The Life of Cnus Julius Agricola By Tacitus
Translated by:
Alfred John Church William Jackson Brodribb New York: Random House, Inc. Random House, Inc. 1876
EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY Moses Hadas
TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN BY Alfred John Church and William Jackson
Brodribb
Random House, Inc.
New York: Random House, Inc.
1942
[p. 677]
THE LIFE OF CNUS JULIUS
AGRICOLA
Ch. 1
To bequeath to posterity a
record of the deeds and characters of distinguished men is an ancient
practice which even the present age, careless as it is of its own sons, has
not abandoned whenever some great and conspicuous excellence has conquered
and risen superior to that failing, common to petty and to great states,
blindness and hostility to goodness. But in days gone by, as there was a
greater inclination and a more open path to the achievement of memorable
actions, so the man of highest genius was led by the simple reward of a good
conscience to hand on without partiality or self-seeking the remembrance of
greatness. Many too thought that to write their own lives showed the
confidence of integrity rather than presumption. Of Rutilius and Scaurus no
one doubted the honesty or questioned the motives. So true is it that merit
is best appreciated by the age in which it thrives most easily. But in these
days, I, who have to record the life of one who has passed away, must crave
an indulgence, which I should not have had to ask had I only to inveigh
against an age so cruel, so hostile to all virtue.