Riassunto
Trama e riassunto di La Germania e l’Agricola di Tacito
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About 3 h 20 min to read.A chi è rivolto
You will love this book if you enjoy ancient history, sharp character sketches, or the question of how empires see their neighbors. It also speaks to anyone who wonders how to stay honest under bad rulers.
Che cos’è questo libro
What would a Roman senator say about the peoples his empire could not defeat? Around the year 98, Tacitus sat down to describe the tribes beyond the Rhine and the Danube. He wanted to show what a hardy, free people looked like, and to hold up a mirror to his own comfortable city.
This book joins two short works by Tacitus. Germany surveys the land, customs, gods, and tribes. The Agricola is a life of his father-in-law, who governed Britain, won a great battle in Scotland, and then lived under an emperor who feared him. You get two portraits of virtue, one in a whole people and one in a single honest man.
In questo riassunto
- 1Tacitus pictures a hardy people shaped by landFree
- 2Courage and loyalty bind the German warband
- 3Free assemblies and sacred woods guide public life
- 4Home life rests on marriage, hospitality, and honor
- 5The tribes differ from the Rhine to the amber coast
- 6Agricola rises through restraint and honest service
- 7Britain is won by force and then by comfort
- 8Calgacus speaks for freedom while Domitian fears success
Punto chiave 1 di 8
Tacitus pictures a hardy people shaped by land
Tacitus opens Germany with a map in words. The Rhine and the Danube fence the country off from Gaul and the Roman provinces, and the rest is ocean. He holds that the Germans are native to the soil, because nobody would sail a stormy sea to settle a land of forests and marshes.
From that, he draws a claim about the people. They never mixed with outsiders, so they share a single look: fierce blue eyes, red hair, and big bodies. They are strong in a sudden rush, but poor at steady toil. Cold and hunger they have learned to endure. Their old songs, their only records, praise a god called Tuisto and his son Mannus.
The land gives little. Grain grows, fruit trees do not, and the cattle are many but small. Cattle are the only wealth these people prize. Silver cups given to envoys are valued like clay pots. Tacitus sets this plainness beside Rome again and again, and a people who do not covet gold become a quiet comment on a city that does.
A people with little wealth and little mixing keep a plain, tough character, and Tacitus holds it up as a contrast to Rome.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Questions about La Germania e l’Agricola di Tacito
What is The Germany and the Agricola about?
It joins two short works by Tacitus. Germany describes the land, customs, gods, and tribes beyond the Rhine and Danube, and the Agricola is a biography of his father-in-law, a Roman governor who campaigned in Britain.
Who was Agricola?
Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a Roman general and governor of Britain who pushed Roman rule far north and won a battle at the Grampian Hills. He was Tacitus's father-in-law and lived under the suspicious emperor Domitian.
Who was Calgacus in the Agricola?
Calgacus is the British chief who leads the tribes at the Grampian Hills. Tacitus gives him a speech against Roman rule, which includes the often quoted line about making a wasteland and calling it peace.
Is Germany by Tacitus an accurate account of the Germans?
Tacitus wrote it around 98 from reports and earlier writers, and scholars treat it as a valuable but shaped source. He admires the tribes' plain virtues partly to set them against the habits of Rome.
What is the main message of the Agricola?
Tacitus argues that a person can keep honor and do good work even under a bad ruler. He praises quiet duty over showy defiance, and he says a record of virtue can outlast monuments.
Cite this edition
Cornelius Tacitus. The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-germany-and-the-agricola-of-tacitus.
Cornelius Tacitus. (2026). The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-germany-and-the-agricola-of-tacitus (Original work published ca. 98)
Cornelius Tacitus. The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-germany-and-the-agricola-of-tacitus.
@book{tacitus2026germany,
author = {Cornelius Tacitus},
title = {The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-germany-and-the-agricola-of-tacitus},
note = {First published ca. 98}
}
