To what extent did the Romans conquer the Germans? What you say seems to be true in proportion to the degree to which "the conquered" are in fact conquered. Certainly, the Romans didn't control Germany the way the British controlled their empire. And praise for those who you have not truly conquered may just be... praise.
-----Original Message----- From: RANDI C ELDEVIK <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Friday, December 11, 1998 5:56 PM Subject: Re: VIRGIL: furor >It is generally agreed that Tacitus idealized the Germanic barbarians to >some extent, in order to make the point that his fellow Romans couldn't >afford to fall into slackness and decadence. Whenever a writer belonging >to an imperialistic people praises certain virtues that the conquered have >and the conquerors lack, it should probably be viewed as a rhetorical >trope--i.e., "If THEY can live a moral life, then WE, who are really their >superiors, ought to be able to do so _a fortiori_." In other words, the >writer doesn't really believe deep down that the Others are better than >his own people, but he wants to shame his own people into living up to >higher standards. Aphra Behn does this sort of thing in _Oroonoko_, a >work written just when the English were on the cusp of empire; no doubt >many other British writers of the last three hundred years have done >likewise. So, you see, it's not that Tacitus wants to abandon Romanitas >and "go native"; rather, he is imaginatively projecting onto the >Germanic peoples some aspects of old-style Romanitas that the Romans >themselves have, to his regret, been neglecting. _Germania_ therefore is >not an altogether reliable source of factual information about the >Germanic peoples; it is more a wake-up call for the Roman people. >Randi Eldevik >Oklahoma State University > >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. >Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message >"unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You >can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
