Tacitus
Tacitus
PubliusCornelius Tacituswas a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors. These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus in AD 14 to the years of the First Jewish–Roman War in AD 70. There are substantial lacunae in the surviving texts,...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionHistorian
fall law ends
Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end. [Lat., Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat.]
men expression office
This I hold to be the chief office of history, to rescue virtuous actions from the oblivion to which a want of records would consign them, and that men should feel a dread of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, from their depraved expressions and base actions.
hate disposition humans
It is the nature of the human disposition to hate him whom you have injured.
grief heart grieving
None grieve so ostentatiously as those who rejoice most in heart. [Lat., Nulla jactantius moerent quam qui maxime laetantur.]
enemy kind flattery
Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies. [Lat., Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes.]
people flattery depends
People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.
flattery labor servility
Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.
haste falsehood uncertainty
Falsehood avails itself of haste and uncertainty.
experience teach
Experience teaches. [Lat., Experientia docet.]
gains succeed vigor
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
change growth body
Bodies are slow of growth, but are rapid in their dissolution. [Lat., Corpora lente augescent, cito extinguuntur.]
father names greek
They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses , with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes , was formerly discovered on the same spot, and that certain monuments and tombs with Greek inscriptions, still exist on the borders of Germany and Rhaetia .
ocean our-world race
The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For in former times, it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive; and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us,is seldom entered by a sail from our world.
war shameful
Miseram pacem vel bello bene mutari. Even war is preferable to a shameful peace.