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The Annals of Imperial Rome
The Annals of Imperial Rome
Oct 17, 2024 8:27 AM

Author:Tacitus,Michael Grant

The Annals of Imperial Rome

His last work, regarded by many as the greatest work of contemporary scholarship, Tacitus' The Annals of Imperial Rome recount with depth and insight the history of the Roman Empire during the first century A.D. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Michael Grant.

Tacitus' Annals of Imperial Rome recount the major historical events from the years shortly before the death of Augustus up to the death of Nero in AD 68. With clarity and vivid intensity he describes the reign of terror under the corrupt Tiberius, the great fire of Rome during the time of Nero, and the wars, poisonings, scandals, conspiracies and murders that were part of imperial life. Despite his claim that the Annals were written objectively, Tacitus' account is sharply critical of the emperors' excesses and fearful for the future of Imperial Rome, while also filled with a longing for its past glories.

Michael Grant's translation vividly captures the emotional patriotism of Tacitus' moral tone, offset by a lucid understanding that Rome is doomed, and conveys with cinematic vigour the lives of the great Emperors who laid the foundations of modern Europe.

Tacitus (56-117) studied rhetoric in Rome and rose to eminence as a pleader at the Roman Bar. In 77 he married the daughter of Agricola, conqueror of Britain, of whom he later wrote a biography, Agricola. His other works, all available in Penguin Classics, include the Germania and the The Histories.

If you enjoyed The Annals of Imperial Rome, you might like Herodotus' The Histories, also available in Penguin Classics.

Reviews

Mr Eatwell is a learned and careful scholar who has read a formidable list of sources, often very recondite, and he handles his material judiciously

—— Hugh Trevor-Roper , Sunday Telegraph

A wide-ranging and thoroughly up-to-date survey... bravely argued, for there still exists a good deal of scholarly hostility to the idea that fascism did constitute a serious intellectual alternative

—— Richard Overy , Sunday Times

Stands out from almost everything else which has appeared on the subject by being as illuminating to the specialist as to the general reader

—— Searchlight , Roger Griffin

It takes us from Nietzsche and Romantic movement to cyber space oiks who swap neo-fascist sentiments... on the Internet

—— Ian Thomson , Guardian

Norman Rose sorts out the Cliveden Set for us once and for all...calm, lucid and authoritative

—— Spectator

The Cliveden Set was long said to be a conspiracy at the heart of the Establishment to appease Hitler. Here, at last is a full exposure of the truth behind the myth. Norman Rose has done a signal service to history, producing a work of profound scholarship written with a wonderfully light touch

—— Piers Brendon

Reading A. N. Wilson's The Victorians provides ongoing pleasure in handsomely researched, beautifully written prose about an age which we have come to think disparagingly. We thought wrong

—— Clement Freud , Mail on Sunday

The Victorians was one of the books that gave me greatest pleasure during the past year... A brilliant evocation of an age

—— Ian McIntyre , The Times

Rarely have author and subject been found in such deep and contented harmony... Wilson's tour de force

—— Robert McCrum , Observer

Wilson's panoramic survey is the best attempt so far to describe and explain what was happening in that fascinating time

—— Literary Review

The Victorians finds Wilson writing at the height of his powers

—— The Independent

I can't recall a history book furnishing so many laughs en route ... The Victorians is a work of scholarship, a labour of love, a persusasive polemic

—— John Sutherland , Mail on Sunday
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