The Histories

The Roman senator and historian Tacitus (writing circa 105 C.E.) records the events of the Empire for the forty-some years following the death of Nero in 68 C.E. The work by today's standards would be considered more encyclopedic than analytic. The literal translation leaves a clumsy chaos of stodgy vocabulary: "reckless cupidity"; "prosecuted for peculation"; "precipitated from his chair." Narrator James Adams tries to pull the dog from the fire by reading as though he understands the syntax and archaic idioms. With his educated British accent he maintains a precise articulation and heroically modulates the word emphasis to make it sound like a language we would recognize. Since the translator isn't credited, one wonders if it might have been a computer. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine