Primary Source Critique

Tacitus: "Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola"

Unlike our own period of time, the ancient Romans experienced very little angst about the prospect of colonizing a geographically and ethnically distinct people for the enrichment of their own country. As is evident in Tacitus' "Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola," the British resistance to Roman colonization is viewed as evidence of the British people's barbarity, not praiseworthy British fortitude against foreign domination. However, the Roman Tacitus also used the example of Britain not simply to praise his father-in-law Cnaeus Julius Agricola, but also to praise what he considered the true Roman values of freedom, austerity and military valor, in contrast to licentiousness and laziness, which he felt, was characteristic of contemporary Roman morality. This primary source text thus is less a fair portrayal of Britain of the era as it is an introduction to what Romans of Tacitus' class considered...
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