Cassius Dio in Roman Biography

Di'on Cas'sl-us (kash'e-us) or Dio Cassius, or, more fully, Cas'sius Di'on Cocceia'nus, (kok-se-ya'nus,) an eminent historian, born at Nicasa, in Bithynia, about 155 A.D., was the son of a Roman senator, and descended by his mother from Dion Chrysostom. He lived in Rome, was a senator in the reign of Commodus, and governor of Smyrna and Pergamos under Macrimts. By the favour of Alexander Seve'rus, he was elected consul with that emperor in 229 a.d. He wrote in Greek several works, the principal of which is his " History of Rome" (" 'Pu, /uuk)/ 'Icropia") from the arrival of /Eneas in Italy to the year 229 A.D., in eighty books, of which the first thirty- five are lost except fragments, and the last twenty exist only in the abridgment of Xiphilinus. As a historian he is esteemed for elegance of style, accuracy in dates, and diligence in search of the truth, for which his official position afforded him facilities. His work is a rich collection of documents on the later years of the republic and the first ages of the empire. His knowledge of Roman institutions was more exact and extensive than that of previous historians. See Fabricius, "Bibliotheca Graca;" Reimarus, " De Vita el Scriptis Cassii Dionis," 1752; Schlosser, "Dissertation on Dim) Cassius," prefixed to Lorknz's German version of Dion, 1826; Nik* buhr, "Lectures on Roman History."