What is it about?
This chapter is a delailed analysis of Tacitus' narrative about an impostor, Clemens, who tried to impersonate Agrippa, Augustus' grandson. The interpretation puts a strong emphasis on the role of rumour, fiction, and narrative in what we call history.
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Why is it important?
This close reading contributes to a broader trend in Latin philology which explores Tacitus' oeuvre as a corpus where historiography and meta-historiography coexist.
Perspectives
Tacitus' story about Clemens is an exceedingly amusing, electrifying, and, at the same time, depressing passage in the Annals. I enjoyed writing about it.
Dr Ábel Tamás
Eotvos Lorand Tudomanyegyetem
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Geheimnis und Gerücht, June 2014, Transcript Verlag,
DOI: 10.14361/transcript.9783839426067.287.
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