5/19/2023 0 Comments Germania book tacitusTacitus speculates that the German tribes were autochthonous-that they sprung from the German soil, and never mixed with any other people. Over the centuries, Krebs shows, certain themes repeated themselves in the way German intellectuals used and misused the Germania. The leading Lutheran Philip Melanchthon hoped the work would help readers “contemplate … the strength and virtuousness of ancient Germany.” Followers of Martin Luther “produced their own Latin editions, the first German translation, and an extensive commentary” on Tacitus’ work. In an intellectual judo-flip, this Roman treatise on German primitivism was taken over by Germans who wanted to assert their historical and moral superiority to Rome. But while Italians rediscovered the Germania, Germans made it a Renaissance best-seller.
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