The Agricola (Latin: De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, lit. On the life and character of Julius Agricola) is a book by the Roman writer, Tacitus, written <abbr>c.</abbr> AD 98. The work recounts the life of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general and Governor of Britain from AD 77/78 – 83/84. It also covers the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain.

The text survived in a single codex ascertained by Poggio Bracciolini to be in a German monastery (Hersfeld Abbey). It was eventually secured by the humanist Niccolò de' Niccoli. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, two more manuscripts are said by Duane Reed Stuart to have been brought to light, with one being held by the Chapter Library of the Cathedral at Toledo in Spain and the other being found in 1902 in the private library of Count Balleani of Jesi, in Italy. Liebeschuetz suggests that Tacitus's Agricola not only includes an indictment of the reign of Domitian, but a comment on the state of living under the reign of emperors in general, and a lamentation of no longer living in Republican times.

Style

Janet Bews points out that one style which Tacitus utilizes in the Agricola is the oratorical nature of the sections which discuss the British material, with the style being reminiscent of Cicero. In the section devoted to relating Agricola's time as governor, Clarke reports that two models of historical style can be seen: that of Sallust and Livy.

See also

  • De Bello Gallico

Notes

  • Agricola at Dickinson College Commentaries – Latin text with notes and vocabulary
  • Agricola, Latin text.
  • Agricola, English translation.
  • www.tacitusincomics.com, website dedicated to the adaptation of Agricola into a graphic novel in the Latin original