[40] Cf. Mackail, _Latin Literature_, p. 210: “What he [Tacitus] has in view throughout [the Germania] is to bring the vices of civilized luxury into stronger relief by a contrast with the idealized simplicity of the German tribes ... the social life of the Western German tribes is drawn in implicit or expressed contrast to the elaborate social conventions of what he considers a corrupt and degenerate civilization.” Gudeman (ed. of _Agricola and Germania_, Boston, 1900, Introd., p. xli), though rejecting the ethical purpose of the Germania, says: “Now to a man like Tacitus who, dissatisfied with the conditions in which his lot was cast, longed to dwell in the ‘good old times,’ these sturdy vigorous Germans naturally came to serve as a welcome background for his pessimistic reflections.”
[41] See T. S. Jerome, “The Tacitean Tiberius: A study in Historiographic Method,” _Class. Phil._, VII, pp. 265-292. In this valuable study two main conclusions are reached: (1) That the disharmonies between data and generalizations in the _Annals_ are so constant and glaring as to give conclusive evidence of Tacitus’ untrustworthiness in that work; (2) that the _Annals_ are “an example of historical writing done according to the method of the rhetorician, and that this is the true explanation of those disharmonies which are not explicable on the theories that Tacitus told the truth, or followed an established tradition, or that a strong bias against Tiberius entered into the composition thereof.”
[54] _Ann._, II, 26: “se noviens a divo Augusto in Germaniam missum plura consilio quam vi perfecisse; sic Sugambros in deditionem acceptos, sic Suebos, regemque Maroboduum pace obstrictum; posse et Cheruscos ceterasque rebellium gentes, quoniam Romanae ultioni consultum esset, internis discordiis relinqui,” i. e. that the Romans were acting from diplomatic considerations, and in accordance with this policy he himself, sent nine times into Germany by Augustus, had by diplomacy brought the Sugambri, the Suebi and Maroboduus into peaceful relations; that the Cherusci also, and other hostile tribes, now that enough had been done to satisfy Roman honor, might be left to their own internal dissensions. See also Jäger (_l. c._): “die Politik des Tiberius, die Germanen ihrer eigenen Zwietracht zu überlassen, bewährte sich.” Lang (_Beiträge zur Geschichte des Kaisers Tiberius_, Diss. Jena, 1911, p. 56) says that Germanicus was not recalled through envy; that Tiberius avoided all wars except such as were immediately necessary: “Aus diesem Grunde (nihil aeque Tiberium anxium habebat quam ne composita turbarentur, _Ann._, II, 65), suchte er alle Kriege zu vermeiden, die nicht unbedingt im Interesse des Reiches lagen. Den Abbruch der Germanenfeldzüge veranlasste nicht Angst oder Neid gegen Germanicus, wie kurzsichtige Schriftsteller jener Zeit vermuten, sondern die Tatsache, dass wenig dabei erreicht, den Provinzen jedoch grosse Lasten aufgebürdet wurden.”