Misunderstanding History: Past and Present in Cassius Dio’s Contemporary Books

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_chapter_4550
dc.contributor.author	Scott Andrew G.
dc.title	Misunderstanding History: Past and Present in Cassius Dio’s Contemporary Books
dc.type	Chapter
dc.language.iso	en
dc.description.abstract	At the heart of Cassius Dio’s Roman History was the charting of changes in government from the early kings to the monarchy established by Augustus, with particular emphasis on the decline of the Republic and the transition to monarchy. Throughout Dio’s analysis we observe certain individuals who serve as examples to be emulated or avoided. In Dio’s own age, emperors generally misunderstood or misinterpreted, willingly or unwillingly, these examples from the past. These failures allow us to consider Dio’s understanding of the function of historiography and his ideas about the utility of his own work. While this may lead us to the negative conclusion that Dio believed all forms of government eventually degenerate, it also leaves open the possibility that Dio considered the writing of history, and thus the guarantee of a proper understanding of the past, to have positive, transformative consequences for Rome’s monarchy.
dc.relation.ispartof	Lexis Supplements
dc.relation.ispartof	Lexis Studies in Greek and Latin Literature
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.issued	2020-12-21
dc.dateAccepted	2020-10-19
dc.dateSubmitted	2020-09-08
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/en/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-473-8/misunderstanding-history-past-and-present-in-cassi/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/978-88-6969-472-1/007
dc.identifier.issn	2210-8866
dc.identifier.eissn	2724-3362
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-6969-473-8
dc.identifier.eisbn	978-88-6969-472-1
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
item.fulltext	with fulltext
item.grantfulltext	open
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Caracalla
dc.subject	Caracalla
dc.subject	Cassius Dio
dc.subject	Cassius Dio
dc.subject	Contemporary historiography
dc.subject	Contemporary historiography
dc.subject	Elagabalus
dc.subject	Elagabalus
dc.subject	Macrinus
dc.subject	Macrinus
dc.subject	Pertinax
dc.subject	Pertinax
dc.subject	Septimius Severus
dc.subject	Septimius Severus
dc.subject	Severan dynasty
dc.subject	Severan dynasty

Chapter
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Misunderstanding History: Past and Present in Cassius Dio’s Contemporary Books

Andrew G. Scott Villanova University, USA

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abstract

At the heart of Cassius Dio’s Roman History was the charting of changes in government from the early kings to the monarchy established by Augustus, with particular emphasis on the decline of the Republic and the transition to monarchy. Throughout Dio’s analysis we observe certain individuals who serve as examples to be emulated or avoided. In Dio’s own age, emperors generally misunderstood or misinterpreted, willingly or unwillingly, these examples from the past. These failures allow us to consider Dio’s understanding of the function of historiography and his ideas about the utility of his own work. While this may lead us to the negative conclusion that Dio believed all forms of government eventually degenerate, it also leaves open the possibility that Dio considered the writing of history, and thus the guarantee of a proper understanding of the past, to have positive, transformative consequences for Rome’s monarchy.

Published

Dec. 21, 2020

Accepted

Oct. 19, 2020

Submitted

Sept. 8, 2020

Language

ISBN (PRINT)

978-88-6969-473-8

ISBN (EBOOK)

978-88-6969-472-1

Keywords: Cassius Dio • Elagabalus • Macrinus • Caracalla • Pertinax • Contemporary historiography • Septimius Severus • Severan dynasty

permalink: http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-472-1/007

Copyright: © 2020 Andrew G. Scott. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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