Averrunci or The Skowrers

Ponderous and new considerations upon the first six books of the Annals of
Cornelius Tacitus concerning Tiberius Caesar
(Genoa, Biblioteca Durazzo, MS. A IV 5)

This edition makes available for the first time a recently discovered and provocative work by the English historian Edmund Bolton. Composed in the years 1629–1634, Averrunci or The Skowrers aims at exposing Tacitus’ (alleged) anti-monarchical bias in Annals 1–6 and at rehabilitating the character and reign of the emperor Tiberius. The Introduction discusses the manuscript in the context of Bolton’s life and other works, its response to political and historiographical controversies in early Stuart England, and its unusual, revisionist position in the contemporary movement of Tacitism. A Commentary, following the text, explains difficult passages and identifies Bolton’s extensive historical references.

Edited with Introduction and Commentary by Patricia J. Osmond and Robert W. Ulery, Jr.