Publius Cornelius Tacitus war ein bedeutender römischer Historiker und Senator.
„Den Erfolg nehmen alle für sich in Anspruch, der Misserfolg wird einem einzigen zugerechnet.“
Agricola 27 http://www.latein-imperium.de/?path=content&contentid=229#27
Original lat.: "prospera omnes sibi vindicant, adversa uni imputantur"
„Je verdorbener der Staat, desto mehr Gesetze hat er.“
Annalen III, 27
Original lat.: "Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges."
Annalen XIII, 19, gottwein.de http://www.gottwein.de/Lat/tac/ann1312.php
"Nihil rerum mortalium tam instabile ac fluxum est quam fama potentiae non sua vi nixae."
„Es entspricht dem menschlichen Wesen, den zu hassen, den man verletzt hat.“
Agricola 42, 4. Übersetzung Wikiquote in Anlehnung an die "Präparation zu Tacitus" und die "Cyclopædia" (s. u.)
Tacitus über die Juden (Exkurs, Historien 5, 4)
Original lat.: "Moyses quo sibi in posterum gentem firmaret, novos ritus contrariosque ceteris mortalibus indidit. profana illic omnia quae apud nos sacra, rursum concessa apud illos quae nobis incesta."
„Bestraften Geisteshelden wächst Ansehen zu.“
Annalen IV, 35. Übersetzung durch Erich Heller in: Tacitus Annalen, dtv, München, 1991 (Artemis, Zürich und München, 1982), ISBN 3-423-02263-9, S. 209. Siehe auch #Fälschlich zugeschrieben
"Durch die Bestrafung von Geisteswerken wächst deren Ansehen." - Alternative Übersetzung in: Helga Schreckenberger, Ästhetiken des Exils, veröffentlicht von Rodopi, ISBN 9042009659, 2003, S. 313
Original lat.: "Punitis ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas."
Germania XIX
Original lat.: "Numerum liberorum finire, aut quenquam ex agnatis necare, flagitium habetur: plusque ibi boni mores valent, quam alibi bonae leges."
„Meine Absicht ist zu berichten, ohne in Zorn und Eifer zu verfallen, wofür ich kaum Gründe habe.“
Annalen I, 1 gottwein.de http://www.gottwein.de/Lat/tac/ann0101.php
(Original lat.: "consilium mihi […] tradere […] sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo.")
"sine ira et studio" wurde zum sprichwörtlichen Ausdruck für objektive Berichterstattung
„Sie schaffen eine Wüste und nennen das Frieden“
Rede des Führer der Britannier, Calgacus, in: Agricola 30, 5 http://www.latein-imperium.de/include.php?path=content&contentid=230#30
Original lat.: "Solitudinem faciunt, pacem apellant."
Vollständiger: "Plündern, morden, rauben nennen sie mit falschem Namen 'Imperium', und wo sie eine Wüste schaffen, nennen sie es Frieden." - Übersetzung nach: Das Altertum, Akademie-Verlag, 1958, S. 37 . Imperium wird häufig auch mit "Herrschaft" übersetzt.
Original lat.: "Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant."
Kommentierte Zitate
„Nichts erhält die Gesetze so wirksam wie ihre Anwendung gegen hochgestellte Personen.“
Häufig auf Jura-Webseiten Tacitus zugeschrieben, angeblich aus den Annalen, dort aber nicht zu finden
Offenbar die Rückübersetzung einer missglückten englischen Übertragung des obigen Zitats "Bestraften Geisteshelden ...", lat. "punitis ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas" z.B. in The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations von Jon R. Stone, Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0415969093, S. 92 : "When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened." Diese Übersetzung wäre als wörtliche Übersetzung der lateinischen Sentenz möglich, ist aber im Kontext nicht zu halten, da sich Tacitus auf die Bücher des Cremutius Cordus bezieht, die ungeachtet der Anordnung des Senats, sie zu verbrennen, erhalten geblieben und später sogar wieder veröffentlicht worden seien. Eine zutreffendere englische Übersetzung lautet z.B.: "Genius chastised grows in authority." in A History of Roman Literature, Michael von Albrecht, Gareth L. Schmeling, Brill, 1996, ISBN 9004107118, übersetzt unter Mithilfe von Ruth R. Caston and Francis R. Schwartz, S. 1132 .
Kommentierte Zitate
„Es ist die Eigenthümlichkeit des menschlichen Charakters, zu hassen, wen man verletzt hat.“
Agricola 42, 4. Präparation zu Tacitus' Werken, Bd. 1, Agricola, Germania, Verlag Wilhelm Violet, Leipzig, o. J. (ca. 1900), S. 222 books. google http://books.google.de/books?id=3YMDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA222&dq=hassen
Original lat.: "Proprium humani ingenii est odisse, quem laeseris."
“Indeed, when a ruler once becomes unpopular, all his acts, be they good or bad, tell against him.”
Book I, 7
Histories (100-110)
“No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.”
Quelle: Germania (98), Chapter 19
“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”
Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Close of chapter 30 http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/De_vita_et_moribus_Iulii_Agricolae_%28Agricola%29#XXX, Oxford Revised Translation
Variant translations:
They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace.
Loeb Classical Library edition
To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace.
As translated by William Peterson
More colloquially: They rob, kill and plunder all under the deceiving name of Roman Rule. They make a desert and call it peace.
This is a speech by the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus addressing assembled warriors about Rome's insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder. The chieftain's sentiment can be contrasted to "peace given to the world" which was frequently inscribed on Roman medals. The last part solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (they make a desert, and call it peace) is often quoted alone. Lord Byron for instance uses the phrase (in English) as follows,
Agricola (98)
“When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened.”
Punitis ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas.
Book IV, 35.
Annals (117)
“It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.”
Rara temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, et quae sentias dicere licet.
Book I, 1
Histories (100-110)
“To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes; nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites, or enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their infamy with the halter.”
Scutum reliquisse praecipuum flagitium, nec aut sacris adesse aut concilium inire ignominioso fas; multique superstites bellorum infamiam laqueo finierunt.
Quelle: Germania (98), Chapter 6
“What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.”
Book XI, 24
Annals (117)
“Good habits are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere.”
…ibi boni mores valent quam alibi bonae leges. [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tacitus-germ-latin.html#19]
End of chapter 19, http://www.unrv.com/tacitus/tacitus-germania-5.php
Germania (98)
“There is a division of duties between the army and its generals. Eagerness for battle becomes the soldiers, but generals serve the cause by forethought, by counsel, by delay oftener than by temerity. As I promoted your victory to the utmost of my power by my sword and by my personal exertions, so now I must help you by prudence and by counsel, the qualities which belong peculiarly to a general.”
Divisa inter exercitum ducesque munia: militibus cupidinem pugnandi convenire, duces providendo, consultando, cunctatione saepius quam temeritate prodesse. ut pro virili portione armis ac manu victoriam iuverit, ratione et consilio, propriis ducis artibus, profuturum.
Book III, 20; Church-Brodribb translation
Histories (100-110)
“He had not even adopted Tiberius as his successor out of affection or any regard to the State, but, having thoroughly seen his arrogant and savage temper, he had sought glory for himself by a contrast of extreme wickedness.”
Ne Tiberium quidem caritate aut rei publicae cura successorem adscitum, sed quoniam adrogantiam saevitiamque eius introspexerit, comparatione deterrima sibi gloriam quaesivisse.
Book I, 10; Church-Brodribb translation
Annals (117)
“Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.”
Book I, 39
Histories (100-110)
“Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendour of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death.”
Tu vero felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis.
http://www.unrv.com/tacitus/tacitus-agricola-12.php
Quelle: Agricola (98), Chapter 45
“However the marriage is there severe.”
Quanquam severa illic matrimonia
Start of chapter 18
This is in the sense that the matrimonial bond was strictly observed by the Germanic peoples, this being compared favorably against licentiousness in Rome. Tacitus appears to hold the fairly strict monogamy (with some exceptions among nobles who marry again) between Germanic husbands and wives, and the chastity among the unmarried to be worthy of the highest praise. (Ch. 18).
Germania (98)
“The busts of twenty most illustrious families were borne in the procession, with the names of Manlius, Quinctius, and others of equal rank. But Cassius and Brutus outshone them all, from the very fact that their likenesses were not to be seen.”
Viginti clarissimarum familiarum imagines antelatae sunt, Manlii, Quinctii aliaque eiusdem nobilitatis nomina. sed praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur.
Book III, 76; Church-Brodribb translation
According to Lippincott's Monthly Magazine https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=P8pGAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA872|:
This line is the origin of Lord John Russell's phrase "Conspicuous by its absence"; of which Russell said "It is not an original expression of mine, but is taken from one of the greatest historians of antiquity". Similar phrases also are found in the tragedy Tiberius of Joseph Chénier and in Les Hommes Illustres of Charles Perrault.
Annals (117)
“The gods are on the side of the stronger.”
Deos fortioribus adesse.
Book IV, 17
Histories (100-110)
“No honour was left for the gods, when Augustus chose to be himself worshipped with temples and statues, like those of the deities, and with flamens and priests.”
Nihil deorum honoribus relictum, cum se templis et effigie numinum per flamines et sacerdotes coli vellet.
Book I, 10; Church-Brodribb translation
Annals (117)
“The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.”
nisi impunitatis cupido retinuisset, magnis semper conatibus adversa.
Book XV, 50, in his account of Subrius Flavus’ passing thought of assassinating Nero while the emperor sang on stage.
Variant translation: "but desire of escape, foe to all great enterprises, held him back."
Annals (117)
“Think of your forefathers and posterity.”
Et maiores vestros et posteros cogitate.
Quelle: Agricola (98), Chapter 32
“The soldiers have the plunder of a city that is stormed, the generals of one which capitulates.”
Expugnatae urbis praedam ad militem, deditae ad duces pertinere.
Book III, 19; Church-Brodribb translation
Histories (100-110)
“Lust of absolute power is more burning than all the passions”
cupido dominandi cunctis adfectibus flagrantior est
Book XV, 53
Annals (117)
Book III, 19
Annals (117)
Variante: So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.
Book III, 65 https://books.google.com/books?id=rPwLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA247&lpg=PA247&dq=%22rescue+merit+from+oblivion%22+tacitus&source=bl&ots=uZvo03YXoQ&sig=WCpqNyg6Qyg-5xCJP4iiibym6pc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjln4Xl9YbVAhWMHD4KHbHBCc8Q6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=%22rescue%20merit%20from%20oblivion%22%20tacitus&f=false
Annals (117)
“Because they didn't know better, they called it "civilization," when it was part of their slavery.”
Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset.
Book 1, paragraph 21 http://www.slate.com/id/2180061/nav/tap3/
Variant translation: Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but a part of their servitude.
As translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/tacitus-agricola.asp
Agricola (98)
“All this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open.”
Quelle: Germania (98), Chapter 46 (last text line)
