Tacitus, in common with all other Roman prose-writers,
uses the names of nations (when the verb implies
motion) with a preposition, which is not required
with the names of countries. The Roman
poets are not so particular in this respect, Virgil,
for instance, writes, after the Homeric fashion, by
the omission of the preposition:
“At nos hinc alii sitientis
ibimus Afros:
Ecl. I. 65;
for “ad Afros.” So after Virgil,
whom he is always quoting and imitating, Bracciolini
writes “ipse praecepts Iberos, ad patrium
regnum pervadit” (An. XII. 51), for “ad
Iberos, in patrium.”
MISTAKES THAT PROVE FORGERY.
I. The Gift for the recovery of Livia.—II.
Julius Caesar and the Pomoerium.—III.—Julia,
the wife of Tiberius.—IV. The statement
about her proved false by a coin.—V.
Value of coins in detecting historical errors.—VI.
Another coin shows an error about Cornutus.—VII.
Suspicion of spuriousness from mention of the Quinquennale
Ludicrum.—VIII. Account of cities destroyed
by earthquake contradicted by a monument.—IX.
Bracciolini’s hand shown by reference to the
Plague.—X. Fawning of Roman senators
more like conduct of Italians in the fifteenth century.—XI.
Same exaggeration with respect to Pomponia Graecina
and the Romans.— XII. Wrong statement
of the images borne at the funeral of Drusus.—XIII.
Similar kind of error committed by Bracciolini in
his “De Varietate Fortunae".—XIV.
Errors about the Red Sea.— XV. About
the Caspian Sea.—XVI. Accounted for.—XVII.
A passage clearly written by Bracciolini.
It is now, however, time to pass on to other matters
more interesting and important, and, it may be, more
convincing.
I. Famianus Strada is very much surprised in his Prolusions
(I. 2 Histor.) that it should be stated in the third
book of the Annals (71), that when a gift for the
recovery of Livia was to be presented to Fortune the
Equestrian, it had to be made at Antium, where, it
is stated, there was a temple which had that title,
there being none in Rome that was so named. Here
are the words of Bracciolini, in his own style, too,
and his own history, neither of which is, nor could
be that of Tacitus: “A debate then came
on about a matter of religion, as to the temple in
which the offering was to be placed, which the Knights
of Rome had promised to present to Fortune the Equestrian
for the health of the Imperial Princess” (a
phrase which no Roman would have used); “for
though there were many shrines of that Goddess in
Rome, yet there was none with that name: it was
resolved:—’that there be a temple
at Antium which has such an appellation, and that
all religious rites in towns in Italy, and temples
and statues of Gods and Goddesses, be under Roman
law and rule’: consequently, the offering
was set up at Antium”: “Incessit
dein religio, quonam in templo locandum erat donum,
