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The narrative function of Julia Domna in Cassius Dio's Roman history

By Andrew Scott

Of the extant literary sources, Cassius Dio's Roman history provides the fullest portrait of Julia Domna (despite its epitomized nature) and remains the earliest extant account of the empress' actions and role in the court of Septimius Severus. Analyses of the figure of Julia Domna, combining the literary evidence with the vast repository of visual media (numismatic, epigraphic, sculptural, and monumental) related to the empress, have portrayed her as a powerful empress who wielded a significant amount of influence (e.g. Williams 1902, Ghedini 1984, Levick 2007).

From salvation to catastrophe: the biographical narrative of the Flavian dynasty

By Jesper Madsen

One of the main methods of interpretation of Cassius Dio's Roman history has been through the author's biographical sketches or depictions of particular reigns (e.g. Millar 1964: 119-173, Manuwald 1979, Pelling 1997). This paper examines the various depictions of the Flavian emperors as a thematic unit, a portion of Dio's history that has received relatively little comment (with the notable exception of the commentary of Murison 1999).

Truth, autopsy and the supernatural in Cassius Dio

By Julie Langford

In his influential work, A Study of Cassius Dio, Fergus Millar defends the senatorial historian from the “scorn which some have poured on” Dio’s work because of his interests in the supernatural (1964, 77). For Millar, Dio made no effort to rationalize supernatural events, “as was common with his time,” even those events he claimed to have witnessed: “To him, they were significant events in his life whose nature required no elucidation” (180). Ultimately, Millar concludes that Dio’s supernatural episodes are “harmless” (77).