Cornelius Tacitus, De vita Iulii Agricolae

Rhiannon Menai Evans (University of Melbourne)

Ed. by William John Dominik, University of Otago, Jula Wildberger, The American University of Paris
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (The American University of Paris)

Dates

First circulation or publication 98

Places

Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Biography (any)
Historical representation

Resources

De vita Iulii Agricolae is a laudatory biography of Tacitus’ father-in-law, Gnaeus Iulius Agricola (40-93 CE), which is dominated by the narrative of Agricola’s campaigns in the province of Britannia, but begins with some famous reflections on the dangers of writing biography in ancient Rome, and ends by celebrating the immortality this biography will grant Agricola.

The prologue (chs 1-3) is a defence of biography, which Tacitus uses to comment on moral decline: while the celebration of excellence was championed in the past (sc. the Republic), it is no longer appreciated. Although Domitian is not named, these chapters are both a savage critique of his regime’s literary repression, and an exploration of how …

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779 words

Citation: Evans, Rhiannon Menai. "De vita Iulii Agricolae". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 December 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13474, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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