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Tacitus, Tacitus, Mantel Tacitus
Nov. 8th, 2013 07:28 pm10:30 "In fact, his [sc. Tacitus's] interpretations consistently express a bitter disappointment with the Roman oligarchy, the only human group for which he really cared." Joan-Pau Rubiés, "Nero in Tacitus and Nero in Tacitism", p. 37.
I cannot quite say what about this sentence is so adorable. Poor Tacitus, continually disappointed by the only thing for which he can feel affection!
11:45: "Octavia, too, though still raw in years, had learned to hide grief, love -- all emotion." (Ann. 13.16.4) OH GOD OCTAVIA . Tacitus you are destroying my heart. Destroying it, I say. (The Neronian books are so depressing)
11:55 P. Celer -- equestrian agent of Agrippina in for the offing of Junius Silanus ("The new reign's first death": Ann. 13.1.1). He is probably not the same person as P. Egnatius Celer, but he could be, and it is a nice touch to the epic Clemenza AU -- as Agrippina's man, Celer saw his career crash and burn when she went out of power. Not sure how he managed to insinuate himself into Soranus's friendship though. Maybe he was really shaken by what he had done to Silanus, and 'got philosophy'. But then the temptation was too much for him--
--I just realized that I am basically thinking of him as Richard Rich from Man for All Seasons, who is torn between More and Cromwell at first, but who is eventually tempted over to the Side of Evil, in spite of the fact that thanks to Hilary Mantel I am fully behind Cromwell and fully against More by now. Although, really, even though Thomas More is a Christian martyr and all that, and that he has Thomas à Becket a his primary model, the whole More mythos also has a lot in common with Seneca/Thrasea/Soranus (principled martyrs brought down by unscrupulous court politicking/impressionable tyrants). And Cromwell has a lot in common with the sort of person that Tacitus hates -- low-born, relatively few scruples, making it by being the monarch's creature, etc. -- but to whom he also often gives really good lines. Pretty sure Cromwell would be wholeheartedly on board with such comments as "I pray for good princes, but I put up with whatever I get." (Hist. 4.8.2). I'm sure Cromwell read Tacitus. I would love to read Mantel on Cromwell on Tacitus. Maybe that will happen in the third book. How great would that be? It would be AMAZING and I would squee forever.
I cannot quite say what about this sentence is so adorable. Poor Tacitus, continually disappointed by the only thing for which he can feel affection!
11:45: "Octavia, too, though still raw in years, had learned to hide grief, love -- all emotion." (Ann. 13.16.4) OH GOD OCTAVIA . Tacitus you are destroying my heart. Destroying it, I say. (The Neronian books are so depressing)
11:55 P. Celer -- equestrian agent of Agrippina in for the offing of Junius Silanus ("The new reign's first death": Ann. 13.1.1). He is probably not the same person as P. Egnatius Celer, but he could be, and it is a nice touch to the epic Clemenza AU -- as Agrippina's man, Celer saw his career crash and burn when she went out of power. Not sure how he managed to insinuate himself into Soranus's friendship though. Maybe he was really shaken by what he had done to Silanus, and 'got philosophy'. But then the temptation was too much for him--
--I just realized that I am basically thinking of him as Richard Rich from Man for All Seasons, who is torn between More and Cromwell at first, but who is eventually tempted over to the Side of Evil, in spite of the fact that thanks to Hilary Mantel I am fully behind Cromwell and fully against More by now. Although, really, even though Thomas More is a Christian martyr and all that, and that he has Thomas à Becket a his primary model, the whole More mythos also has a lot in common with Seneca/Thrasea/Soranus (principled martyrs brought down by unscrupulous court politicking/impressionable tyrants). And Cromwell has a lot in common with the sort of person that Tacitus hates -- low-born, relatively few scruples, making it by being the monarch's creature, etc. -- but to whom he also often gives really good lines. Pretty sure Cromwell would be wholeheartedly on board with such comments as "I pray for good princes, but I put up with whatever I get." (Hist. 4.8.2). I'm sure Cromwell read Tacitus. I would love to read Mantel on Cromwell on Tacitus. Maybe that will happen in the third book. How great would that be? It would be AMAZING and I would squee forever.
