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Tacitus Quote


Geek Amicus

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In my spare time, I type for a political science author. I am finishing up his latest manuscript and he has a quote from Tacitus that needs a cite. I can't find it any where. (The quote is all over the place, but it doesn't ascribe any source.) Does anyone know in which of Tacitus' works the following can be found?

 

The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion.

 

You are all the smartest people I know of. Any help you can give me will help me earn my keep and will be much appreciated.

 

Thank you.

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After a bit of a search the main problem I found with sourcing this quotation is that it is usually unatributed in any way but eventually I discovered that it seems to have come from a very old 19th century translation.

 

The relevant passage is, in my view in a better 'Loeb' translation, repeated on the Lacius Curtis site in Book 15.53 of the Annals translated by John Jackson (1931?)as:

 

At last they resolved to execute their purpose on the day of the Circensian Games when the celebration is in honour of Ceres; as the emperor who rarely left home and secluded himself in his palace or gardens, went regularly to the exhibitions in the Circus and could be approached with comparative ease owing to the gaiety of the spectacle. They had arranged a set programme for the plot. Lateranus, as though asking financial help, would fall in an attitude of entreaty at the emperor's feet, overturn him while off his guard, and hold him down, being as he was a man of intrepid character and a giant physically. Then, as the victim lay prostrate and pinned, the tribunes, the centurions, and any of the rest who had daring enough, were to run up and do him to death; the part of protagonist being claimed by Scaevinus, who had taken down a dagger from the temple of Safety
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Glad to hear your brilliance has been acknowledged.

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