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The Agricola and Germany of Tacitus. Tr. by A.J. Church and W.J. Brodribb
The Agricola and Germany of Tacitus Tr by AJ Church and WJ Brodribb Author:Publius Cornelius Tacitus Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NOTES ON THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. (1) Many too thought that to write their oum lives showed the confidence of integrity rather than presumption. (Ac plerique,... more » suam if si vitam narrare, fiduriam potius morum, quam arrogantiam arbitrati sunt.) " Fiducia morum" seems naturally to mean " the confidence inspired by a good character." The word "fiducia" usually denotes " a well-grounded, and therefore praiseworthy, trust" in anything. Possibly by " morum" may be meant the manners of the age in which Rutilius and Scaurus lived. To write their own lives was, in fact, to bear a testimony to the virtues of a less corrupt time; and they would feel that to praise themselves was, in fact, to praise the State. But the difference between these two meanings is very slight. In Rutilius and Scaurus no one doubted their honesty or questioned their motives. Rutilius, who was consul 105 B.c., is spoken of by Cicero (De Orat. i. 53) as a man of learning, devoted to philosophy, and of singular virtue and integrity. In the Brutus (ch. 29), he is named with Scaurus ; both are said to have been experienced, though not first-rateorators, men of great industry and some talent, but .not possessed of true oratorical genius. Rutilius was a Stoic, and a pupil of Panaetius. He wrote a history of Rome in Greek, which is referred to by Livy (xxxix. 52). His memoir of himself and of his times is mentioned only by Tacitus. Rutilius Rufus and Aurelius Scaurus were contemporaries and rivals. Each impeached the other for bribery, in seeking to obtain the consulate. Scaurus was " princeps Senatus," and twice consul, in n5 B.c. and 107 B.c. Tacitus here refers to Scaurus's autobiography in three books, of which Cicero says (Brutus, 29) that it was very. good (sane utiles), but that it was read by no one. He...« less