[31] Boissier, L’Opposition sous les Césars, 1892, p. 288 f.
[32] Hist., I, 16.
[33] Agr., 45: “praecipua sub Domitiano miseriarum pars erat videre et adspici, cum suspiria nostra subscriberentur; cum denotandis tot hominum palloribus sufficeret saevus ille vultus et rubor, quo se contra pudorem muniebat”; Ibid., 2: “dedimus profecto grande patientiae documentum; et sicut vetus aetas vidit quid ultimum in libertate esset, ita nos quid in servitute.”
[34] Cf. Boissier, op. cit., p. 30: “il possédait enfin le gouvernement qui lui semblait préférable aux autres, et, sous les plus mauvais empereurs il n’a jamais attendu et souhaité que l’avènement d’un bon prince.” Agr., 3: “nunc demum redit animus; sed quamquam primo statim beatissimi saeculi ortu Nerva Caesar res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum ac libertatem, augeatque quotidie felicitatem temporum Nerva Trajanus.”
[35] Hist., I, 1.
[36] Spooner, Histories of Tacitus, 1891, Introd., p. 7.
[37] See Chapter III, [n. 68].
[38] That Tacitus disliked Tiberius’ conservative attitude toward Germany is clear from such a passage as Ann., IV, 74, where it is implied also that for selfish reasons Tiberius was unwilling to entrust the war to any commander who might thus gain military prestige: “clarum inde inter Germanos Frisium nomen, dissimulante Tiberio damna, ne cui bellum permitteret. Neque senatus in eo cura an imperii extrema dehonestarentur.”
[39] Ferguson, “Characterization in Tacitus,” Class. Weekly, VII, 4 f.
[40] Cf. Mackail, Latin Literature, p. 210: “What he [Tacitus] has in view throughout [the Germania] is to bring the vices of civilized luxury into stronger relief by a contrast with the idealized simplicity of the German tribes ... the social life of the Western German tribes is drawn in implicit or expressed contrast to the elaborate social conventions of what he considers a corrupt and degenerate civilization.” Gudeman (ed. of Agricola and Germania, Boston, 1900, Introd., p. xli), though rejecting the ethical purpose of the Germania, says: “Now to a man like Tacitus who, dissatisfied with the conditions in which his lot was cast, longed to dwell in the ‘good old times,’ these sturdy vigorous Germans naturally came to serve as a welcome background for his pessimistic reflections.”