From dmeadows@idirect.com Sat Apr 1 04:06:32 2000 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id EAA18254 for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2000 04:06:30 -0800 Received: from phobos.idirect.com (phobos.idirect.com [207.136.80.181]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id EAA08419 for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2000 04:06:29 -0800 Received: from ns.idirect.com (on-ham-a53-02-179.look.ca [216.154.52.115]) by phobos.idirect.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id HAA05558 for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2000 07:04:02 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000401070554.00a9c720@idirect.com> X-Sender: dmeadows@idirect.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.1 Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2000 07:06:22 -0700 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: "stultus@kalendasaprilis" Subject: Lost Manuscript Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed This just came in over the Reuters newswire and is of obvious interest to the list: ^R Reuters International New Service This material is not for redistribution Article received 11:59 PM, 04/01/00 MISSING MANUSCRIPT ENDS CENTURIES OF SCHOLARLY CONTROVERSY (Vatican City). Staff in the Vatican Library announced today the discovery of a complete book including the missing portion of the ancient historian Tacitus' Annals. Tacitus lived in the first century A.D. and his work is an important historical source for the early Roman empire. "What we seem to have is a complete codex of the Annals, including the missing sections dealing with the emperor Caligula and the early reign of Claudius," said Vatican spokesman Benito Trovato. The book itself was discovered when shelving was being replaced in one of the many reading rooms of the Vatican Library. "We knew the book existed because it appears in catalogs dating from the fourteenth century, but it seems to have fallen behind some shelves years ago and forgotten." "What's really exciting, however, is how much light it sheds on the early Roman Empire. Scholars consider Tacitus to be quite accurate and this discovery sheds new light on a number of controversies." Among the new information is the date of Christ's crucifixion, which is said to have taken place in 41 A.D., shortly after the emperor Claudius came to the throne. Although the codex was discovered over a month ago, the Vatican delayed announcing it until Good Friday, which seemed appropriate. "Outside of the importance for Christianity, the text also is surprising in the portrait it paints of the supposedly `mad' emperor Caligula. Scholars have, for example, argued often over Caligula's building a boat bridge across the Bay of Naples. Usually it is seen simply as a sign of his insanity. Tacitus tells us, however, that it was in fact a military exercise conducted shortly after Caligula's failed attempt to cross over to Britain. It appears that the soldiers were afraid to cross the English Channel by boat and the boat bridge was designed to allow them to march across. Unfortunately Caligula was murdered before he could attempt it." Mr. Trovato did not reveal when the text would become available to scholars, but did say that a number of publishers had already been in touch with him. .