Classics 63 Archaeology and Architecture of the Greco-Roman World Ancient Cities Fall 2000 ~ Beth Severy

Tacitus, Life of Agricola 21

Tacitus was a Roman senator who wrote histories during the reign of Trajan (98-117 CE). The following is taken from his biography of his father-in-law Agricola, a general who played a major role in the 'pacification' of Britain in the mid first century CE.

Chapter 21. The following winter was spent on schemes of the most salutary kind. To induce a people, hitherto scattered, uncivilized and therefore prone to fight, to grow pleasurably inured to peace and ease, Agricola gave private encouragement-and official assistance to the building of temples, public squares and private mansions. He praised the keen and scolded the slack, and competition to gain honor from him was as effective as compulsion. Furthermore, he trained the sons of the chiefs in the liberal arts and expressed a preference for British natural ability over the trained skill of the Gauls. The result was that in place of distaste for the Latin language came a passion to command it. In the same way, our national dress came into favor and the toga was everywhere to be seen. And so the Britons were gradually led on to the amenities that make vice agreeable-arcades, baths and sumptuous banquets. They spoke of such novelties as 'civilization', when really they were only a feature of enslavement.

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9/6/00
Beth Severy, Macalester College