The Failed Assassination

📕 Tacitus Annals 14.5 ⏱️ 60 min 📊 A-Level

🎯 Learning Intention

Understand how Tacitus dramatises the spectacular failure of Nero's assassination plot through vivid narrative, divine irony, and the contrast between mechanical planning and human chaos.

Success Criteria

  • I can analyse how Tacitus uses the perfect weather as divine commentary on the crime
  • I can explain how mechanical failure exposes the limits of Roman engineering
  • I can evaluate the contrast between "knowing" conspirators and "ignorant" crew
  • I can identify how Acerronia's fatal loyalty demonstrates tragic misidentification
  • I can assess Agrippina's strategic silence as an act of political intelligence

Getting Started

Begin by reviewing the learning intentions, then move to the Read section to explore the Latin text