The Ante-Nicene Church · AD 180–313 · External witness
Cassius Dio
b. c. AD 155 Nicaea, Bithynia; d. c. 235 · Roman senator · Twice consul · Historian · Nicaea, Bithynia → Rome
External witness
Who Cassius Dio was
A Roman senator and twice consul who wrote eighty books of Roman history in Greek over twenty-two years. He is an external witness the archive cites five times — valuable precisely because he is a pagan official of the governing class writing about the empire in which the church was growing, and not about the church. Books 36 to 60 survive substantially; the rest is known only through the Byzantine epitomes of Xiphilinus in the eleventh century and Zonaras in the twelfth, so citations from the lost books carry a transmission date eight hundred years later than Dio’s own.
One attestation only — the work is self-attesting: the author names himself, his office or his circumstances inside his own text, and no independent ancient source describes him.
Also listed in non-christian witnesses.
Common questions
When did Cassius Dio live?
Cassius Dio is dated b. c. AD 155 Nicaea, Bithynia; d. c. 235 in the archive, which places Cassius Dio in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
What did Cassius Dio write?
Cassius Dio has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: Roman History, in eighty books.
Which early sources mention Cassius Dio?
Cassius Dio is named in 1 primary-source passage catalogued here, drawn from Cassius Dio. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Cassius Dio from?
The archive associates Cassius Dio with Nicaea, Bithynia, Rome. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Writings (1)
Roman History, in eighty books
c. AD 220–230[Books 36–60 survive substantially; the remainder only in the epitomes of Xiphilinus (c. 1075) and Zonaras (c. 1120).]
Primary-source mentions (1)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
The Roman History — self-attesting; Dio names his own offices and sources throughout
c. AD 230[He records his own consulships and his twenty-two years of work on the history.]Cassius Dio · Roman History
Cassius Dio’s eighty-book history of Rome, written in Greek c. AD 200–229 and surviving in part directly and in part through the epitomes of Xiphilinus and Zonaras. Standard text and facing translation: Earnest Cary, Loeb Classical Library, nine volumes (1914–27).
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 177 · Persecution at Lyon and Vienne, AD 177
- AD 180 · The Scillitan martyrs, AD 180
- AD 190 · The Quartodeciman controversy, AD 190
- AD 202 · Perpetua and Felicity martyred, AD 202
- AD 235 · Maximinus Thrax targets the clergy, AD 235
Place
Places served
The 3 places the sources put Cassius Dio, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.