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Chapter 3 - Literary and Documentary Sources in Dio’s Narrative of the Roman Emperors
from I - Imperial and Political Narratives
- By Cesare Letta
Edited by Caillan Davenport, Macquarie University, Sydney, Christopher Mallan, University of Western Australia, Perth
Book:

Emperors and Political Culture in Cassius Dio's <I>Roman History</I>

Published online:

23 July 2021

Print publication:

12 August 2021, pp 74-87
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Summary

The author argues that Dio's account of the Principate was based on extensive reading of literary sources, whose precise identification is almost impossible, for he selected and reworked with great independence the copious material he gathered. Moreover, he drew information from systematic reading of documentary sources, above all the archives of the senate, but also the acta urbis and inscriptions. He probably employed only a fraction of the material he gathered, in accordance with his methodological principle of omitting ‘meaningless’ details and with his overriding interests: honour and festivities for emperors, as well as institutional, procedural and ceremonial aspects of the Roman state, which he collected with the intention of comparing them with his own time.