The Annals of Tacitus: Book 4

Full edition and discussion of Tacitus' vivid account of the pivotal years of the emperor Tiberius.

A. J. Woodman (Edited by)

9781108419611, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 May 2018

368 pages
22.2 x 14.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.57 kg

"A.J. Woodman's magnificent commentary on Book 4 is the capstone to his outstanding career as a scholar of Roman historiography, and especially of Tacitus, and it brings the scholarly coverage of these books on the reign of Tiberius to a triumphant conclusion." --Times Literary Supplement

Book 4 of Tacitus' Annals, described by Sir Ronald Syme as 'the best that Tacitus ever wrote', covers the years AD 23–28, the pivotal period in the principate of the emperor Tiberius. Under the malign influence of Sejanus, the henchman who duped him and was loaded with honours, Tiberius withdrew to the island of Capri and was never again seen in Rome, where the treason trials engendered an atmosphere of terror. The volume presents a new text of Book 4, as well as a full commentary on the text, covering textual, literary, linguistic and historical matters. The introduction discusses the relationship between Tacitus and Sallust. The volume completes the sequence which began with commentary on Books 1 and 2 of the Annals by F. R. D. Goodyear (1972, 1981) and was continued by commentary on Book 3 by A. J. Woodman and R. H. Martin (1996) and on Books 5-6 by A. J. Woodman (2016).

Preface
References and abbreviations
Introduction
Text
Commentary
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literary theory [DSA]