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Tacitus on Augustus' peace stained with blood

set in 14 CE, Rome. His own words.

Where and when

set in 14 CERome

2,012 years ago

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Tacitus

, RomeHis own words

In plain words, ours

Yes, peace came after all that, but it was a peace soaked in blood, with disasters, and murders in Rome itself.

No doubt, there was peace after all this, but it was a peace stained with blood; there were the disasters of Lollius and Varus, the murders at Rome of the Varros, Egnatii, and Juli.

Tacitus, Annals 1.10Translated by A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb (1876)Read the full passage (Tacitus, Annals 1.10, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

Tacitus is laying out the case against Augustus, who died in 14 CE after 41 years in power: citizens proscribed, lands divided, Antony lured on by treaties and a marriage. Next he turns to Augustus' family life.

Checked claim by claim against: Augustus dies at Nola after 41 years in power, the passage around the quote.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. c. 30–20 BCEabout 38 years earlier Tacitus on how Augustus won power More from Tacitus
  2. c. 10–14 CEDuring it Tacitus on how few had seen the republic More from Tacitus
  3. 14 CESame year Augustus dies at Nola after 41 years in power The event behind it
  4. 14 CESame year Tiberius succeeds Augustus Also in Rome
  5. set in 14 CEThis momentTacitus on Augustus' peace stained with blood
  6. by 14 CEBy this year Augustus' brick and marble boast, in Suetonius Also in Rome
  7. by 14 CEBy this year Augustus on a stable commonwealth, per Suetonius Also in Rome
  8. by 14 CEBy this year Augustus on hastening slowly, in Suetonius Same years
  9. 62 CE48 years later Tacitus on Nero's answer to Seneca More from Tacitus

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

Citizens were proscribed, lands divided, without so much as the approval of those who executed these deeds. Even granting that the deaths of Cassius and of the Bruti were sacrifices to a hereditary enmity (though duty requires us to waive private feuds for the sake of the public welfare), still Pompeius had been deluded by the phantom of peace, and Lepidus by the mask of friendship. Subsequently, Antonius had been lured on by the treaties of Tarentum and Brundisium, and by his marriage with the sister, and paid by his death the penalty of a treacherous alliance.

The quote: No doubt, there was peace after all this, but it was a peace stained with blood; there were the disasters of Lollius and Varus, the murders at Rome of the Varros, Egnatii, and Juli.

" The domestic life too of Augustus was not spared. "Nero's wife had been taken from him, and there had been the farce of consulting the pontiffs, whether, with a child conceived and not yet born, she could properly marry. There were the excesses of Quintus Tedius and Vedius Pollio; last of all, there was Livia, terrible to the State as a mother, terrible to the house of the Cæsars as a stepmother. No honour was left for the gods, when Augustus chose to be himself worshipped with temples and statues, like those of the deities, and with flamens and priests.

Tacitus, Annals 1.10Translated by A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb (1876)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
set in 14 CE. Set at the death and funeral of Augustus in 14 CE; Tacitus wrote c. 115–120 CE.
Whose words
His own words.
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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