"As a historian, Tacitus has several obvious defects. He is often amazingly careless about geography and military history. He is not deeply interested in the man in the street. He is not always just, as, for example, when he hints, on very slight grounds, that Domitian poisoned Agricola. He permits himself an occasional sneer at the enemies of Rome, more suitable to cheap journalism of any age than to a serious work of history." -page 11.

"To the question whether the Germania is reliable we can give on the whole an affirmative answer. Tacitus is at fault here and there: for example, he underrates the importance of Roman trade with Germany and exaggerates the German disregard for gold and silver. But his evidence on many points, such as German amour and dress, has been brilliantly confirmed by archaeological evidence." -page 28.

"History in the main has justified the forebodings of...