Domitianus Germanicus: Tacitus’sGermaniaand the Memory of Domitian

Abstract

For over fifteen years before the production of Tacitus’s Germania, the title Germanicus had been prominent in Rome, claimed not only by Domitian but also by both Nerva and Trajan. Tacitus famously refutes military success in his account. As this article shows, however, its memory is consistently invoked in its basic structure. Especially through allusions to Caesar, Tacitus introduces a model of historiographical narrative concerning Roman conquest, only to reject it. The result is a tension between the ongoing public presence of Rome’s immediate past and its official erasure, forming a commentary on the very process of imperial memory sanction.