Eloquent Collisions: The Annales of Tacitus, the Column of Trajan, and the Cinematic Quick-Cut

Abstract

In this paper, using the analogy of the cinematic quick-cut and comparison to the contemporary Column of Trajan, I examine Tacitus’s vivid use of sudden transition and its effect on the reader of the Annales . I sub divide the quick-cut into three categories of “narrative,” “collision,” and “attraction,” each of which compels the reader to forge the deep narrative of Tacitus’s Annales . Through his adroit use of the quick-cut, Tacitus is able to construct a deep narrative “secret history” that trumps both logic and the surface historical “facts.”

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