AGRICOLA, Gums Julius, Life of The story of Agricola's life is told by his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, in what is, perhaps, the most artistic biography that has come down to us from ancient times. It was avowedly writ ten to do honor to its subject, and is in no sense a critical estimate of his character and achievements. The state had fallen on evil days. Was it possible for men to be great even under bad rulers? The question has often arisen in the history of the world, and has been variously answered by honest men. Tacitus was himself convinced that political martyrdom is inexpedient unless the resultant gain to one's country is beyond doubt. °Conformity and moderation,* he holds (Agr. 42) °if combined with diligence and energy, attain those same heights of glory to which very many have climbed by perilous paths, gaining fame, with out any benefit to their country, by an ostenta tious death." It is in this spirit that he describes the career of an upright and highly efficient public servant who knew when it was prudent to avoid futile opposition to the inevitable, and who did his duty unobtrusively under a tyrant in the hope of the accession presently of a better ruler. The style in which this memoir
is written represents an early stage of that unique manner which is associated with the name of Tacitus. There is already a tendency to compress the thought, sometimes to the point of obscurity, a preference for short independ ent sentences rather than the intricately bal anced period, a readiness to modify almost any accepted rule of prose structure, and a remark able mastery of pointed phrase. A very famous specimen of this last power occurs in the speech of the Caledonian chieftain, Cal gacus, before the battle at the Graupian Mount : °To robbery, murder, pillage, they (i. e., the Romans) give the false name of empire, and when they make a solitude, they call it peace.* The 'Agricola) has been often translated. One admirable rendering is by W. H. Fyfe (Oxford 1908). For an illuminating discus sion of the ideas of Tacitus consult Gaston Boissier, (Tacitus and Other Roman (New York 1906).