Comparison Between the Histories of Tacitus and Suetonius in Their Treatment of the Emperor Tiberius
"History concerns itself with the complex, unique evolution of man in his activities as a social being. It begins with the first traces of social life and will end only when society itself disappears from earth. . Before. . . the knowledge. . . can be thought, it must be written. . . and if it is to be valuable, it must be full, detailed and above all exact", writes Professor Fling in his book The Writing of History. - giving a definition which could be generally accepted in the conglomeration of historical writings In world literature. |It is easy to say that history in itself Is a science, but difficult to compare with chemistry, mathematics, or physics. "For one reason, these sciences are strictly Impersonal. while history Is violently personal; stars and planets have no loves and hates, while men do. " |To evaluate the Roman historians according to this pattern is very difficult. In their time, history-writing had reasons, which were the writer’s own. Caesar’s description of The Gallic Wars is largely an effort to justify his own deeds; Sallust intended to obtain literary recognition; Suetonius furnished eminent gossip to the populace of Rome in the form of history, while Livy and Tacitus, great patriots and admirers of their country’s greatness, tried to show the whole world the Roman super-man.
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