La linguae continentia de Tácito: los Antoninos e Hispania

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to elucidate the impersonal and ambiguous posture of Tacitus with regard to the Antonines and Hispania. The article, in the first instance, analyses the passages of the Agricola and the Histories where Tacitus presents the eulogies of the Antonines, as well as his unfulfilled promises to write the history of Nerva and Trajan, which are revealed as conventional expressions and mere topics, not exempt of irony, that conceal his true opinion. This is accentuated by the suspicious absence of Trajan’s name in the Annals and the interpretative ambivalence of the art piece, since while the historian denigrates the deceased princes and complies with the Trajan’s program, in reality through the similitudo temporum he is subtly carrying out a steely critique of the new dynasty. The article continues with the main references to Hispania, in which the attitude observed ranges from indifference, on the surface, to hostility, on a deeper plane. The conclusion is that Tacitus’ linguae continentia, at least that related to the Antonines and Hispania must be interpreted as a manifestation of that silentium and moderatio that assured him immunity in the turbulent times he lived through.