Agricola, Germany, and Dialogue on Orators

Book excerpt: In this volume, eminent scholar and translator Herbert W. Benario provides faithful, readable translations of three short works of Tacitus: Agricola—the fullest ancient account of Rome's conquest of Britain and of the public career of a senator in the service of a Roman emperor—Germany, a valuable source on the ancient land and its people, and Dialogue on Orators, an examination in the tradition of Cicero's rhetorical essays of the decline of oratory in Rome's early empire. Together, these works illuminate an important phase in Tacitus' development as Rome's foremost historian. Introductory essays, chapter summaries, notes, a bibliography, maps, and an index are included.