analyze the book: the roman history:the reign of augustus by cassius dio

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1 On the Life of Augustus : Cassius Dio (History of Rome , Books 45-55

The Roman History is a huge and famed work concerning the development of the Roman empire from the early republic to his own day in the post Antoine world . It is history 's main source of information on many central issues in Roman politics and intellectual history . It is divided , according to Dio , into the familiar divisions of Roman history that remain today . The period of the Republic , where all political and social power rested with

the senate and the population at large , then the takeover of Augustus , leading to the death of the Stoic emperor Marcus , then , lastly his own day . Hence , the of the work is clear and remains the standard ing of Roman history today

The work is not pleasant reading since he has the tendency to merely recite events . He appears at the opposite of Herodotus in this respect Dry facts and dates , while meticulously put together , make for very tedious reading . Nevertheless , one has the worst of both worlds when usually out of nowhere , he uses what Philip Cary calls rhetorical commonplaces ( Introduction ' xiv , where the really useful details of warfare are left out in that the typical and cliche Roman rhetorical devices can be dusted off

What needs to be noted early on is that Dio was a senator . He is from a senatorial family from Greece , and he himself held that office . He was...