Cassius Dio’s Forgotten History of Early Rome
The Roman History, Books 1–21
Series: - Historiography of Rome and Its Empire, Volume: 3
In a radical change of approach, Cassius Dio’s Forgotten History of Early Rome illuminates the least explored and understood part of Cassius Dio’s enormous Roman History: the first two decads, which span over half a millennium of history and constitute a quarter of Dio’s work. Combining literary and historiographical perspectives with source-criticism and textual analysis for the first time in the study of Dio’s early books, this collection of chapters demonstrates the integral place of ‘early Rome’ within the text as a whole and Dio’s distinctive approach to this semi-mythical period. By focussing on these hitherto neglected portions of the text, this volume seeks to further the ongoing reappraisal of one of Rome’s most significant but traditionally under-appreciated historians.
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Christopher Burden-Strevens is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Kent. He is author of the forthcoming monograph, Cassius Dio’s Speeches & the Collapse of the Roman Republic, as well as numerous studies on the historiography of the Republic. Mads Ortving Lindholmer is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of St Andrews where he is engaged on a project on the imperial Roman salutatio. He has published numerous articles and book chapters, especially on Cassius Dio.
"While it is essential reading, and not merely for those who study Dio’s early books, this volume also makes a strong case for how foundational these books are to anyone who works on Dio. Like a good Aristotelian plot, the Roman History’s beginning, middle, and end compose a unity. Beyond the volume’s content, which is excellently organized in its sequence of chapters, its front and end matter are equally splendid. The volume opens with brief and helpful introductions to the contributors and their scholarly profiles, and it concludes with a useful and well-organized index of names and key terms. Each chapter includes its own bibliography, rather than at the end of the volume. The physical book itself is contained within a glossy, durable hardcover fittingly graced by the reverse of a Republican-era coin depicting the founding twins suckled by the she-wolf. " Jeremy J. Swist, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019.07.40
Notes on Contributors The Historiography of Rome and Its Empire Series Carsten Hjort Lange & Jesper Majbom Madsen Introduction Christopher Burden-Strevens Part 1 The Text 1 La fiabilité de Zonaras dans les deux premières décades de l’Histoire Romaine de Cassius Dion: le cas des discours Valérie Fromentin 2 Cassio Dione e le fonti pre- liviane: una versione alternativa dei primi secoli di Roma Gianpaolo Urso 3 The Regal Period in the Excerpta Constantiniana and in Some Early Byzantine Extracts from Dio’s Roman History C.T. Mallan Part 2 Military & Political History 4 From Nobles to Villains: The Story of the Republican Senate in Cassius Dio’s Roman History Jesper Majbom Madsen 5 The ‘Great Men’ of the Middle Republic in Cassius Dio’s Roman History Marianne Coudry 6 Cassius Dio on Violence, Stasis, and Civil War: The Early Years Carsten Hjort Lange 7 Breaking the Idealistic Paradigm: Competition in Dio’s Earlier Republic Mads Lindholmer Part 3 Early Rome & Dio’s Project 8 Speech in Cassius Dio’s Roman History, Books 1–35 John Rich 9 Cultural Interactions and Identities in Cassius Dio’s Early Books Brandon Jones 10 Defining the Good Ruler: Early Kings as Proto-Imperial Figures in Cassius Dio Verena Schulz Index
All students and specialists in the history of Rome from the Regal Period to 146 BCE, and those interested in Roman historiography and its reception and transmission in Byzantium.