Tacitus (1)

      A fellow named Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus, ca.55 - 117 A.D., [wow, try saying that three times in a row] wrote his own view of my Celtic ancestors around 98 A.D. He was the son-in-law to Agricola, the Roman general who is credited with the final conquest of Britian.  His first writings, of course was named Life of Agricola, gives his personal view of the island.

      "The geography and inhabitants of Britain, already described by many writers, I will speak of, not that my research and ability may be compared with theirs, but because the country was then for the first time thoroughly subdued. And so matters, which as being still not accurately known my predecessors embellished with their eloquence, shall now be related on the evidence of facts." A picture of  Caesar Augustus is shown on the cover of this edition of his second book titled The Annals of Imperial Rome translated by Michael Grant, 1956. [The most famous history book of the Roman world.]

      His comments continue:

      "Britain, the largest of the islands which Roman geography includes, is so situated that it faces Germany on the east, Spain on the west; on the south it is even within sight of Gaul; its northern extremities, which have no shores opposite to them, are beaten by the waves of the sea. The form of the entire country has been compared by Livy and Fabius Rusticus, the most graphic among ancient and modern historians, to an oblong shield or battle axe."

       These quotes are taken from The Historians of Ancient Rome, by Ronald Mellor, p.398. [Book shown in previous post 30 April.]

Note: The cover shows a photo of the statue of Caesar Augustus, not of Tacitus.