Chapter 12 - Dio and His Friends

Summary

As Dio began writing the history of his own time, he began to incorporate his personal experiences into the narrative of the Roman History to the point that the final portion of his history serves as a largely autobiographical sphragis to the Roman History. These final books of his history are central to the construction of historian’s authorial persona and his self-fashioning the embodiment to traditional senatorial virtues. This chapter analyses Dio’s representation of himself through what he says about his dreams, his conduct and his career, before turning to looking what he says about his senatorial peers in the contemporary narrative of the Roman History. It is argued that an underlying theme of the Severan books is the commemoration of men (like Dio) who upheld a senatorial ideal, excelling domi militiaeque and in the field of paideia, in the face of perceived external and internal threats to the senatorial order.