On that note, here in the Netherlands a lot of our knowledge of ‘our’ Roman history is attributed to Tacitus, to the extent that his name is well known by most anyone. Whenever someone talks about something Roman, it’s ‘Tacitus said this, Tacitus wrote that,’ and growing up I thought “wow, that Tacitus guy must have written a lot!” Until I got to the age where I started reading Roman works for myself. All these articles, shows, news broadcasts what have you, base their ‘according to Tacitus’ on but a few lines of his Annales and Germania, and they are summary at best. All the actual content of these modern publications is mostly conjecture, educated conjecture to be sure, but nevertheless. A knowledge of a vast amount of additional contemporary texts that aid in painting a picture of exactly what Tacitus was talking about, or what he perhaps meant. This highlights perfectly that even non-fiction writing of any kind does require a certain degree of liberty of personal interpretation. Obviously one musn’t simply put words in the mouths of ancient authors, but we can perhaps help them formulate for a modern reader what they could not - quite possibly had no knowledge about, if that makes sense. Also, I just wanted to say thank you for these videos, and your books! I enjoy them both a very great deal!
I'm preparing my first historical novel for release on kindle. I struggle with the knowledge that it will contain inaccurate information but I hope it will pass muster
I have heard it described as: The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction must be credible.
Professor, you are a godsend.
Easily one of the best history channels on yt
On that note, here in the Netherlands a lot of our knowledge of ‘our’ Roman history is attributed to Tacitus, to the extent that his name is well known by most anyone.
Whenever someone talks about something Roman, it’s ‘Tacitus said this, Tacitus wrote that,’ and growing up I thought “wow, that Tacitus guy must have written a lot!” Until I got to the age where I started reading Roman works for myself. All these articles, shows, news broadcasts what have you, base their ‘according to Tacitus’ on but a few lines of his Annales and Germania, and they are summary at best. All the actual content of these modern publications is mostly conjecture, educated conjecture to be sure, but nevertheless. A knowledge of a vast amount of additional contemporary texts that aid in painting a picture of exactly what Tacitus was talking about, or what he perhaps meant. This highlights perfectly that even non-fiction writing of any kind does require a certain degree of liberty of personal interpretation. Obviously one musn’t simply put words in the mouths of ancient authors, but we can perhaps help them formulate for a modern reader what they could not - quite possibly had no knowledge about, if that makes sense.
Also, I just wanted to say thank you for these videos, and your books! I enjoy them both a very great deal!
The GOAT live!
I'm preparing my first historical novel for release on kindle. I struggle with the knowledge that it will contain inaccurate information but I hope it will pass muster