Book Description

DIO COCCEIANUS CHRYSOSTOMUS, c.A.D. 40-c.A.D.120, of Prusa (Brusa) in Bithynia, Asia Minor, inherited with his brothers large properties and debts from his generous father Pasicrates. He became a skilled rhetorican hostile to philosophers, but in the course of travels came to Rome in Vespasian's reign (A.D. 69-79) and was converted to Stoicism. Strongly critical of the emperor Domitian (81-96) he was c.A.D. 82 banned on suspicion by him from Italy and Bithynia and wandered in poverty, especially in lands north of the Aegean, as far as the Danube and the primitive Getae. In 97 he spoke publicly to Greeks assembled at Olympia, was welcomed at Rome by emperor Nerva (96-98), and returned to Prusa. Arriving again at Rome on an embassy of thanks c. 98-99 he became a firm friend of emperor Trajan. In 102 he travelled to Alexandria and elsewhere, returning to Prusa in 102-3. Involved in a lawsuit about plans to beautify Prusa at his own expense, he stated his case before the governor of Bithyna Pliny the Younger, 111-112. The rest of his life is unknown. He had lost his wife and a son. The literary works of Dio, in simple yet noble style derived largely from Plato, Demosthenes and Xenophon, reflect three main factors in his busy life -- sophistical, political, moral; but nearly all of the extant Discourses (or Orations) belong to the political (the most important of them dealing with affairs in Bithynia and affording valuable details about conditions in Asia Minor) or the moral (mostly written in later life -- they contain much of his best writing). Some philosophical and historical works, including one on the Getae, are lost. What survives of his achievement as a whole makes him prominent in the revival of Greek literature in the last part of the first century and the first part of the second.