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Tacitean studies, centred on the work of Tacitus (AD 56 – AD 117) the Ancient Roman historian, constitute an area of scholarship extending beyond the field of history. The work has traditionally been read for its moral instruction, its narrative, and its inimitable prose style; Tacitus has been (and still is) most influential as a political theorist, outside the field of history. The political lessons taken from his work fall roughly into two camps (as identified by Giuseppe Toffanin): the "red Tacitists", who used him to support republican ideals, and the "black Tacitists", those who read his accounts as a lesson in Machiavellian ''realpolitik''. Though his work is the most reliable source for the history of his era, its factual accuracy is occasionally questioned: the ''Annals'' are based in part on secondary sources of unknown reliability, and there are some obvious minor mistakes (for instance confusing the two daughters of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, both named Antonia). The ''Histories'', written from primary documents and personal knowledge of the Flavian period, is thought to be more accurate, though Tacitus's hatred of Domitian seemingly colored its tone and interpretations. ==Antiquity and Middle Ages== Tacitus's contemporaries were well-acquainted with his work; Pliny the Younger, one of his first admirers, congratulated him for his better-than-usual precision and predicted that his ''Histories'' would be immortal: only a third of his known work has survived and then through a very tenuous textual tradition; we depend on a single manuscript for books I-VI of the ''Annales'' and on another one for the other surviving half (books XI-XVI) and for the five books extant of the ''Historiae''.〔Grant, Michael, ''Latin Literature: an anthology'', Penguin Classics, London, 1978 p.378f〕 His books were clearly used by 2nd-early 3rd century historians such as Cassius Dio's report on Agricola's exploration of Britain, and Hegesippus may have borrowed from his account of the Great Jewish Revolt. His difficult historical methods and elliptic literary style, however, went unimitated except by Ammianus Marcellinus, who consciously set out to write a continuation of his works. His popularity waned with time: his unfavorable portrayals of the early emperors could not have earned him favor with Rome's increasingly autocratic rulers, and his obvious contempt for Judaism and Christianity (both troublesome foreign cults in the eyes of a 1st-century Roman aristocrat) made him unpopular among the early Church Fathers. The 3rd century writer Tertullian, for example, blames him (incorrectly—see history of anti-Semitism) for originating the story that the Jews worshipped a donkey's head in the Holy of Holies and calls him "''ille mendaciorum loquacissimus''", 'the most loquacious of liars'. In the 4th century there are scattered references to his life and work. Flavius Vopiscus, one of the supposed ''Scriptores Historiae Augustae'', mentions him twice ((''Aurelian'' 2.1 ), (''Probus'' 2.7. )) and names him among the ''disertissimos viros'', the most eloquent men. Ammianus Marcellinus, as mentioned, started his history where Tacitus had finished. Jerome knew of him, and Sulpicius Severus either used his Annales as a source for passages on Nero or, according to Aurthur Drews, the passage in Sulpicius Severus's Chronicles later found its way into Annales. By the 5th century only a few authors seem aware of him: Sidonius Apollinaris, who admires him, and Orosius, who alternately derides him as a fool and borrows passages (including many that are otherwise lost) from his works. Cassiodorus and his disciple Jordanes (middle of the 6th century) make the last known antique references; Cassiodorus draws on parts of the ''Germania'' and Jordanes cites the ''Agricola'', but both know the author only as ''Cornelius''. After Jordanes, Tacitus disappeared from literature for the better part of two centuries, and only four certain references appear until 1360. Two come from Frankish monks of the Carolingian Renaissance: the ''Annales Fuldenses'' from the monastery of Fulda used Tacitus's ''Annals'', and Rudolf of Fulda borrowed from the ''Germania'' for his ''Translatio Sancti Alexandri''. Some of Tacitus's works were known at Monte Cassino by 1100, where the other two certain references appear: Peter the Deacon's ''Vita Sancti Severi'' used the ''Agricola'', and Paulinus Venetus, Bishop of Pozzuoli, plagiarized passages from the ''Annals'' in his ''mappa mundi''. Hints and reminiscences of Tacitus appear in French and English literature, as well as German and Italian, from the 12th to the 14th century, but none of them are at all certain. It was not until Giovanni Boccaccio brought the manuscript of the ''Annals'' 11-16 and the ''Histories'' out of Monte Cassino to Florence, in the 1360s or 1370s, that Tacitus began to regain some of his old literary importance. Considering his later importance, it is interesting to note that his Annals only survive in single copies of two halves of the works, one from Fulda and one from Cassino. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tacitean studies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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