- His Histories were written early in the "life" of recorded history. There weren't that many set precedents, such as corroborating hearsay or relating unbiased facts or providing citations of reliable sources.
- He was Roman, and pretty much anything written in Rome is tinged with propaganda.
But NO, I am NOT going to be easy on Tacitus! Why? Because of this extremely sloppy passage that records the "history" of the Jews:
“It is said that he Jews are refugees from Crete, who
settled on the confines of Libya at the time when Saturn was forcibly deposed
by Jupiter. The evidence for this is sought in the name. Ida is a famous
mountain in Crete inhabited by the Idaei, whose name became lengthened intot he
foreign form Judaei. Others say that in the reign of Isis the superfluous
population of Egypt, under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Juda, discharged
itself upon the neighbouring districts, while there are many who think the Jews
an Ethiopian stock, driven to migrate by their fear and dislike of King
Cepheus. Another tradition makes them Assyrian refugees, who, lacing lands of
their own, occupied a district of Egypt, and later took to building cities of
their own and tilling Hebrew territory and the frontier-land of Syria. Yet
another version assigns to the Jews an illustrious origin as the descendants of
the Solymi—a tribe famous in Homer—who founded the city and called it
Heirosolyma after their own name.
Most
authorities agree that a foul and disfiguring disease broke out in Egypt, and
that King Bocchoris, on approaching the oracle of Ammon and inquiring for a
remedy, was told to purge his kingdom of the plague and to transport all who
suffered from it into some other country, for they had earned the disfavor of
Heaven. A motley crowd was thus collected and abandoned in the desert. While
all the other outcasts lay idly lamenting, one of them, named Moses, advised
them not to look for help to gods or men, sine both had deserted them, but to
trust rather in themselves and accept as divine the guidance of the first being
by whose aid they should get out of their present plight .they agreed, and set
out blindly to march wherever chance might lead them. Their worst distress came
from lack of water. When they were already at death’s door and lying prostrate
all over the plain, it so happened that a drove of wild asses moved away from
their pasture to a rock densely covered with trees. Guessing the truth from the
grassy nature of the ground, Moses followed and disclosed an ample flow of water.
This saved them. Continuing their march for six successive days, on the seventh
they routed the natives and gain possession of the country. There they
consecrated their city and their temple.
To ensure
his future hold over the people, Moses introduced a new cult, which was the
opposite of all other religions. All that we hold sacred they held profane, and
allowed practices which we abominate.
They
dedicated in a shrine an image of the animal whose guidance had put and end to
their wandering and thirst. They killed a ram, apparently as an insult to
Ammon, and also sacrificed a bull, because the Egyptians worship the bull Apis.
Pigs are subject to leprosy; so they abstain from pork in memory of their
misfortune and the foul plague with which they were once infected. Their
frequent fasts bear witness to the long famine they once endured, and, in token
of the corn they carried off, Jewish bread is to this day made without leaven.
They are said to have devoted the seventh day to rest, because that day brought
an end to their troubles. Later, finding idleness alluring, they gave up the
seventh year as well to sloth. Others maintain that they do this in honour of
Saturn; either because their religious principles are derived from the Idaei,
who are supposed to have been driven out with Saturn and become the ancestors
of the Jewish people; or else because of the seven constellations which govern
the lives of men, the star of Saturn moves in the topmost orbit and exercises
peculiar influence, and also because most of the heavenly bodies move round
their course in multiples of seven.
Whatever
their origin, these rites are sanctioned by their antiquity. Their other
customs are impious and abominable, and owe their prevalence fo their
depravity. Fro all the most worthless rascals, renouncing their national cults,
were always sending money to swell the sum of offerings and tribute. This is
one cause of Jewish prosperity. Another is that they are obstinately loyal to
each other, and always ready to show compassion, whereas they fell nothing but
hatred and enmity for the rest of the world. … They have introduced
circumcision to distinguish themselves from other people. Those who are converted
to their customs adopt the same practice, and the first lessons they learn are
to despise the gods, to renounce their country, and to think nothing of their
parents, children, and brethren. … They prefer to bury and not burn their dead.
In this, as in their burial rites, and in their belief in an underworld, they
conform to Egyptian custom.
Their
ideas of heaven are quite different. The Egyptians worship most of their gods
as animals, or in shapes half animal and half human. The Jews acknowledge one
god only, of whom they have a purely spiritual conception. They think it
impious to make images of gods in human shape out of perishable materials.
Their got is almighty and inimitable, without beginning and without end. They
therefore set up no statues in their temples, nor even in their cities,
refusing this homage both to their own kings and to the Roman emperors.
However, the fact that their priest intoned to the flute and cymbals and wore
wreaths of ivy, and that a golden vine was found in their temple, has led some
people to think that they worship Bacchus, who has so enthralled the East. But
their cult would be most inappropriate. Bacchus instituted gay and cheerful
rites, but the Jewish ritual is preposterous and morbid.”
That's certainly a departure from the plot of Prince of Egypt!
This is a longer quotation than I usually include, but I was hard-pressed to whittle it down without cutting out some piece of nonsense. I mean, Tacitus takes seriously every legend regarding where the Jewish people came from...and yet doesn't even consider the Jews' own history, particularly Exodus!
It becomes clear how little Tacitus cares about accuracy when he says "Whatever their origin" as if it doesn't matter.
If he'd taken the trouble to research the Jewish writings, or even just asked a random Jew, he would have avoided the many many MANY errors sprinkled throughout this passage, including:
He even contradicts himself, saying "the Jews acknowledge one god only, of whom they have a purely spiritual concept" in the same breath as saying the Jews worship donkeys (apparently this was a common misconception by gentile cultures?).
I also think it's hilarious that Tacitus thinks Judaism is impious and "preposterous and morbid"--specifically in contrast to the Bacchus cult--because if one does any serious research into the Roman religious practices it soon becomes clear that they were very messed up...and the Bacchus cults were perhaps the most radical and even dangerous.
It is usually true that history is written by the victors. For this era, the Romans dominated the history books because they were unilaterally the victors. So the simplest explanation of why Tacitus was so sloppy with this section of his Histories? Racism. His summary of Jewish culture, history, and religion is framed by his account of how future emperor Titus destroyed Jerusalem after a failed rebellion. Romans did not cope well with resistance. Anyone who defied them--which the Jews consistently did, refusing to even adopt the Roman religion of worshiping the emperor--would not reflect well in their histories. Making the Jews look bad made Emperor Titus look good for destroying their city.
And Tacitus probably knew that he'd better make the emperor look good in his history book, or else he'd be history.
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