Moses Hadas of Columbia University, in an introduction to the complete works of Tacitus originally written in 98 AD, sets the tone for this essay: "It is a temptation to which many have succumbed to look upon Germania as a sort of Utopia, a conscious idealization of a primitive or unspoiled people calculated to chasten and reform the decadent Romans. This view is justified in the degree that a strong moralizing strain runs through all Tacitus' work. It has been wittily remarked that no one in Tacitus is good except Agricola and the Germans. But the fact is that too many unlovely traits are reported of the Germans along with the idealization to justify making moral improvement the main end of the book." One cannot help but agree.

Even by contemporary, twentieth and post-twentieth century standards, Tacitus' paper on Germania and Cnaeus Julius Agricola would stand the test of rigorous...
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