The Agricola
Notebook
Tacitus's Agricola (c. AD 98) is a biography of the author's father-in-law, the Roman general Gnaeus Julius Agricola, whose governorship completed the conquest of Britain. Part eulogy and part ethnography of the Britons, it preserves the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus's indictment of empire, "they make a desolation and call it peace," and ranks among antiquity's most admired short prose works. Written under Nerva in the aftermath of Domitian's terror, it doubles as a meditation on how integrity survives tyranny.
Loading your notebook…