Sine ira et studio
Sine ira et studio (Latin without anger and zeal ) is the maxim according to which the Roman historiographer Tacitus (approx. 58-120) wanted to proceed in his work. This phrase comes from the Proömium of the " Annals ".
This sentence corresponds to the sentence sine gratia aut ambitione (“without gratitude and ambition ”) in the “ Agricola ” -Proemium , Tacitus also promises at the beginning of the histories that he will neque amore quisquam et sine odio (“about no one with affection and from everyone without Hate ") will speak.
Accordingly, the aim of historiography should be to report on historical events and people without any partiality. In Tacitus' view, historians praise a ruler in their books for fear of punishment. But if they write in retrospect about a deceased tyrant, they often write out of anger and vilify the ruler - sometimes wrongly.
Sine ira et studio is often cited as an invitation to value-free historiography - or to science in general. However, this principle was by no means observed by Tacitus himself, who quite often took sides.
His critics considered this sentence to be the captatio benevolentiae (winning the benevolence of the reader), which is not uncommon in introductions . Such assurances were so numerous that they were also used ironically: So it says in the introduction to the - attributed to Seneca - Apocolocyntosis : nihil nec offensae nec gratiae dabitur (“Nothing, neither hatred nor sympathy, should guide me in the least. ").
