96.Ad Brut. 1.15.8 = Shackleton Bailey 1980, 23.8.- Again, Beard 1987 is fundamental.
- Rüpke 1995b, 416: “Nun dienst die Augusteische Zeit selbst als die begrün-
dende Vergangenheit.” - Michels 1967, 142; Rüpke 1995b, 417 – 25.
- For Fabius as the originator, see Frier 1999, 201, 271, 283 – 84.
- Kraus (1994a, 10 – 12) and Rich (1997) offer qualifications of a sometimes
reductive version of the practice of Livy and his predecessors. Verbrugghe (1989)
gives an important analysis of the ancient meanings ofannalesand well qualifies overly
rigid assumptions about a set form of history writing descended from the supposed
Annales Maximi.It is essential to remember that Thucydides and Polybius likewise
organized their narratives on an annual basis; the crucial point is that in Rome this
annual unit is identified with the chief executive officers and commanding generals of
the state. - Verbrugghe 1989, 222.
- Rich 1997, text to nn. 36 – 38.
- Kraus 1994a, 10 n. 44.
- Kraus 1994a, 281.
- Tacitus’s consuls begin the year in this ablative absolute construction 70 per-
cent of the time, as opposed to 25 percent in Livy, according to the selection of Gins-
burg (1981, 11); cf. Woodman and Martin 1996 on Ann.3.2.3. - Ginsburg (1981, 2 – 3) collects the main passages: note esp. Ann.4.71.1 (with
Martin and Woodman 1989, ad loc.); 6.38.1. - Rich 1997, n. 36. This becomes more common in the later books (12.40.5;
13.9.5): as we shall see, this is because the presence of the maniacal Nero exerts even
more pressure on the norms than does Tiberius. - Ginsburg 1981, 100; Martin and Woodman 1989, 32; Rich 1997, text to n. 3.
Compare the way that Virgil creates a misleading impression of a monolithically cor-
poratist Ennius for his own ends, or that Lucan retrospectively rewrites Virgil as noth-
ing but a committed mouthpiece of Augustus. - Damon 2003, 77.
- To use the very helpful model of Hinds (1987 and 1992), to describe the way
that Roman poets mark their generic boundaries by transgressing them. - Cf. Polyb. 14.12, with Walbank 1957 – 79, ad loc. Here as elsewhere in this
chapter I give the translation of Woodman (2004). - Similarly, in 12.40.5, the scrupulous notice that he has put together the mate-
rial of a number of years in one section is immediately followed by the bland ablative
absolute construction for the consuls of the next year, and by the sinister news that time
was speeded up for Nero, so that he could assume the toga of manhood early and enter
public life (uirilis toga Neroni maturata,41.1). Nero can wreck even Greek time: see
notes to pages 189 – 192. 293