At nunc, etc. But now (in our age so different from those better days) in undertaking to write (i.e. if I had undertaken to write) the life of a man at the time of his death, I should have needed permission; which I would not have asked, since in that case I should have fallen on times so cruel and hostile to virtue. The reference is particularly to the time of Domitian, whose jealousy perhaps occasioned the death of Agricola, and would have been offended by the very asking of permission to write his biography. Accordingly the historian proceeds in the next chapter to illustrate the treatment, which the biographers of eminent men met with from that cruel tyrant. Opus fuit stands instead of opus fuisset. Cf. His. 1, 16: dignus eram; 3, 22: ratio fuit; and Z. 518, 519. The concise mode of using the future participles narraturo and incursaturus (in place of the verb in the proper mood and with the proper conjunctions, if, when, since) belongs to the silver age, and is foreign to the language of Cicero. Such is the interpretation, which after a thorough reinvestigation, I am now inclined to apply to this much disputed passage. It is that of Ritter. It will be seen that the text also differs slightly from that of the first edition (in-cursaturus instead of ni cursaturus). Besides the authority of Rit., Död., Freund and others, I have been influenced by a regard to the usage of Tacitus, which lends no sanction to a transitive sense of cursare. Cf. Ann. 15, 50; His. 5, 20. In many editions, mihi stands before nunc narraturo. But nunc is the emphatic word, and should stand first, as it does in the best MSS.
II. Legimus. Quis? Tacitus ejusdemque aetatis homines alii. Ubi? In actis diurnis. Wr. These journals (Fiske's Man. p. 626., 4. ed.) published such events (cf. Dio. 67, 11), and were read through the empire (Ann. 16, 22). T. was absent from Rome when the events here referred to took place (cf. 45: longae absentiae). Hence the propriety of his saying legimus, rather than vidimus or meminimus, which have been proposed as corrections.
Aruleno Rustico. Put to death by Domitian for writing a memoir or penegyric on Paetus Thrasea, cf. Suet. Dom. 10.
Paetus Thrasea. Cf. Ann. 16, 21: Trucidatis tot insignibus viris, ad postremum Nero virtutem ipsam exscindere concupivit, interfecto Thrasea Paeto.
Herennio Senecioni. Cf. Plin. (Epist. 7, 19), where Senecio is said to have written the life of Helvidius at the request of Fannia, wife of Helvidius, who was also banished, as accessory to the crime, but who bore into exile the very books which had been the cause of her exile. For the dat. cf. note, G. 3: Ulixi.
Priscus Helvidius, son-in-law of Thrasea and friend of the younger Pliny, was put to death by Vespasian. Suet. Vesp. 15; His. 4, 5; Juv. Sat. 5, 36.
Laudati essent. The imp. and plup. subj. are used in narration after cum, even when it denotes time merely. Here however a causal connection is also intended. H. 518, II.; Z. 577, 578.
Triumviris. The Triumviri at Rome, like the Undecimviri (oi endeka) at Athens, had charge of the prisons and executions, for which purpose they had eight lictors at their command.
Comitio ac foro. The comitium was a part of the forum. Yet the words are often used together (cf. Suet. Caes. 10). The comitium was the proper place for the punishment of criminals, and the word forum suggests the further idea of the publicity of the book-burning in the presence of the assembled people.
Conscientiam, etc. The consciousness, i.e. common knowledge of mankind; for conscientia denotes what one knows in common with others, as well as what he is conscious of in himself. Cf. His. 1, 25: conscientiam facinoris; Cic. Cat. 1. 1: omnium horum conscientia. In his Annals (4, 35), T. ridicules the stupidity of those who expect by any present power, to extinguish the memory also of the next generation. The sentiment of both passages is just and fine.