30 pages • 1 hour read
TacitusAgricola
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 98A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Examine Tacitus’s view of Roman expansion. To what extent does he support it, and what does he find troubling about it? Cite at least three specific examples from the text in your discussion.
Describing Agricola’s education, Tacitus writes that “he came away from philosophy with its hardest lesson learned—a sense of proportion” (56). Consider the significance of Tacitus describing moderation as a learned skill. In what ways does this quality of Agricola’s set him at odds with Domitian?
Prior to facing Roman troops in battle, Britanni leader Calgacus addresses his troops, telling them, “Robbery, butchery, rapine, these the liars call ‘empire’: they create desolation and call it peace” (71). Explore the impact of including Calgacus’s speech on Tacitus’s portrayal of Roman expansion in “Agricola.”
What is the overt purpose of “Agricola,” and what is its oblique purpose?
Discuss why Tacitus believes “likenesses in marble or bronze” are insufficient memorials to honor great men (82).
Tacitus repeatedly returns to the treason trials of Arulenus Rusticus and Herennius Senecio in 93 AD. Explore what they signify about Domitian’s reign and why they may have inspired Tacitus to become a historian.
At the end of the essay, Tacitus addresses Agricola directly, writing, in part, “You were fortunate indeed, Agricola in your glorious life, but no less so in your timely death” (81). Discuss how authorial intrusion serves Tacitus’s larger purpose to memorialize Agricola.
