15.04.24: describing the weather: introduction [2]; “dull” weather?

Talking about the weather might seem a rather dull subject: if you can’t think of anything else to talk about – or you want to avoid talking about something else - talk about the weather. However, violent winds, thunderbolts, devastated populations, and demolition of property are all the ingredients of page-turning disasters, and, as the extracts below show, Tacitus does not only talk about the weather in a factual way – as in the description of Britain’s climate in the previous post - but weaves natural occurrences into his narratives, giving them a supernatural twist and providing ominous backdrops to intensify the drama and to appeal to his readership; the Romans were just as attracted to the supernatural as people are today, and, for the Romans, the relationship between Man and the gods is a psychological and spiritual foundation stone.

As in the previous post, the aim of the extracts is not to understand every word (full translations are given), but to pick out some more vocabulary and also to get a little way into the mind of the author.

In this first extract, note how Tacitus connects the gods’ disapproval with what has happened.

Tot facinoribus foedum annum etiam dī tempestātibus et morbīs īnsignīvēre. vastāta Campānia turbine ventōrum, quī vīllās arbusta frūgēs passim disiēcit pertulitque violentiam ad vīcīnā urbī [Tacitus: Annales 16.13.1]

Upon this year, disgraced by so many shameful deeds, the gods also imposed their mark through violent storms and epidemics. Campania was laid waste by a whirlwind, which wrecked the farms, the fruit trees, and the crops far and wide and carried its violence to the vicinity of the capital

tempestās, tempestātis [3/f]: storm

turbō, turbinis [3/m]: whirlwind

ventus, -ī [2/m]: wind

In the next extract, he uses similar phenomena to warn of things that are going to happen.

praeter multiplicīs rērum hūmānārum cāsūs caelō terrāque prōdigia et fulminum monitūs et futūrōrum praesāgia, laeta trīstia, ambigua manifēsta [Tacitus Historiae: 1.3]

Besides these manifold disasters to mankind there were portents in the sky and on the earth, thunderbolts and other premonitions of good and of evil.

caelum, -ī [2/n]: sky

terra, -ae [1/f]: land

fulmen, fulminis [3/n]: lightning; thunderbolt

image: Brandishing the thunderbolt, Jupiter (Greek: Zeus), the god of the sky and thunder, and the King of the Gods in Rome. That Tacitus makes reference to thunderbolts would certainly have implied that Jupiter himself was expressing disapproval. And if Jupiter himself doesn’t like what emperors are doing, does Tacitus – without saying it directly – think the same?