Reflections of Blame; Tacitus' Characters and his Censure of Augustus
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2017
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Haverford College. Department of Classics
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
In his Annals Tacitus devotes himself to censuring Augustus through indirectly revealing the flaws inherent in the principate system which Augustus instituted. He devotes much of his Tiberian hexad to this end, turning the historical characters he is writing about into allegories for various problems he sees in the empire. Tiberius himself becomes a stand-in for the government as whole and it is to him that all of the vices trace back, while his mother Livia embodies the background corruption of the government. His adopted son and foil Germanicus represents all the positive qualities which Tiberius does not have, while Sejanus, Tiberius’ minister, comes to represent the breakdown of Roman social order. Together with the vulgus, a character that represents the fallout of these vices on the Roman people, these characters create a powerful invective against Augustus without ever speaking ill of the deified emperor.