Tacitus is the representative of a new Roman aristocracy from provincial origin that reached power in the Flavian-Trajan age. From this derives in his historiography a constant attention to the events that took place on the periphery of the empire. In particular, his ethnographic reflection demonstrates the typical characteristics of colonial thought: a discourse largely based on literary sources, which uses the stranger as an opportunity to develop a reflection on the possibilities of control of the conquered territories and a critique of Roman civilization towards itself, seen through the mirror of the “barbarians”. The ideas contained in Tacitus’s Germania have had a large influence on modern thought, from the Renaissance humanism to today.
