Summary

Quoting from historian Tacitus' Annals, Alexander Kluge and Heiner Müller delve into the Roman Iron Age, talk about the modern style of Tacitus' prose, and debate borderline cases of legally sanctioned injustice. After Müller reads a passage about Tiberius' death (37 AD) and his successor Caligula Caesar, Kluge and Müller discuss Tacitus' conception of "history's highest function" as a teacher of virtues and admonisher of "evil words and deeds".