tacitus context

Question 1

tacitus influenced by writers

Answer 1

sallust
Livy
cicero
thucydides
seneca he younger
Pliny the younger

Question 2

pliny the younger

Answer 2

Pliny and Tacitus were friends and peers, both rising through the senatorial ranks in the late 1st century CE.
Much of what we know about their relationship comes from Pliny’s Letters, especially:
Letter 6.16 and 6.20, where Pliny describes the eruption of Vesuvius for Tacitus.
Letter 7.33, in which Pliny praises Tacitus’s skill and encourages him to continue writing., eaders will think his history was lived rather than written

Question 3

sallust impact

Answer 3

86-35bce
Tacitus’s brevitas (concise style), moralistic tone, and focus on the decline of Roman virtue echo Sallust’s Catiline and Jugurtha. Both authors are concerned with corruption and moral decay in Roman public life

Question 4

sallust simlariteis tactus

Answer 4

Dense, pointed Latin; dramatic portrayals of historical figures; interest in psychology and motives.

Question 5

sallust diff tacitus

Answer 5

allust wrote about the late Republic, Tacitus about the early Empire, but both frame history as a moral decline.

Question 6

Livy tacitus

Answer 6

59bce-17ce
ivy’s monumental Ab Urbe Condita provided Tacitus with a long Republican and early Imperial precedent. Tacitus is less idealistic than Livy but shares an interest in Rome’s moral foundations.

Similarities: Use of exempla to convey moral lessons; interest in Roman character.

Question 7

Livy diff

Answer 7

Livy was more optimistic and patriotic; Tacitus more cynical and focused on decline under the Principate.

Question 8

cicero

Answer 8

106-43bce
Though not a historian, Cicero’s political writings and speeches influenced Tacitus’s vocabulary, rhetoric, and conception of liberty and the senatorial role.

Notable influence: Tacitus’s concern for libertas and senatorial dignity reflects Cicero’s Republican ideals.
Rhetorical influence: Dialogic structure in the Dialogus de Oratoribus mimics Ciceronian philosophical dialogues.

Question 9

Thucydides

Answer 9

460-400bce
Tacitus admired Thucydides’ analytical approach, tragic tone, and focus on power and human nature. He models aspects of his Annals and Histories on Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War.

Similarities: Pessimistic view of politics; focus on internal conflict, speeches, and analysis of character.

Question 10

seneca he younger

Answer 10

4bce-65ce
As a Stoic philosopher and political figure under Nero, Seneca influenced Tacitus’s tone and moral critique of imperial excess.

Overlap: Both critique tyranny and highlight the corruption of power.

Question 11

diff tacitus and seneca the younger

Answer 11

Tacitus is less doctrinally Stoic, but uses Stoic martyrdoms (e.g., Thrasea Paetus) to critique imperial repression.

Question 12

how classists and historians matus diffy look at taci- classists

Answer 12

• look at tacitus literary artist, moralist stylist, emphasising reading of his rhetoric and language
• compared to Livy sallust Thucydides and seneca for style and moralism

Question 13

how classists and historians vary view of tacitus- historians

Answer 13

• source of roman history politics and society under empire
• debating how limited or ideologically shaped he is but ultimately extracting historical truth
• comparing Suetonius Josephus and inscriptions for cross checking facts

Question 14

literary context tacitus

Answer 14

• tands in dialogue with Roman historians like Sallust and Livy, and with Greek models like Thucydides and Herodotus.
• lso reflects the Silver Age of Latin literature—marked by brevity, epigrammatic style, irony, and moral cynicism.

Question 15

phil and ethical context for tacitus

Answer 15

Stoicism was influential among Roman elites, and Tacitus admired figures like Thrasea Paetus and Helvidius Priscus, who resisted imperial tyranny.
He does not write as a philosopher, but his ethical concern with virtue, liberty, and corruption aligns with Stoic and Ciceronian values.
His work often implicitly contrasts Stoic endurance with moral compromise under despotic rulers.

Question 16

who did tacitus write for

Answer 16

• sneators and magistrates- fellow members, understood ref to political fear
• educated roman readers- men trained in rhetoric, philosophy and history, appreciated dense allusive latin, classical models and stylistic innovations
• future genertaion- importance of memory and truth, moral warning to future
• leaders/emeror- texts suggest indiret dialogue imperial power

Question 17

why did tacitus write

Answer 17

range of reasons- exhonerate own guilt, preserve history for posterity, family respect
- overall though political act- act of defiance, warning, recording deifnance