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Dio's Rome, Volume 6 (of 6)

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Cassius Dio, surnamed Coccieanus, was a Bithynian who became a Roman senator and historian in the early 3rd Century AD. Only fragments of his main works, an eighty-book history of Rome from its founding to the reign of Severus Alexander (222 - 235 AD), remain. This fascinating volume contains books 77 through 80, as well as tiny fragments, often only isolated paragraphs, of the first 21.

The primary material in this book is Dio's accounts of Caracalla, Macrinus, and Elagabalus (211 - 222 AD). Dio describes Caracalla's obsession with Alexander and the many bloody crimes he commited against his fellow men, including a massacre of the magistrates of Alexandria, and a ferocious campaign against the declining Kingdom of Parthia.

The short-lived usurper Macrinus is given a more favorable light by Dio than he would be by later 3rd Century historians, like Herodianus and the anonymous authors of the Historiae Augusta. Dio gives a lengthy description of the widespread mutinies Macrinus faced in the East, which culminated in the rebellion of Elagabalus and the province of Syria.

Elagabalus, declared Emperor after winning a phyrric victory over Macrinus at Immae on June 8th, 218, became one of Rome's most scandalous emperors. Even if he was not as cruel and bloodthirsty as Nero or Domitian, he easily surpassed them in his bizarre religion and sexuality. After four years of trying to impose a Syrian sun-god cult on the Capital, and after marrying at least five women (one a Vestal Virgin) and two men, Elagabalus perished during a mutiny of his Praetorians. Dio's account of the current emperor, Elagabalus' nephew and successor Septimius Severus Alexianus (Alexander upon ascension), is short and naturally diplomatic.

Overall, this volume is one of the best contemporary sources we have on the history of the Roman Empire in the early 3rd Century, and would be valuable to anyone with an interest in this time period.