ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the kinship further, with a concentration on Tacitus’ engagement with another Herodotean theme, that of the great struggle between East and West. He focuses on Tacitus’ employment of this dichotomy in his Histories, his account of the civil wars of 69 ce, the “Year of the Four Emperors.” Before turning to Tacitus’ Histories, a short recapitulation of the issue of East versus West in Herodotus’ Histories is in order. The geographical East-West division that runs through the Histories is reinforced by the cultural differences that Herodotus the ethnographer highlights in his portraits of the Greeks and Persians. Within the annalistic structure of the Histories and Annals, the historian frequently moves from events in the West to events in the East and then back to Rome. The author follows a description of Titus’ visit to Mucianus, a trip that will secure the pact between Mucianus and Vespasian.
