Biographical History? Cassius Dio on the Early Principate

Christopher Pelling

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Classical Antiquity Studies Classical Studies and Philology Classical Philosophy and Thought

Abstract

Abstract When Dio reaches the early principate, his technique becomes more biographical. This paper will explore how thoroughgoing this change is, and how far it extends to interpretation as well as presentation. Some features of his characterization will also emerge, in particular his taste for common and typical traits rather than individual and idiosyncratic: a taste which he shares with most ancient authors, and which has its roots deep within ancient society.First, the biographical features themselves. It is not that Dio gives up his annalistic presentation: most of each reign continues to be dealt with in this year-by-year fashion, and there are even regular ‘annalistic clusters ‘, annual collections of snippets of business, largely urban and senatorial, placed typically at the end of each year.

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2013Cassius Dio on Julia Domna: A Study of the Political and Ethical Functions of Biographical Representation in Dio’s Roman History 2013Biographies of Nero 2010The Tyrant Lists: Tacitus' Obituary of Petronius 2015How Dio wrote history 2003Living Icons: Tracing a Motif in Verbal and Visual Representation from the Second to Fourth Centuries C.E.

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