So, it is now suggested by the CDC hat all Americans wear facemasks, at least in areas where social distancing is not possible. Trump, of course, won’t do it, as the NYT reports:

“With the masks, it is going to be really a voluntary thing,” the president said at the beginning of the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House. “You can do it. You don’t have to do it. I am choosing not to do it. But some people may want to do it, and that’s OK. It may be good. Probably will — they’re making a recommendation. It’s only a recommendation, it’s voluntary.”

“Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens — I don’t know,” he added. “Somehow, I don’t see it for myself.”

Lots of information has appeared online about how to sew your own mask. “Oh great,” says Kelly. “I don’t know how to sew. When I had to sew a name on to my uniform at McDonald’s as a teenager, I ended up sewing the front of the uniform to the back.” She got on Facebook and offered to barter. “Will bake for masks.” Quite a few responses to that!

Anyway, one of the first to respond was Linda at about 10 PM. Kelly promised her bagels and Linda was ecstatic– who wouldn’t be? Fresh bagels are wonderful. In fact, Linda delivered the masks right away. “I left them in your mailbox,” she emailed. Great, we thought, we’ll pick them up in the morning.

The morning came, we got the leashes on the dogs, and headed out. Kelly opened the mailbox. No masks! But there was a nice little note from the mail carrier. “THANK YOU!” it said.

Not sure how we feel about that. Glad at least one member of the federal government is covered.

This blogcast on Tacitus’s Agricola is divided into three section. Please scroll down and listen to the audio recordings under each section.

1. Brief Introduction to Tacitus 
2. Life of Agricola Up to Governorship of Britain
3. Preface to the Agricola

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Some Resources 

• Tacitus’s Agricola Text with vocabulary and notes is on the Dickinson website
• A translation by A.S. Kline is on the Poetry in Translation website
• A pretty good online Latin grammar site is at Cogitatorium.
• Bennett’s Latin Grammar and Allen and Greenough are both solid, but old-fashioned grammars
• An archive copy of Wheelock’s Latin Grammar is available as well
• The syllabus for this course, LATN 403 Spr 20,  is found elsewhere on my blog
• Let me know if you find other useful sites which ought to be added!

You may want to bookmark these

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OK, but before we get started though, we just need to wrap up the whole Nero and the Christian martyrs thing– this video should this clear everything up.

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1. Brief Introduction to Tacitus and Agricola

Names and phrases mentioned in the audio:

• Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 – 120 AD)
• Annals, Histories, Germania, Dialogus de Oratoribus
• Gnaeus Julius Agricola
• 69 AD: Year of the Four Emperors (Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian)
• Britannia
• brevity
• epigram (epigrammatic)
• irony
• Histories 1. 49, on Galba: capax imperii nisi imperasset

A useful review of Tacitus’s life and literary contribution is found on Livius.org
More about Tacitus’s style can be read at this link.

2. Life of Agricola Up to Governorship of Britain

Please read chapters 4-9 of Tacitus’s Agricola before listening to this audio

• Forum Julii (modern Fréjus, on the French Riviera)
• Suetonius Paulinus
• Boudicca (Boadicaea)
• Salvius Titianus
• 69 AD: Year of the Four Emperors (Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian)
• tribunate, consulship, plebeian, patrician
• Chap. 5.3:  Intravitque animum militaris gloriae cupido, ingrata temporibus quibus sinistra erga eminentis interpretatio nec minus periculum ex magna fama quam ex mala.
• Chap. 6.3:   … tribunatus annum quiete et otio transiit, gnarus sub Nerone temporum, quibus inertia pro sapientia fuit.

Modern statues of Suetonius Paulinus, Julius Agricola, and other Roman governors (and me)        at the Roman bath complex in Bath, England. Summer, 2018.

III. The Preface (Agricola chap. 1)

Please look over Agricola 1.1 & 1.4 before listening to the audio

Agricola 1.1

• perfect passive participle, used as a substantive (noun)
• objective genitive
• apposition

Clarorum virorum facta moresque posteris tradere, antiquitus usitatum, ne nostris quidem temporibus quamquam incuriosa suorum aetas omisit, quotiens magna aliqua ac nobilis virtus vicit ac supergressa est vitium parvis magnisque civitatibus commune, ignorantiam recti et invidiam.

True of Tacitus, as well!

Agricola, 1.2-3  

And just as, in our predecessors’ times, the age was more favourable and open to actions worth recording, so distinguished men of ability were led to produce those records of virtue, not to curry favour or from ambition, but for the reward of a good conscience. Many indeed considered it rather a matter of self-respect than arrogance to recount their own lives, and a Rutilius Rufus or an Aemilius Scaurus could do so without scepticism or disparagement; virtue indeed being most esteemed in those ages which give birth to it most readily.

Agricola 1.4

• future active participle
• dative of reference
• past contrary-to-fact condition (pluperfect subjunctive)

At nunc narraturo mihi vitam defuncti hominis venia opus fuit, quam non petissem incusaturus: tam saeva et infesta virtutibus tempora.

Next Blogcast: Agricola, Chapters 2-3 with Assignment #A, to be posted soon

Just For Fun:

If you are interested to know more about Boudicca’s famous rebellion, put down by Suetonius Paulinus while Agricola was on his staff, you can watch this documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPOnF7Trdcw&t=134s