Cassius Dio (155-235 CE)

Cassius Dio, often referred to as Dio Cassius, was a Greek of an important family of Bithynia who entered the senate towards the end of the third century AD and rose to hold the consulship twice the second time in AD 229 as colleague to the emperor.

He was probably taken to Rome as a boy when his father Cassius Apronianus became a senator. Following in his father’s footsteps, he entered the Senate under Commodus (r. AD180-92), was awarded a praetorship by Pertinax (AD 193), and probably around AD 204, was made consul by Septimius Severus (AD 193-211).

Macrinius made him a curator in Pergamum and Smyra. He later governed Africa, Illyricum and Upper Pannonia, successively, from 223 to 228.

Dio is the only historian who follows the developments of Rome’s political institutions over more than a thousand years. This makes him an indispensible source for Rome’s history, particularly in the Late Republic, the reign of Augustus and the second and third centuries AD.

Dio authored several no-longer works, including a history of the struggle for the throne from 193 to 197 and an analysis of dreams, Dio’s most important achievement is his monumental historical work, the Roman History, which was written in Greek and originally contained 80 books narrating events from the origins of Rome until D 229.
Cassius Dio (155-235 CE)