Morbid Joy: Laetus in Tacitus

Abstract: Tacitus establishes and employs a sinister connotation of the word laetus and its cognates in the Histories and Annals. Laetus becomes disconcerting when happiness is inappropriate. Tacitus connects laetitia to death, deception and events that he imbues with dramatic irony. Comprising about half of the total instances of laetus in Tacitus, the sinister connotation encourages readers to be on the alert for disaster, foolishness and irony even in passages where laetus does not explicitly have a negative connotation. Sinister laetus reinforces Tacitus' contempt for the failings of historical figures and cultivates distrust of happy emotions in his historical works.