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Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ) (c. 155 or 163/164 to after 229), known in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio (Dione. lib) was a noted Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 historian
Historian

A historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time....
 and public servant. Dio published a history of Rome in 80 volumes, beginning with the legendary arrival of Aeneas
Aeneas

This article is about the Roman hero. For other uses, see Aeneas .In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Troy hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus_....
 in Italy through the subsequent founding of Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 and then to 229; a period of about 1,400 years. Of the 80 books, written over 22 years, many survive into the modern age intact or as fragments, providing modern scholars with a detailed perspective on Roman history.

ius Dio was the son of Cassius Apronianus
Cassius Apronianus

Cassius Apronianus or Apronianus was a Ancient Rome who lived in the 2nd century. He was a member of Cassius , one of the oldest families in Ancient Rome....
, a Roman senator.






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Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ) (c. 155 or 163/164 to after 229), known in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio (Dione. lib) was a noted Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 historian
Historian

A historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time....
 and public servant. Dio published a history of Rome in 80 volumes, beginning with the legendary arrival of Aeneas
Aeneas

This article is about the Roman hero. For other uses, see Aeneas .In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Troy hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus_....
 in Italy through the subsequent founding of Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 and then to 229; a period of about 1,400 years. Of the 80 books, written over 22 years, many survive into the modern age intact or as fragments, providing modern scholars with a detailed perspective on Roman history.

Biography

Cassius Dio was the son of Cassius Apronianus
Cassius Apronianus

Cassius Apronianus or Apronianus was a Ancient Rome who lived in the 2nd century. He was a member of Cassius , one of the oldest families in Ancient Rome....
, a Roman senator. He was born and raised at Nicaea in Bithynia
Bithynia

Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thrace Bosporus and the Euxine ....
. Byzantine tradition holds that Dio’s mother was the daughter or sister of Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 historian, orator, and philosopher Dio Chrysostom
Dio Chrysostom

Dio Chrysostom , Dion of Prusa or Dio Cocceianus was a Greece orator, writer, philosopher and historian of the Roman Empire in the first century....
; this relationship has been disputed. His praenomen
Praenomen

In Roman naming conventions, the praenomen was the only name in which parents had some choice, roughly equivalent to the given name of today....
 is usually held to have been Lucius, but a Macedonian inscription published in 1970 shows it as Cl., presumably Claudius. Although a Roman citizen, he was Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 by descent, and wrote in Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
. Dio always maintained a love for his Greek hometown of Nicaea, calling it 'his home', as opposed to his description of his villa in Italy ('my residence in Italy').

Dio passed the greater part of his life in public service. He was a Senator under Commodus
Commodus

Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus , was a Roman Emperor who ruled from 180 to 192 . The name given here was his official name at his accession to sole rule; see 'Commodus#Changes of name' for earlier and later forms....
 and governor of Smyrna
Izmir

Izmir, also once called Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of Izmir, by the Aegean Sea....
 after the death of Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus

Lucius Septimius Severus was a Roman Empire general, and Roman Emperor from April 14 193 to 211. He was born in what is now the Libyan part of Rome's historic Africa Province, making him the first emperor to be born in the Roman province of Africa Province....
, and afterwards suffect Consul
Roman consul

Consul was the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.During the time of ancient Rome as a Republic, the Consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the head of government for the Republic....
 around 205. He was also Proconsul
Proconsul

Ancient RomeIn the Roman Republic, a proconsul was a promagistrate who, after serving as consul, spent a year as a Roman governor of a Roman province....
 in Africa and Pannonia
Pannonia

Pannonia is an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
. Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus

Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander, commonly called Alexander Severus, was the last Roman Emperors of the Severan dynasty, having succeeded, as heir apparent, his despised cousin, the eighteen year old Elagabalus who had been murdered along with his mother by his own guards—and as a mark of contempt, had their remains cast into...
 held him in the highest esteem and made him his Consul
Roman consul

Consul was the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.During the time of ancient Rome as a Republic, the Consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the head of government for the Republic....
 again, even though his caustic nature irritated the Praetorian Guard
Praetorian Guard

The Praetorian Guard was a special force of guards used by Roman empire List of Roman Emperorss. Before being appropriated for the use of the Emperors' personal guards, the title was used for the guards of Roman generals, at least since the rise to prominence of the Scipio family around 275 BC....
s, who demanded his life. Following his second consulship, being advanced in years, he returned to his native country, where he died.

He was the father of ... Cassius Dio, Consul in 291.

Roman History

Dio published a Roman History, in 80 books, after 22 years of research and labour. It covers Roman history for a period of about 1,400 years, beginning with the arrival of the legendary Aeneas
Aeneas

This article is about the Roman hero. For other uses, see Aeneas .In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Troy hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus_....
 in Italy (c. 1200 BC), through the subsequent mythistoric founding of Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 (753 BC), then it covers historical events up to AD 229. Down to about the first century BC, Dio gives only a summary of events; after that period, his accounts become more detailed; and from the time of Commodus, he is very circumspect in relating what passed under his own eyes.

Today, fragments remain of the first 36 books, including considerable portions of both the 35th book (on the war of Lucullus
Lucullus

Lucius Licinius Lucullus , is one of the canonical great men of Roman history, always included in the biographical collections of leading generals and politicians, two of which survive today despite the slender surviving literature from the antiquity....
 against Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI of Pontus

Mithradates VI , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; b. 134, d. 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus in northern Anatolia from about 119 to 63 BC....
) and the 36th (on the war with the pirates and the expedition of Pompey against the king of Pontus). The books that follow, to the 54th inclusive, are nearly all complete: they cover the period from 65 BC to 12 BC, or from the eastern campaign of Pompey and the death of Mithridates to the death of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman statesman and general. He was a close friend, son-in-law, lieutenant and minister to Octavian, the future emperor Caesar Augustus....
. The 55th book has a considerable gap in it. The 56th to the 60th, inclusive, which cover the period from 9 to 54, are complete, and contain the events from the defeat of Varus
Publius Quinctilius Varus

Publius Quinctilius Varus was a Ancient Rome politician and general under emperor Augustus, mainly remembered for having lost three Roman legions and his own life when attacked by Germanic tribes leader Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest....
 in Germany to the death of Claudius
Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, AD 41 to his death in AD 54....
. Of the next 20 books in the series, there remains only fragments and the meager abridgement of John Xiphilinus
John Xiphilinus

Joannes Xiphilinus, wikt:epitomator of Dio Cassius, lived at Constantinople during the latter half of the 11th century AD. He was a monk and the nephew of Patriarch John VIII of Constantinople, a well-known preacher ....
, a monk of the XI century. The 80th or last book covers the period from 222 to 229 (the reign of Alexander Severus). The abridgment of Xiphilinus, as now extant, commences with the 35th book and continues to the end of the 80th book. It is a very indifferent performance, and was made by order of the emperor Michael VII
Michael VII

Michael VII Doukas or Ducas , nicknamed Parapinakes, Byzantine emperor from 1071 to 1078....
 Parapinaces.

The fragments of the first 36 books, as now collected, are of four kinds:
  1. Fragmenta Valesiana
    Fragmenta Valesiana

    Fragmenta Valesiana is a Roman text written by Cassius Dio, dispersed throughout various writers, scholastics, grammarians, lexicographers, etc., and collected by Henri Valois....
    , such as were dispersed throughout various writers, scholiasts, grammarians, and lexicographers, and were collected by Henri Valois
    Henri Valois

    Henri Valois or in classical circles, Henricus Valesius, was a philologist and a student of classical and ecclesiastical historians.Belonging to a gently-born family of Normandy settled near Bayeux and Liseux, Valois studied under the Society of Jesus, first at Verdun and then at the Coll?ge de Clermont at Paris, where he studied rhe...
    .
  2. Fragmenta Peiresciana, comprising large extracts, found in the section entitled "Of Virtues and Vices", in the great collection or portative library compiled by order of Constantine VII
    Constantine VII

    Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" , was the son of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise and his fourth wife Zoe Karbonopsina....
     Porphyrogenitus. The manuscript of this belonged to Peiresc.
  3. The fragments of the first 34 books, preserved in the second section of the same work of Constantine's, entitled “Of Embassies.” These are known under the name of Fragmenta Ursiniana, because the manuscript containing them was found in Sicily by Fulvio Orsini.
  4. Excerpta Vaticana, by Mai, which contain fragments of books 1 to 35, and 61 to 80. To these are added the fragments of an unknown continuator
    Continuator

    A continuator, in literature, is a writer who creates a new work based on someone else's prior text, such as a novel or novel fragment. The new work may complete the older work , or may try to serve as a sequel or prequel to the older work ....
     of Dio, which go down to the time of Constantine
    Constantine I

    Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus , commonly known in English_language as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine , was Roman Emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 until his death in 337....
    . Other fragments from Dio belonging chiefly to the first 34 books were found by Mai in two Vatican MSS., which contain a collection made by Maximus Planudes
    Maximus Planudes

    Maximus Planudes , was a Byzantine Greek grammarian and theology who lived and worked during the reigns of Michael VIII Palaeologus and Andronicus II Palaeologus....
    . The annals of Joannes Zonaras
    Joannes Zonaras

    Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine Empire chronicler and theology, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of Drungarios of the Vigla and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his life in writing books....
     also contain numerous extracts from Dio.


Literary style

Dio attempted to emulate Thucydides
Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greeks history and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C....
 in his writing style, but came up short both in arrangement and the presentation of the materials and in the soundness of his viewpoint and accuracy of his reasoning. His style is generally clear, where there appears to be no corruption of the text, although his writing is full of Latinisms. His diligence is unquestionable, and due to his personal circumstances he had the opportunity to either be a first-person observer of or have direct contact with the key figures involved in many of the significant events of the Empire during his own lifetime.

See also

  • Celts
  • Inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre
    Inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre

    The inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre were held in Anno Domini 80, on the orders of the Roman Emperor Titus, to celebrate the completion of the Colosseum, then known as the Flavian Amphitheatre ....


Sources

  • Alain Gowing, "". Classical Philology
    Classical philology

    Classical philology is the study of the language systems of Latin, specifically ancient Latin, and of Ancient Greek. It is called classical philology due to the use of the term Classics to refer to the general studies of ancient Greece and Rome....
    ,Vol. 85, No. 1 (Jan., 1990), pp. 49–54. JSTOR
    JSTOR

    JSTOR is a United States-based Internet system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995. It provides full-text searches of Digitizing back issues of several hundred well-known journals, dating back to 1665 in the case of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society....
     link.


External links


  • (English translation on LacusCurtius)