Tacitus: Select Bibliography

 

The secondary literature on Tacitus is immense.  This short selection is merely intended as a basic reference for a few items of general interest.  Those who wish to explore Tacitean bibliography more fully are directed to 1) the surveys published every few years in Classical World (the most recent being 1995); 2) the bibliography in Martin's Tacitus which is representative but good; 3) the ANRW bibliographies listed below; 4) the bibliography in the Kraus/Woodman Latin Historians cited below

 

 

I. Bibliographies

 

Vol. II.33.2 of Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt (1990) contains several bibliographies of Tacitean material, including two on the Annals and covering material published up to ca. 1986.  Other volumes in the II.33 series contain many articles about Tacitus.

 

Various Classical World bibliographies, generally published every ten years, most recent is 89.2 (1995) 91-168

 

 

 

II. Commentaries

Furneaux, H., ed.  The Annals of Tacitus.  2 vols.  Oxford 1896.  [still the only complete commentary in English on the Annals.. In seminar room.]

Goodyear, F.R.D., ed.  The Annals of Tacitus.  Cambridge 1972-81.  [Covers only Annals 1-2.  Two volumes: Vol. 1 (1972), covering Ann. 1.1-54, and Vol. 2 (1981), covering Ann. 1.55-2]

Koestermann, E., ed. Cornelius Tacitus: Annalen, 4 vols. Heidelberg 1963-68.  [the most thorough commentary to date for all of the Annals]

Shotter, D.C.A., ed. and trans.  Tacitus Annals IV.  Aris & Phillips 1989.

Woodman, A.J. and R.H. Martin.  The Annals of Tacitus.  Book 3.  Cambridge 1996 [picking up where Goodyear left off; more thorough than their 'green series' commentary on Book 4 which we're using as our text]

 

 

III. Concordance

Blackman, D.R. and Betts, G.G.  Concordantia Tacitea.  A Concordance to Tacitus..  Hildesheim 1986.

 

 

IV. Books and articles (with specific emphasis on Ann. 4; see also ANRW II.33.2, pp. 1357-62; 1487-88)

Bird, H.E.  “Aelius Sejanus and his Political Influence”.  Latomus 28 (1969) 61-98.

Classen, C.J.  “Tacitus - Historian between Republic and Principate.”  Mnemosyne ser. 4, 41 (1988) 93-116.

Corrigan, Peter L. "A Literary Reading of Tacitus Anals 4,68-70: The Slaying of Titius Sabinus." Rheinisches Museum 136.3/4 (1993) 330ff.

Develin, R.  “Tacitus and the Techniques of Insidious Suggestion.”  Antichthon 17 (1983) 64-95.

Dorey, T.A., ed.  Tacitus.  London 1969. [collection of essays by various luminaries, the best by K. Wellesley]

Ginsburg, J.  Tradition and theme in the Annals of Tacitus.  Salem, New Hampshire1984.

Giua, M.A. “Storiografia e regimi politici in Tacito, Annales IV, 32-33.”  Athenaeum 63 (1985) 5-27.

Goodyear, F.R.D.  Tacitus.  Greece and Rome Surveys 4.  Oxford 1970.  [a short, very readable introduction to the historian.  In the seminar room.]

______________.  “Tacitus.”  In The Cambridge History of Classical Literature II.  Latin Literature, E.J. Kenney and W.V. Clausen, edd., 642-55.  Cambridge 1982. [in seminar room]

Henderson, J.  “Tacitus/The World in Pieces.”  Ramus 18 (1989) 167-210.

Kraus, Christina Shuttleworth and A.J. Woodman.  Latin Historians. New surveys in the classics, no. 27.  Oxford 1997. [Woodman's Tacitus article is a good, up-to-date introduction to the historian]

Luce, T.J. “Tacitus.” In Ancient Writers.  Greece and Rome II, T.J. Luce, ed., 1003-33.  New York 1982.

________ and A.J. Woodman, edd.  Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition.  Princeton 1993. [collection of very high quality conference papers]

Martin, R.H.  Tacitus.  Berkeley and Los Angeles 1981.  [The best general study of Tacitus; clearly written and well-organized.]

McCulloch, H.Y., Jr.  “The Case of Titus Sabinus (Ann. 4.68-70).”  Classical World 74 (1980-81) 219-20.

_______________.  Narrative Cause in the Annals of Tacitus.  Königstein 1984.

Mellor, R.  Tacitus.  Routledge 1993. [introduction for the general reader]

Moles, J. (1998) ‘Cry Freedom: Tacitus Annals 4.32-35’. Histos 2:1-54 (http://www.dur.ac.uk/Classics/histos/1998/moles.html)

O'Gorman, E.  Irony and misreading in the Annals of Tacitus.  Cambridge 2000.

Plass, P.  Wit and the Writing of History.  The Rhetoric of Historiography in Imperial Rome.  Madison, Wisconsin 1988.  [a fascinating book, largely about Tacitus]

Shotter, D.C.A.  “Tacitus and Tiberius.”  Ancient Society 19 (1988) 225-36.

Sinclair, P.  Tacitus the Sententious Historian: A Sociology of Rhetoric in Annales 1-6. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 1995.

Syme, R.  Tacitus.  2 vols.  Oxford 1956. [The best and most authoritative study of the historian.  For neither the faint-of-heart nor the casual reader, but worth the effort both as an example of superior scholarship and as a study in Tacitus.

________..  Ten Studies in Tacitus.  Oxford 1970. [esp. “The Senator as Historian” and “The Political Opinions of Tacitus”]

Taifacos, I.  “Tacitus' Criticism of the Mixed Constitution.” Archaiognosia 2 (1981) 273-76. [on Ann. 4.32]

Walker, B.  The Annals of Tacitus.  Manchester 1951. [A cross between Syme and Martin, and still very useful.  Chaps. 7, 8, 10 and 11 are particularly good]

Williams, B.  “Reading Tacitus’ Tiberian Annals.” Ramus 18 (1989) 140-66.

Woodman, A.J.  “Remarks on the Structure and Content of Tacitus, Annals 4.57-67.”  Classical Quarterly 22 (1972) 150-58.

___________. Tacitus Reviewed.  Oxford 1998. [25 years of Woodman’s essays collected in one volume]

 

 

V. Historical Background

Levick, B.  Tiberius the politician.  London 1976, repr. 1986.

Seager, R. Tiberius. London 1972.