Baltasar Alamos de Barrientos was born at
Medina del Campo, in
Old Castile, about the middle of the sixteenth century, and studied law at the
University of Salamanca. He contracted a warm friendship with Gonzalo Pérez,
secretary of state to
Philip II, and afterwards with the minister’s son
Antonio, who succeeded him in the same position. The disgrace of Antonio Pérez brought ruin on Alamos, who was imprisoned for twelve years in consequence of the unfortunate connection. In 1598 Philip II died, leaving directions in his will that Alamos should be released; and in the succeeding reign, though not employed, he was looked on with favour by the ministers, especially the
Duke of Lerma, who supplied him with the means of subsistence. On the accession of
Philip IV, through the influence of the
Count-Duke Olivarez, who highly esteemed his talents, he obtained several valuable places about the court, and was ultimately made a member of the councils
of the Indies and of the royal patrimony. He died at the advanced age of eighty-eight, leaving behind him several daughters, one of whom was married to Don García Tello de Sandoval, himself a writer of some celebrity. Alamos is known by his translation of
Tacitus, which he originally undertook to relieve the tedium of imprisonment. It is the most complete version of the author extant in the
Spanish language. The principal portions were executed entirely in prison, as appears from Philip II having granted a license for their publication in 1594, four years before Alamos was released; but the translations of Tacitus's
Germania and
Agricola were the fruits of his labours when at large. The whole appeared in one vol. 4to at
Madrid, under the title of
El Tacito Español illustrado con Aforismos in the year 1614. Alamos' translation, based upon
Justus Lipsius' edition of Tacitus, is accompanied in the margins by a series of his own aphorisms encapsulating the point made by Tacitus in the text. These latter were afterwards published by Don Antonio de Fuertes under the title of
Alma o aphorismos de Cornelio Tacito, Antwerp, 1651, 8vo. Alamos' aphorisms were also translated into
Italian by Girolamo d'Anghiari, and published with
Adriano Politi's version of Tacitus, Venice, 1665 4to. ==References==