A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Tacitus and Juvenal 319
the period from the death of Augustus to the death of
Domitian.
Besides these larger works he wrote a monograph
on the Life and Character of A grkola, the conqueror
of Britain,
and another, the Gerniania, on the character
and institutions of the Germans of his time.
His experience
as an army officer and a statesman gave him a clear
understanding of military and political events. He was
conscientious, too, and though he made little use of documents
as sources, we may trust his statement of all
facts
which could be known to the public. His style is exceedingly
rapid, vivid, and energetic. His excellencies
as an historian, however, are balanced by serious defects.
Though he owed his seat in the senate to Domitian, he
belonged to the strictest circle of aristocrats, who were
dissatisfied with the principate though they had nothing
better to propose.
Hatred of the " tyrants " from Tiberius
to Domitian, and the bitterness he felt because of his
party's failure, supplied him with inspiration for his
gloomy narrative. To most critics his chief merit lies in
his dramatic portrayal of character; but his prejudice led
him unconsciously to invent bad motives even for the best
acts of the emperors, especially of Tiberius. His characters,
however vivid and self-consistent, are the product of
his gloomy, bitter imagination.
Valuable as his work is to
one who can distinguish between fact and fancy, it is as
much satire as history.
Like the historian, Juvenal, author of Satires, was power-
Juvenal,
ful and dramatic. With the inspiration of wrath and in ^^o A.d!"
the spirit of Tacitus, he looked back to the society of Rome
under Nero and Domitian to find in it nothing but hideous
vice. The pictures drawn by the historian are grand and
fascinating; those of the satirist repel us by their ugliness;
the works of both masters are unreal.
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