Tacitus’ Germania, a brief ethnography of the peoples the Romans called Germani, exerted a profound impact on the European History of ideas. By no fault of its author, it ended up as an ideological cornerstone of the National Socialist regime. This talk will trace the influence of the Germania and reflect more generally on what it is that makes books “dangerous.”

Christopher B. Krebs is associate professor of classics at Stanford university. He has also held appointments at Harvard university, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the École Normale Supérieure (Paris), and the University of Oxford. His research interests are in ancient historiography, Latin lexicography, and the classical tradition. His most recent monograph is A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus’ Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich, which won the 2012 Christian Gauss Award. He is currently engaged in studies of Caesar and the intellectual life of the first century BCE. He also enjoys writing for wider audiences to communicate his fascination with the ancient world and its long and lasting reach.

Refreshments at 4:30 and reception to follow the lecture.

Lecture presented by UCSC’s Classical Studies, and the Departments of History and Literature. For more information, please contact hedrick@ucsc.edu