Dion Cassius

Dion Cassius, surnamed Cocceianus, from the orator Dion Chrysostomus Cocceianus, most likely his maternal grandfather, a celebrated Greek historian, was born at Nicæa, in Bithynia, 155 A.D. About 180 he went to Rome, held successively all the high offices of state, was twice consul, and enjoyed the intimate friendship of Alexander Severus, who sent him as legate to Dalmatia and Pannonia. About 229 he retired to his native city, where he passed the remainder of his life. He is best known by his History of Rome, from the landing of Æneas in Italy down to 229 A.D., in eighty books, of which but nineteen, from the thirty-sixth to the fifty-fourth, have reached us complete. These embrace the history from the wars of Lucullus and Pompey against Mithridates, down to the death of Agrippa, 10 A.D. The first twenty-four books exist only in the merest fragments; of the last twenty we have only the 11th-century epitome of Xiphilinus. The Annals of Zonaras followed Dion Cassius so closely, that we may almost consider that work as an epitome. The position of Dion Cassius gave him free access to the national archives, and his work has considerable value for the imperial epoch of Roman history. His model was Thucydides, and he need not be abused because he did not equal his original. The best editions of his History are those of Sturz (1824), Bekker (1849), and L. Dindorf (5 vols. 1863-65; revised by Melber, 1890).