Cassius Dio (155 - 235 AD)
Lucius Cassius Dio was a Roman historian and Senator who began a steady rise in Roman politics under Commodus.
While an able administrator and military commander, he was appreciated more for his literary work both by his contemporaries and in the modern world.
His great work partially lost, was a history of Rome (written in Greek) from the earliest times until the early 3rd century AD. Of the original 80 books, 19 survive in full. They are a distinguished and invaluable source for the period of the later Republic and the first two centuries AD.
Cassius Dio worked diligently to relate his history in an unbiased nature, while understanding the necessity for certain balances when it came to reporting on the various Emperors or political powers of the time.
Works:
- Roman History (the periods 68 BC to 46 AD survive)
Did you know...
Cassius Dio was governor of Smyrna, and proconsul in Africa and Pannonia.