THE AGRICOLA AND GERMANY OF TACITUS.* WE have to thank
Messrs. Church and Brodribb for putting into the hands of the English reader, in a form singularly complete and 'convenient, two of the most popular of the works of Tacitus. The Agricola has intrinsic merits which will always secure admira- tion and interest from a wider circle of readers than fall to the share of most of the Latin authors, and for us it has a special interest as a document of our own early history. These attractions have proved more powerful than the difficulties of the style and the corrupt state of the text, for though the obelisk in Orelli's edition marks the comparative frequency of passages which have defied the critic's skill, and though the "closed granaries" of cap. 19 have been quite as trying to the modern British temper as they can have been to the ancient, yet the Agricola retains its place among the companions of many who have long relinquished general .classical reading. England may well blush to find Tacitus at the end of the first century pointing out the commercial advantages of the position of Ireland, and smile to hear that Spain is nearly due west of it.
The Germany is in no way so attractive as the Agricola, and is even more difficult. The composition is far less polished, and the obscurity is often the result of vagueness in the thought, quite as much as of harshness in the language, but yet it is full of graphic sketches of life and manner. The vein of satire which runs through all the writings of Tacitus is here remarkably vigor- ous and pointed, and the strange form taken by the dim rumours of the countries of the extreme North is wonderfully en- tertaining and suggestive. The aurora borealis appears as the glory which surrounds the heads of the Gods. The Arctic seas are here and in the Agricola described as heavy and dead, never tossed by the winds, and proof against the stroke of the oar ; and, in- 'deed, if we are to believe Messrs. Church and Brodribb, the Finns and Laplanders appear as having "the faces and expressions of men, with the bodies and limbs of wild beasts." Englishmen will lbe interested to find the Angli amongst other tribes worshipping mother earth as "Nerthua " or " Herthns," and the Sviones, already famous for the nautical skill which their descendants the Sea Kings rendered so formidable ; an I students of Gibbon will End abundant food for moral reflection in the slight but respectful cake of the Langobardi, and the still slighter reference to the Marcomanni ! How differently Tacitus would have spoken of them a few centuries later But if a good English translation of the Agricola and Germany is much wanted, it is proportionately difficult to produce. The Latin of the Silver age generally presents great difficulties to the translator. The language of literature seems to have parted widely from the language of conversation, as may be judged from a comparison of Petronius with other writers, and certainly assumed a compact and epigrammatic form which is as foreign to the genius * The Agricola and Germany of radius. Translated Into English by Alfred John ',Church. ILA., of Lincoln College, Oxford: and William Jackson Brodribb, late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. With Notes and Maps. London: Macmillan and Co. 1868.
of most modern languages as it is favourable to the pregnant satire and studied ambiguity which 'recalls carries to such a height. What is occasional in other writers of the age is constant in him ; and according to Messrs. Church and Brodribb, who certainly ought to be good judges, is shown in its most extreme form in the two works under our consideration ; and after all, should every difficulty be overcome, the result, as our translators touchingly observe in their preface, " brings neither fame nor profit."
Under such circumstances, we ought to be thankful to any one who gives us even a readable version ; but our translators have done more, and have succeeded in producing a volume which the scholar will find at least convenient, and the general reader exceedingly interesting, not in matter alone, but in style and manner. At the same time, it cannot be denied that in the translation we miss almost entirely the sharp " click " of the Tacitian epigram which forms the chief characteristic of the style of the original. No doubt the English epigram is more diffuse than the Latin, and we have known an admirer of Tacitus spend a con- siderable portion of a restless night in executing a translation of " &resit vetus regnandi falsos in amore odia non fingere," which when completed formed quite a little treatise of itself I Still, we think Tacitus's expressions are often needlessly weakened in the present translation. "The unknown always passes for something peculiarly grand," is a very poor representative of " Omne ignotum pro magnifico est." And if " Singuli pugnant, uuiversi vincuntur " is to be rendered, "While they fight singly, all arc conquered," Tacitus might as well have written " omnes " at once. Again, the charming description of the effect produced by Agricola's appearance—" Bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter "- is not approached in elegance and neatness by "One would easily believe him a good man, and willingly believe him to be great." "A Sarmatia Dacisque mutuo meta aut montibus separatur " is almost lost in, "Mountain ranges, or the fear which
each feels for the other, divide it," etc., and " Tanquam scelera ostendi °portent, dum puniuntafiagitia abscondi," scarcely gets justice done to it by "Crime, tTey think, ought, in being pun- ished, to be exposed, while infamy ought to be buried out of
sight." Indeed, our translators seem sometimes to go out of their
way to avoid a sharp antithesis. " Bellam " we naturally translate "war," but yet for " Alios ad praelium ire videas, Chattos ad helium," we find "Other tribes you see going to battle, the Chatti to a campaign." On the other hand, "He thought it better to show anger than to cherish hatred ;" and one or two other passages seem to us to render the original very happily.
Occasionally an obscure passage is rendered with great tact. For instance (Ger. 3), " Nec tam voces ihin quatis virtutis concentus videutur " is given, "it is not so much an arti- culate sound as a general cry of valour." There are many
other points to which we should like to call attention, but we must content ourselves with saying that it is not in the ren- dering of isolated sentences, but in the general effect pro- duced, that Messrs. Church and Brodribb succeed. The book is written in thoroughly good and idiomatic English (with one or two amusing exceptions as when "the men and the women are alike supplied by the chase "), and yet retains an antique and even classical tone ; the language is vigorous and graphic, and in spite of all defects in their work the translators deserve the cordial thanks of all who desire to see Tacitus better known to Englishmen, and will certainly lose none of their well earned reputation by their last publication. We had intended to add a few comments on the excellent notes, maps, &c., which render the work so complete and useful, but must conclude with an extract from the speech of Galgacus
"Do you suppose that the Romans will be as bravo in war as they are licentious in peace ? To our strifes and discords they owe their fame, and they turn the errors of an enemy to the renown of their own army, an army which, composed as it is of every variety of nations, is hold together by success and will be broken up by disaster. These Gauls and Germans, and, I blush to say, these numerous Britons, who, though they lend their lives to support a stranger's rule, have been its enemies longer than they have been its subjects, you cannot imagine to be bound by fidelity and affection. Fear and terror there certainly are, feeble bonds of attachment ; remove them, and those who have ceased to fear will begin to hate. All the incentives to victory aro on our side. The Romans have no wives to kindle their courage ; no parents to taunt them with flight ; many have either no country, or one fur away. Few in number, dismayed by their ignorance, looking around upon a sky, a sea, and forests which are all unfamiliar to them ; hemmed in, as it were, and enmeshed, the Gods have delivered them into our hands. . . . On the one side, you have a general and an army ; On the other, tribute, the mines, and all the other penalties of an enslaved people. Whether you endure these for ever, or instantly avenge them, this field is to decide. Think, therefore, as you advance to battle, at MOO of your ancestors and of your posterity."
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