Or... could it be
Tacitus was doing all
his historical
writing from
his couch based on stories written or given by word of mouth to him?
The problem with many ancient
Roman "historians" is that they did not actually try to find out what these lands were like themselves (and
had no photo/movie/sound to judge on their own) but wrote about what others told them it was like - and more than likely these were people in their own class who also did not travel to these places. And the ones that did usually embelleshed the tales to make it sound much more interesting.
Reading these guys more often than not reminds me more like I'm reading articles in the "Enquirer" or "Sun"
type of tabloids where aliens have landed and other fantastic events. Though Julius Caesar's writings were largely for
his own purposes in getting what he wanted out of
Rome - they at least seemed accurate. I sure wish more reports from the legions in the
field survived as I think these would have been much more educational. Especially from the legions of
Hadrian and
Trajan - now that would give an idea of the economies and peoples of the times.
Unfortunately all we are left with is the wonder and glory of the print tabloids of the time - which we are forced to call historians - because the upper classes considered them as such. Not to put down that they did not have kernels of valuable historical fact - especially when talking about their own class and the power struggles within it - but its usually buried in so much fluff and politics of the time that its hard to tell what it was really like in the world of
his times. And almost totally untrustworthy when they record political enemies - though occasionally some things
pan out in the archeological record.
In the end, there are "the world is flat" clubs today. There are tabloids today. There are current event reports so fogged in politics you'd be hard pressed to figure out what was really going on until 10-20 years have passed. In conclusion,
Tacitus believing the world is flat while the travelers, and laymen of the time understood differently - is almost as shocking as... as.... people always believing the end times - are in their time
As bad as news makes the world to be - its never been better in the
history of
man - not to say we should not point out injustices - decry attrocities - but the last people I'd believe to see their own times objectively - are the people in those times
Me included.