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Germany 2008

Germany in May 2008 including Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Celle, weekend in Munich, Varus battle near Osnabrück and museum village in Cloppenburg.

2008 May 13 17 19 20 22

Bergen-Belsen (111) Cloppenburg Museum Village (225) Concentration Camp (111) Erica (3) Kalkriese (75) Munich (55) Smart (1)

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"The country looks quite diverse, but is mostly eerie because of its primeval forests and ugly because of its bogs." - Tacitus, Germania, Chap. 5.
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From the Annals The annals display one of the earliest report of the roman prosecution of christians. Medieval readers were alienated that Tacitus was critical of christians and thought of them as deserving the punishment by Nero for the alleged arson of rome: "And so first the persons were arrested that admitted to be Christians, then after their statements another large circle of persons and they were not only convicted of the crime of arson but also of their hate against humankind. And those marked for death were ridiculed: they were covered in animal skins and ripped apart by the dogs or they were nailed to the cross (to be burned) to serve as light for the night. Nero allocated a park for this spectacle." (ann. 15.44)
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The end of the "Annals" is abrupt. Possible that the last passages were lost in the years. Also possible is that Tacitus was not able to finish his work. So it stops in the middle of the death scene of Thrasea Paetus. He criticized Nero and was sentenced to death because of it: "When he received the decision by the senate, he lead Helvidius and Demetrius into the bedroom. He offered the veins of both arms and when the blood started coming out, he sprinkled the ground, called for the Quaestor and said: "We want to bring an offer to the liberator Jupiter. See here, young man! Though the gods might avert that this is an omen. But you are born into a time where it is necessary to strengthen your heart with examples of resolution." When the slow dying made him suffer, he turned to Demetrius ..." (ann. 16.35)
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Not far from the place of the Varus battle - first in Fulda, then in Corvey - the text was kept for centuries that gives information about the event. There, Tacitus reports: "The people who survived this defeat and were able to escape the battle and the captivity said, here the legates died, there the eagles captured by the enemy; they showed where Varus received his first wound, where he brought the deathblow upon himself; where Arminius gave a speech from the grandstand, how many gallows for the captures, what kind of torture pits he had built, how he made fun of the standards and eagles."
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An example of medieval book art.
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The Annals are copied In the early Middle Ages the works of Tacitus were stored in the Benedictine cloister in Fulda - and were probably also copied there. The cloister with its extensive library was considered the center of the medieval intellectual life. Copies of ancient texts reached other cloisters from here. One copy of the Annals found its way into the Benedictine cloister Corvey. But the text didn't survive the centuries without loss. Originally the Annals contained 16 volumes. Either through transport or copying - a part of the work was past recovery: Only fragments remain of some of the passages, four books and the end are missing altogether. But the first six books of the Annals kept in Corvey were still precious enough nonetheless. So precious that an unknown thief stole them in 1507 and took them out of the country quickly.
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The Annals are copied.
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"A race without either natural or acquired cunning, they disclose their hidden thoughts in the freedom of the festivity. Thus the sentiments of all having been discovered and laid bare." Tacitus, Germania, Chap. 22
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"But the Germans, who with their great ferocity combine great craft, to an extent scarcely credible to one who has had no experience with them, and are a race to lying born." Velleius Paterculus, Historia Romana Chap. 117
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"Their village they do not arrange in our fashion, with the buildings connected and joined together." Tacitus, Germania, Chap. 16
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From the Annals Tacitus pitilessly settled old scores with those he didn't like. For example, he despised Nero - and he enjoyed writing about his shortcomings: "Nero hung around the streets of the city, its bordellos and taverns. He was dressed as a slave so noone would recognize him and with an entourage that would steal offered merchandise and abused whoever got into their way, while those affected where so clueless that even Nero got punched which left marks in his face." - Ann 13,25
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