Verbal Agency in the Speech of Cremutius Cordus (Tacitus Annals 4.34-5)

Abstract

This article analyzes the agency (or lack thereof) in the verbs of the speech of Cremutius Cordus at Tacitus Annals 4.34-5. Cordus divests himself of agency in order to grant it to written works of literature, which can carry an author’s legacy and authority into posterity even if the author himself is punished with death. By their very existence, such works, imbued with agency and power by their authors, stymie the efforts of book-burners and the authors’ enemies to efface cultural memory.