Cassius Dio’s Roman History is the culmination of 22 years of research and labor. Dio covers 1,400 years, from the story of Aeneas and the mythic founding of Rome up to AD 229, during Dio’s own life. While his accounts of pre-first-century-BC events draw heavily on myth and provide only summaries, his accounts of events (also important in the study of the Greco-Roman world) after the first century BC are unmatched for detail and depth of analysis. The Loeb Classical Library editions contain all surviving materials from the history’s 80 books.
Dio, a prominent political figure (twice consul), observed firsthand many of the events he describes. He attempted to emulate the objectivity and reasoning of Thucydides in his writing. Although his close ties with political leadership and his own active participation in decision making clearly color his accounts, his persistent proximity with power players provides his writing with an unmatched element of political circumspection. His accounts are vital to our understanding of the Roman Republic’s latter years.
This collection contains the complete texts in their Loeb Classical Library editions. Each volume is included in its original Greek, with an English translation for easy side-by-side comparison. Logos language tools help you to go deeper into the Greek text and explore Dio’s meticulous language. Use the dictionary lookup tool to examine difficult Greek words and find every appearance of key words and phrases in the Roman History and other resources in your library. There’s never been a better way for students of history, culture, and literature to read and research these works.
