Books 5 and 6 of Tacitus' Annals cover the last years of the emperor Tiberius. Although most of Book 5 is lost, Book 6 survives complete and offers a vivid narrative of the increasingly tyrannical princeps, secluded on the island of Capri; the book ends with his death and obituary notice, one of the most celebrated passages of classical literature. This volume presents a new text of Books 5 and 6, restoring the division between them which was proposed by Lipsius, as well as a full commentary on the text, covering textual, literary, linguistic and historical matters. An Appendix discusses 'The Tacitean Tiberius'. The volume rounds off the sequence which began with commentary on Books 1 and 2 of Tacitus' Annals by F. R. D. Goodyear (1972, 1981) and was continued by commentary on Book 3 by A. J. Woodman and R. H. Martin (1996).

A.J. Woodman's translation combines accuracy and Tacitean invention, masterfully conveying Tacitus' distinctive and powerful manner of expression, and reflecting the best of current scholarship. An introductory essay discusses Tacitus' career, the period about which he wrote, the nature of historical writing in the Roman world, and the principles of translation which have shaped this rendering. No other translation captures more successfully the flavor, nuance, and power of Tacitus' greatest work. This edition includes extensive notes; suggestions for further reading; appendices explaining political and military terms, and geographical and topographical names; imperial family trees; maps; and an index. The current printing of the 2004 edition includes corrections and revisions made in 2008.

Tacitus, writing early in the second century AD, is acknowledged to be ancient Rome's greatest historian; his Annals, describing the emperors from Tiberius to Nero (AD 14 - 68), is his greatest work. This book gathers together Professor Woodman's writings on Tacitus over the past twenty-five years, focusing almost exclusively on the AnnalsR. He starts from, and argues for, the basic premiss that, as a historian, Tacitus must be seen in ancient rather than in modern terms. The Annals is a literary text of immense subtlety and acknowledged difficulty and complexity; it is also a very familiar text, read and reread by generations of scholars who want to find out about the Roman empire. One of Professor Woodman's principal contentions is that, through familiarity, these readers have misread significant passages of the text, thereby gaining and perpetuating a distorted view of what Tacitus has to say, especially about Tiberius. This distorted view is revealed, and the true meaning disclosed, by minute and detailed literary analysis. The author offers radically new or different interpretations of some of the most famous passages: the murder of Agrippa Postumus, the notorious accession debate of Tiberius, Tacitus' statement of the so-called `highest function of history', Tiberius' obituary, Nero's debauched water-borne party, and the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero in AD 65. There is also discussion of major narrative sections of Books 1 and 4, concentrating on such matters as structure, vivid representation, imitation and allusion, and dramatic and generic manipulation of the narrative. The new interpretations have profound implications for those who wish to use Tacitus' Annals as a source for what happened in the first century AD.

This radical study argues against the view that the historian's craft has remained largely unchanged since classical times. Includes detailed discussion of the work of Thucydides, Cicero, Sallust, Livy and Tacitus.

The Annals of Tacitus, which chronicle the years AD 14-68, are arguably the greatest work of the greatest Roman historian. Book 3 of The Annals covers the years AD 20-22, a period including the trial of Calpurnius Piso for treason and the alleged murder of Germanicus. The editors are the first to compare a recently discovered record of this trial with Tacitus' narrative of the same events. Throughout the volume attention is paid to literary matters, and textual. linguistic and historical issues are treated fully.

Book 3 of the Odes completes the lyric trilogy which Horace, who rivals Virgil as the greatest of all Latin poets, published in 23 BC. Arguably his most famous book, it opens with the six so-called 'Roman Odes', those defining texts of the Augustan Age, and concludes with the statement of his achievement: he has produced for his Roman readers a body of lyric poetry to rival the great lyric poets of Greece, a monument which will last as long as Rome itself. The present volume aims to place Horace's Odes in their literary and historical context, to explain his Latin, to articulate his thought, and to attempt to elucidate his brilliance. It presents a new text and adopts an approach independent of that of earlier commentators.

From Poetry to History offers twenty-five selected papers by the leading Latin scholar A. J. Woodman, and focuses on Latin poetry and historiography from the mid-first century BC to the early second century AD. Most of the papers represent close readings of individual poems or passages of text. The authors principally featured are Catullus, Horace, and especially Tacitus, but there are also treatments of Cicero, Virgil, Livy, Augustus' Res Gestae, Velleius, and the younger Pliny. The volume includes four papers not previously published, as well as an epilogue which discusses some of the issues raised.

Tacitus is universally recognized as ancient Rome's greatest writer of history, and his account of the Roman Empire in the first century AD has been fundamental in shaping the modern perception of Rome and its emperors. This Companion provides a new, up-to-date and authoritative assessment of his work and influence which will be invaluable for students and non-specialists as well as of interest to established scholars in the field. First situating Tacitus within the tradition of Roman historical writing and his own contemporary society, it goes on to analyze each of his individual works and then discuss key topics such as his distinctive authorial voice and his views of history and freedom. It ends by tracing Tacitus' reception, beginning with the transition from manuscript to printed editions, describing his influence on political thought in early modern Europe, and concluding with his significance in the twentieth century.

Book 3 of the Odes completes the lyric trilogy which Horace, who rivals Virgil as the greatest of all Latin poets, published in 23 BC. Arguably his most famous book, it opens with the six so-called 'Roman Odes', those defining texts of the Augustan Age, and concludes with the statement of his achievement: he has produced for his Roman readers a body of lyric poetry to rival the great lyric poets of Greece, a monument which will last as long as Rome itself. The present volume aims to place Horace's Odes in their literary and historical context, to explain his Latin, to articulate his thought, and to attempt to elucidate his brilliance. It presents a new text and adopts an approach independent of that of earlier commentators.

Book 4 of Tacitus' Annals, described by Sir Ronald Syme as 'the best that Tacitus ever wrote', covers the years AD 23-28, the pivotal period in the principate of the emperor Tiberius. Under the malign influence of Sejanus, the henchman who duped him and was loaded with honours, Tiberius withdrew to the island of Capri and was never again seen in Rome, where the treason trials engendered an atmosphere of terror. The volume presents a new text of Book 4, as well as a full commentary on the text, covering textual, literary, linguistic and historical matters. The introduction discusses the relationship between Tacitus and Sallust. The volume completes the sequence which began with commentary on Books 1 and 2 of the Annals by F. R. D. Goodyear (1972, 1981) and was continued by commentary on Book 3 by A. J. Woodman and R. H. Martin (1996) and on Books 5-6 by A. J. Woodman (2016).

The first work of any great historian has always commanded attention, and Tacitus was ancient Rome's very greatest historian. His biography of his father-in-law, governor of Britain in the years AD 77 84, is a literary masterpiece: it combines penetrating political history with gripping military narrative and throughout poses the question (still very much alive today) of how one should live one's life under a tyranny. This is the first commentary in English on the Agricola for almost half a century: in keeping with the aims of the series, particular attention is paid to the understanding of Tacitus' Latin, but a whole range of generic, historical, textual and narrative topics is covered, and it will be suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students as well as scholars. Tacitus' Agricola remains a key text for anyone with an interest in Roman Britain as well as ancient biography."

The first work of any great historian has always commanded attention, and Tacitus was ancient Rome's very greatest historian. His biography of his father-in-law, governor of Britain in the years AD 77 84, is a literary masterpiece: it combines penetrating political history with gripping military narrative and throughout poses the question (still very much alive today) of how one should live one's life under a tyranny. This is the first commentary in English on the Agricola for almost half a century: in keeping with the aims of the series, particular attention is paid to the understanding of Tacitus' Latin, but a whole range of generic, historical, textual and narrative topics is covered, and it will be suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students as well as scholars. Tacitus' Agricola remains a key text for anyone with an interest in Roman Britain as well as ancient biography."

Tacitus is universally recognized as ancient Rome's greatest writer of history, and his account of the Roman Empire in the first century AD has been fundamental in shaping the modern perception of Rome and its emperors. This Companion provides a new, up-to-date and authoritative assessment of his work and influence which will be invaluable for students and non-specialists as well as of interest to established scholars in the field. First situating Tacitus within the tradition of Roman historical writing and his own contemporary society, it goes on to analyze each of his individual works and then discuss key topics such as his distinctive authorial voice and his views of history and freedom. It ends by tracing Tacitus' reception, beginning with the transition from manuscript to printed editions, describing his influence on political thought in early modern Europe, and concluding with his significance in the twentieth century.

This volume deals with the most controversial part of Velleius' work, regarded by the majority of modern scholars as a panegyrical biography of Tiberius and used as an excuse for dismissing the historical value of Velleius' whole work. In the introduction Dr Woodman considers the nature of the Tiberian narrative in the light of the literary tradition, and argues that it is no more panegyrical than some of the most admired products of Roman historiography such as Livy and Ammianus. He also considers the transmission of Velleius' text since its discovery in 1515, and argues that, contrary to the opinion of most nineteenth and twentieth-century editors, Rhenanus' editio princeps of 1520 is a more reliable authority than Amerbach's apograph of 1516. Dr Woodman provides a full apparatus criticus, and an extensive commentary which is intended for use by students and specialists in Roman literature, historiography, and history.

Books 1 and 2 of Tacitus' Annals were edited and annotated in two earlier volumes of this series (1972 and 1981) by the late F. R. D. Goodyear. Now A. J. Woodman and R. H. Martin have added a third volume: Book 3 of the Annals. This book covers the years AD 20-22, including the aftermath of Germanicus' death and the trial of his alleged murderer Calpurnius Piso and contains some of Tacitus' most well known and important programmatic and reflective passages. In their commentary the editors are the first to attempt a systematic comparison of the documentary record provided by a recently discovered senatus consultum relating to Piso's trial with Tacitus' narrative of the same episode. More attention is given to literary matters than by Goodyear but textual, linguistic and historical issues are treated fully and new interpretations frequently offered.

The first volume of Professor Woodman's edition of, and commentary on, Velleius Paterculus was published in the Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries series in 1977. This is the second volume to appear, covering Velleius' narrative of Julius Caesar and Augustus, down to 19 B.C. Velleius' history was first published in A. D. 30 and is being increasingly regarded as an important source for Roman history. Professor Woodman's aims have been the same as in his first volume: to establish the text, or at least to indicate where it is unreliable, and to explain the nature and meaning of the narrative. Thus his commentary is primarily textual, linguistic and stylistic, to be used by those who want to read Velleius, whether their interests are literary, historiographical or historical. It is the first commentary of its scale and scope since the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In recent decades there has been a complete revolution in the way we read the historians of Greece and Rome. Their works have been shown to be quite different in nature from those of today's historians; instead, their techniques and assumptions have much in common with those of Homer or Virgil. Using these narratives as sources for ancient history has become more problematic than ever before, as we come to understand better how their style (the medium) and content (the message) shape each other. This book briefly introduces this revolution as it affects our reading of Latin historical writing, and then provides authoritative and informative discussions of the three major Latin historians of the classical period: Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. The focus is on narrative technique and structure, intertextuality, and close reading, and the discussions are as accessible to beginning students as they are useful to experienced teachers.

The fourth book of Tacitus' Annals has been described as "the best that Tacitus ever wrote." It covers the years AD 23-28, starting when Tacitus noted a significant deterioration in the principate of the emperor Tiberius, and the increasingly malign influence of his "evil genius" Sejanus. R.H. Martin and A.J. Woodman present an improved text of Annals IV, explain in detail the difficulties and unusual features of Tacitus' Latin, and discuss the dramatic, structural and literary qualities of the narrative. They also discuss the political, moral and stylistic dimensions of the Roman historiographical tradition. Though intended primarily as a textbook for undergraduates and high school students, this edition will interest scholars of Latin literature and Roman history as well.

Books 5 and 6 of Tacitus' Annals cover the last years of the emperor Tiberius. Although most of Book 5 is lost, Book 6 survives complete and offers a vivid narrative of the increasingly tyrannical princeps, secluded on the island of Capri; the book ends with his death and obituary notice, one of the most celebrated passages of classical literature. This volume presents a new text of Books 5 and 6, restoring the division between them which was proposed by Lipsius, as well as a full commentary on the text, covering textual, literary, linguistic and historical matters. An Appendix discusses 'The Tacitean Tiberius'. The volume rounds off the sequence which began with commentary on Books 1 and 2 of Tacitus' Annals by F. R. D. Goodyear (1972, 1981) and was continued by commentary on Book 3 by A. J. Woodman and R. H. Martin (1996).

A.J. Woodman's translation combines accuracy and Tacitean invention, masterfully conveying Tacitus' distinctive and powerful manner of expression, and reflecting the best of current scholarship. An introductory essay discusses Tacitus' career, the period about which he wrote, the nature of historical writing in the Roman world, and the principles of translation which have shaped this rendering. No other translation captures more successfully the flavor, nuance, and power of Tacitus' greatest work. This edition includes extensive notes; suggestions for further reading; appendices explaining political and military terms, and geographical and topographical names; imperial family trees; maps; and an index. The current printing of the 2004 edition includes corrections and revisions made in 2008.