
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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50
kindly
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|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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51
benignity
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| n.仁慈 | |
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52
peccadilloes
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| n.轻罪，小过失( peccadillo的名词复数 ) | |
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53
blandness
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| n.温柔，爽快 | |
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54
propensity
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| n.倾向；习性 | |
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55
ridicule
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|
| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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56
sprightly
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|
| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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57
profligacy
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| n.放荡，不检点，肆意挥霍 | |
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58
rampant
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|
| adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的 | |
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59
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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60
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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61
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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62
chancellor
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| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
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63
ratify
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| v.批准，认可，追认 | |
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64
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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65
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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66
situated
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|
| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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67
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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68
tableau
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| n.画面，活人画（舞台上活人扮的静态画面） | |
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69
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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70
monarch
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|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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71
massacre
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|
| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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72
monasteries
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| 修道院( monastery的名词复数 ) | |
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73
distressful
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|
| adj.苦难重重的，不幸的，使苦恼的 | |
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74
ardently
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|
| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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75
devoted
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|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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76
forger
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|
| v.伪造；n.（钱、文件等的）伪造者 | |
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77
moodiness
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| n.喜怒无常；喜怒无常，闷闷不乐；情绪 | |
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78
begets
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| v.为…之生父( beget的第三人称单数 )；产生，引起 | |
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79
pervades
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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80
remarkable
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|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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81
strictly
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|
| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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82
profligate
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|
| adj.行为不检的；n.放荡的人，浪子，肆意挥霍者 | |
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83
incapable
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|
| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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84
abdicate
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| v.让位，辞职，放弃 | |
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85
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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86
warrior
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|
| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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87
execrated
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|
| v.憎恶( execrate的过去式和过去分词 )；厌恶；诅咒；咒骂 | |
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88
castigates
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|
| v.严厉责骂、批评或惩罚（某人）( castigate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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89
reprehension
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| n.非难，指责 | |
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90
horrid
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|
| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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91
virtuous
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|
| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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92
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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93
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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94
clemency
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| n.温和，仁慈，宽厚 | |
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95
humane
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|
| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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96
condemned
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|
| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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97
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98
forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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99
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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100
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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101
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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102
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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103
chronological
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| adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的 | |
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104
renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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105
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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106
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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107
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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108
transacted
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| v.办理（业务等）( transact的过去式和过去分词 )；交易，谈判 | |
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109
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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110
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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111
accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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112
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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113
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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114
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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115
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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116
auguries
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| n.（古罗马）占卜术，占卜仪式( augury的名词复数 )；预兆 | |
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117
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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118
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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119
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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120
consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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121
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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122
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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123
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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124
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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125
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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126
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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127
cogitative
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| adj.深思熟虑的，有思考力的 | |
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128
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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129
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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130
apprentices
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| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 ) | |
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131
instructor
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| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
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132
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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133
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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134
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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135
quaintness
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| n.离奇有趣，古怪的事物 | |
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kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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collaborator
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| n.合作者，协作者 | |
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meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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conciseness
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| n.简洁，简短 | |
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copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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oratorical
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| adj.演说的，雄辩的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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abstain
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| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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151
infinitive
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| n.不定词；adj.不定词的 | |
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eulogies
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| n.颂词，颂文( eulogy的名词复数 ) | |
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blemishes
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| n.（身体的）瘢点( blemish的名词复数 )；伤疤；瑕疵；污点 | |
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naves
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| n.教堂正厅( nave的名词复数 )；本堂；中央部；车轮的中心部 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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impugned
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| v.非难，指谪( impugn的过去式和过去分词 )；对…有怀疑 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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deteriorated
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| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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impurity
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| n.不洁，不纯，杂质 | |
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smacking
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| 活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的 | |
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degenerated
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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exuberance
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| n.丰富；繁荣 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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discriminative
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| 有判别力 | |
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thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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170
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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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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consular
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| a.领事的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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