LIBERTAS AND VIRTUS: THE IDEALS OF TACITUS AND THEIR PERSONIFICATION IN IULIUS AGRICOLA

For TACITUS both of these ideals are the highest values and the aim of mankind, the "summum bonum" of the philosophers. This he saw embodied in IULIUS AGRICOLA, his father-in-law, a good general and statesman, a great man always acting in an exemplary manner.
AGRICOLA was for him an example that even under malevolent emperors greatness was possible.
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So we can see that history is for TACITUS also moral instruction and political statement.
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PUBLIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS etc., see below.
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