Tacitus is remembered first and foremost on his place as Rome's greatest historian, the equal—if not the superior—of Thucydides, the ancient Greeks' foremost historian. Tacitean studies, however, extend far beyond the field of history. His work has been read for its moral instruction, its gripping and dramatic narrative, and its inimitable prose style; it is as a political theorist, though, that he has been (and still is) most influential outside the field of history. The political lessons taken from his work fall roughly into two camps (as identified by Giuseppe Toffanin): the "red Tacitists", who used him to support republican ideals, and the "black Tacitists", those who read his as a lesson in Machiavellian realpolitik.^{Aurelian 2, Probus 2) and names him among the disertissimos viros, the most eloquent men. Ammianus Marcellinus, as mentioned, started his history where Tacitus had finished. Jerome knew of him, and Sulpicius Severus used him as a source for passages on Nero.1.1) to buttress his republican theory that monarchy was inimical to virtue, nobility, and (especially) genius.The Guardian). It reads, in part:}

Raptores orbis, postquam cuncta vastantibus defuere terrae, iam mare scrutantur: si locuples hostis est, avari, si pauper, ambitiosi, quos non Oriens, non Occidens satiaverit [...] Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

Brigands of the world, after the earth has failed their all-devastating hands, they probe even the sea; if their enemy be wealthy, they are greedy; if he be poor, they are ambitious; neither the East nor the West has glutted them [...] They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace.

(Punctuation follows the Loeb Classical Library edition)

See also

• Classical republicanism

Notes

1. Mellor, 1995, p. xvii
2. ^  Burke, 1969, pp. 162–163
3. ^  Dio, 66.20; see Mendell, 1957, pp. 226, 228–229
4. ^  Mellor, 1995, p. xix; Mendell, 1957, p. 228
5. ^  Mendell, 1957, p. 226; Mellor, 1995, p. xix
6. ^  Tertullian, Apologeticus 16
7. ^  Mendell, 1957, pp. 228–229
8. ^  Mendell, 1957, pp. 229–232; Mellor, 1995, p. xix
9. ^  Jordanes, Getica 2.13; see Mendell, 1957, p. 232; Mellor, 1995, p. xix
10. ^  Mendell, 1957, pp. 234–235, confuses Rudolf with Einhard, in whose work some of the uncertain references appear; Haverfield, 1916, p. 200; Schellhase, 1976, p. 5, gives the four references listed here.
11. ^  Mendell, 1957, pp. 236–237; Schellhase, ibid.
12. ^  Mendell, 1957, pp. 234–238, and Schellhase, 1976, ibid., survey some of these; see also Haverfield, 1916, passim.
13. ^  Schellhase, 1976, pp. 19–21, 26–27; Mellor, 1995, p. xx
14. ^  Quoted in Schellhase, 1976, p. 20
15. ^  Salutati, Epistolario, a letter dated 1 August 1395 and addressed to Bartolommeo Oliari, quoted in Schellhase, 1976, p. 20.
16. ^  Mellor, 1995, pp. xx, 1–6 (selection from the Panegyric); Schellhase, 1976, pp. 17–18; Baron, 1966, pp. 58–60
17. ^  Baron, ibid.; Schellhase, p. 18
18. ^  Baron, 1966, pp. 66–70; Schellhase, 1976, pp. 22–23
19. ^  Machiavelli follows the Annals (13.19) when he says "it has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain or unstable as fame or power not founded on its own strength" (The Prince ch. 13). In the Discourses four references appear, three explicit and one implicit. 1.10 follows Tacitus (Histories 1.1) on the chilling effects of monarchy. 1.29 quotes the Histories (4.3) on the burden of gratitude and the pleasure of revenge. 3.6 quotes Tacitus: "men have to honor things past but obey the present, and ought to desire good Princes, but tolerate the ones they have". 3.19 twists a line from Tacitus (3.55) into something very similar to Machiavelli's famous maxim that it is better for a prince to be feared than loved. (The original made a very different point: that respect for the Emperor and a desire to conform, not fear and punishment, kept certain senators in line.) See Mellor, 1995, pp. xx–xxi, 6–7; Burke, 1969, pp. 164–166
20. ^  Parker, 1937, pp. 16–20, 148–149; Mellor, 1995, pp. xlvii–xlviii
21. ^  Mellor, pp. xlviii–xlix, 194–199. Tacitus couldn't be worried less (Ann. IV,35): "quo magis socordiam eorum inridere libet qui praesenti potentia credunt extingui posse etiam sequentis aevi memoriam. nam contra punitis ingeniis gliscit auctoritas, neque aliud externi reges aut qui eadem saevitia usi sunt nisi dedecus sibi atque illis gloriam peperere." - "And so one is all the more inclined to laugh at the stupidity of men who suppose that the despotism of the present can actually efface the remembrances of the next generation. On the contrary, the persecution of genius fosters its influence; foreign tyrants, and all who have imitated their oppression, have merely procured infamy for themselves and glory for their victims."

References

• Burke, P. "Tacitism" in Dorey, T.A., 1969, pp. 149–171
• Dorey, T.A. (ed.). Tacitus (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) ISBN 0710064322
• Haverfield, F. "Tacitus during the Late Roman Period and the Middle Ages". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 6. (1916), pp. 196-201.
• Mellor, Ronald (ed.). Tacitus: The Classical Heritage (NY: Garland Publishing, 1995) ISBN 0815309333
• Mendell, Clarence. Tacitus: The Man and His Work. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957) ISBN 0208008187
• Parker, Harold Talbot. The Cult of Antiquity and the French Revolutionaries: A Study in the Development of the Revolutionary Spirit. (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1937)
• Schellhase, Kenneth C. Tacitus in Renaissance Political Thought (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1976) ISBN 0226737004