Agricola Tacitus Analysis

In the late first century the author Tacitus addressed the extreme oppression imposed by the Roman empire by writing about the actions of his father-in-law, Agricola. Tacitus even used the enemies of the empire to address the growing immorality that went hand in hand with imperial rule. Tacitus used his writing as a medium of criticism towards the empire by talking about the moral values of a specific few to be contrasted against the empire as a whole. The difference between how the public viewed the empire and what Tacitus wrote offered to the reader a stark contrast of moral and immoral. In the Agricola, a writing about Tacitus’s father-in-law, the story opens in a digression of life in the time period compared to the past. (P.3 Tacitus) People of the past had a path in life from the beginning that were defined for them due to societal necessity. However, as time progressed the necessity of the peasantry working to support life was not as demanding of the people as it had once been. This can be attributed by the development of Agriculture technology. This enabled the people to hold other positions within their society. Agricola as a young man in the military followed a different moral code then the …show more content…
The Germans had an excellent example of their high moral standard in their marriage customs. The Germans adopted a strict moral code that only allowed them to only take one wife which was not typical of barbarian culture. (p.46-47 Tacitus) The Germans wore loose fitting garments and the only to distinguish the nobility from the presents was by the tighter clothing that they wore. Like in the Agricola in the Germany Tacitus used his writing to illustrate to the reader how other less civilized cultures and even members of their own culture were holding themselves to a higher moral standard then the imperial