[cloudmountain]

1. Excellent points all around. Regarding #3, there are some historical/legendary materials - I used to have a book that summarized them, 2. but I gave it to my mother-in-law. 3. However, that’s not the same as having something on the order of Tacitus’s history.

1. Thank you.

2. I liked my mother-in-law very much. At first she didn't like me because of my heritage and faith. BUT, I grow on folks, like a benign fungus. :o)

3. SO true! We don't seem to have that objectivity anymore. Too many agendas.

[Tax-chick]

I like my mother-in-law, too, even though she’s a Sicilian from New Jersey ;-). I don’t mind that she kept the book.

I don’t know how “objective” Tacitus was, but he gave a good impression of it. His “Germania” is one of my favorite pieces of classic literature. Herodotus, on the other hand, just reported absolutely everything anyone told him and let the reader decide what to believe.