Fragments from Tacitus's The Annals in Apollon Maikov's traveler's diary of 1842-1843

In the Roman part of A. Maikov'straveler's diary of 1842-43, which displays a considerable difference from traditional examples of the genre through its formalpeculiarities, an important place is taken by various intertextual inclusions, e.g., translations and versions from Tacitus's The Annals.Maikov read Tacitus in the original in a bilingual French edition, where the Latin text was given parallel to its translation into French.From our viewpoint, Maikov's very choice of the chapters for translation and versions is interesting and representative for studying thecreative and mental development of the poet. The first six books of The Annals depict the epoch of Tiberius's rule. Maikov the readerbecomes ever more attracted to the emperor's personality described by Tacitus with a great bias. This is reflected in diary notes. Thechoice of fragments demonstrates that Maikov is mostly interested not in Tiberius the politician, but in Tiberius the person, with hiscomplex and controversial nature, who gradually submits to his vices and becomes morally degraded. Another point of interest is theatmosphere of the time. The translation and versions of fragments I-VI of The Annals comprising a number of sketches devoted toimportant features of life of the Roman state reproduce the image of Rome created by the poet upon rethinking of Tacitus's work. Onecan note not only Maikov's interest to Tacitus and his admiration of the historian's works, but also a critical choice of information and adesire to produce a philosophical and psychological investigation of the epoch and its ruler on its basis that would embody all thedialectics of the epoch and the historical personality. Maikov enters a creative dialogue with the Roman historian and builds his own textupon the basis of Tacitus's work. Doing this, he makes his own dominant points, together with semantic and formal-stylistic accents.This is demonstrated by traces of considerable corrections made while attempting to produce an accurate translation of certain chapters.In general, translations and versions from Tacitus's The Annals have a significant place in the Roman part of Maikov's traveler's diary of1842-43. Their inclusion in the diary context is linked with the transformations, which the canonical genre of the traveler's diaryundergoes in the author's mind. The translations and versions of fragments from Tacitus become here one of the numerous ways to use''the other's'' words and reflect a broad range of Maikov's interests of the period that develop and mature within a constant dialogue withthe facts of the European culture. Introduction of translations, as well as other forms of intertextuality, in the author's text of the diarybecomes an important means of expanding the semantic space of the diary and illustrates the scale of the creative.

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