The Histories

by Tacitus, D. S. Levene (Editor), W. H. Fyfe

Overview

In the surviving books of his Histories the barrister-historian Tacticus writing some thirty years after the events he describes, gives us a detailed account based on excellent authorities. In the ' long but single year ' of revolution four emperors emerge in succession: Galba, the martinet; Otho, conspirator, dandy and symbol of self-sacrifice; Vitellius, the unambitious hedonist upon whom greatness was thrust to his own undoing; and the ultimate victor, the no-nonsense Vespasian, who established the Flavian dynasty.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199540709
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2008
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	245,865
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

D. S. Levene is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Durham. He was educated at the City of London School and Brasenose College, Oxford. His writings include Religion in Livy (Leiden, 1993) and articles on Sallust and Tacitus.

Table of Contents

The HistoriesIntroduction

Book One

1-11 The Setting of the Story
12-50 The Murder of Galba
51-90 The Vitellian Advance

Book Two

1-10 Flavian Caution
11-45 The First Battle of Cremona
46-56 Otho's Suicide
57-73 Vitellius in Northern Italy
74-86 Vespasian Emperor
87-101 Rome Under Vitellius

Book Three

1-35 The Second Battle of Cremona
36-48 A World Convulsed
49-86 The March on Rome

Book Four

1-11 A Divided Senate
12-37 Civilis Revolts
38-53 The New Year, A.D. 70
54-80 The Rhineland Recovered
81-86 Signs and Wonders

Book Five

1-13 The Jews
14-26 The Collapse of Civilis

Bibliography
Key to Technical Terms
Key to Place-Names
Maps index of Personal Names

Editorial Reviews

"[P]lenty here to savour....Tacitus was not just a fine writer, he was also a senior Roman politician."—Max Davidson, The Daily Telegraph

From the Publisher

The Roman historian Tacitus details the turbulent “Year of the Four Emperors,” 69 CE, which was rife with war, political violence, chicanery, inept and vicious leaders, and even an assault on the Capitol. Narrator David Timson, with a fine voice and an easy mastery of pacing, tone, and the intelligent expression of the text’s meaning, goes beyond mere narration to bring out the mind and character of Tacitus implicit in the book: the worldly, but not jaded, judge of men, at once broad-minded and censorious. Timson gives appropriate emotions—anger, disdain, despair—when reading speeches quoted in the text, but Tacitus he renders as both coolly sophisticated and sardonically judgmental. He doesn’t read Tacitus; he performs AS Tacitus recounting the history, which gives this audiobook an extra spark. W.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile

The Roman historian Tacitus details the turbulent “Year of the Four Emperors,” 69 CE, which was rife with war, political violence, chicanery, inept and vicious leaders, and even an assault on the Capitol. Narrator David Timson, with a fine voice and an easy mastery of pacing, tone, and the intelligent expression of the text’s meaning, goes beyond mere narration to bring out the mind and character of Tacitus implicit in the book: the worldly, but not jaded, judge of men, at once broad-minded and censorious. Timson gives appropriate emotions—anger, disdain, despair—when reading speeches quoted in the text, but Tacitus he renders as both coolly sophisticated and sardonically judgmental. He doesn’t read Tacitus; he performs AS Tacitus recounting the history, which gives this audiobook an extra spark. W.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile