Elzevier

pp. 624, (24). Engraved title. 24mo. [116 x 60 mm.] Contemporary full leather binding with elaborately gilt spine. Manuscript Ex Libris of Ludovici Brisout de Barneville, Counselor to the Royal Court, 1836. This is supplementary work to the Elzevier 1634-1640 edition of Tacitus. Dibdin II:452; Willems 1094. Tacitus was one of the greatest of Roman historians. He was a friend of Pliny the Younger a nd married the daughter of Cnaeus Julius Agricola. In A.D. 97 he was appointed substitute consul under Nerva, and later he was proconsul of Asia. The first of his works was the Dialogus [dialogue], a discussion of oratory in the style of Cicero, demonstrating to some degree why Tacitus was celebrated as an eloquent speaker; this work was long disputed, but his authorship is now generally accepted. Tacitus then wrote a biography of Agricola, expressing his admiration for his father-in-law as a good and able man. His small treatise De origine et situ Germanorum [concerning the origin and locatio n of the Germans], commonly called the Germania or Germany, supplies (along with the earlier account of Julius Caesar) the principal written material on the Germanic tribes. It is a picture of the sim ple Germans glorified by comparison with the corruption and luxurious immorality of the Romans. This moral purpose and severe criticism of contemporary Rome, fallen from the virtuous vigor of the old republic, also underlies his two long works, commonly called in English the Histories and the Annals. The extant books of the Histories cover only the reign of Galba (A.D. 68?69) and the beginning (to A.D. 70) of the reign of Vespasian but give a thorough view of Roman life?persons, places, and events. The surviving books of the Annals tell of the reign of Tiberius, of the last years of Claudius, and of the first years of Nero. The account contains incisive character sketches, ironic passages, and eloquent moral conclusions. The declamatory writing of the Dialogus is replaced in the historical works by a polished and highly individual style, a wide range of vocabulary, and an intricate and startling syntax - Columbia Encyclopedia. **PRICE JUST REDUCED! SMALL BOX 2/RON3