Virtus Romana under the Julio-Claudians: Tacitus' view in his Annals

Abstract

This paper tries to explain how and why the political change undergone by Rome from the Republic to the Principate also brought a change in the moral categories with which Roman virtus would be redefined in the future. I argue here that Tacitus, traditionally seen as an author who has emphasized the vices of the actors in the new political regime, through the historical narrative of his Annals, provides us also with the exempla virtutis (examples of virtue) for the new model of the Roman citizen under the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.