The first chapter, “In Search of the Ideal Form of Government,” looks at Dio as a theorist of Roman politics and an advocate of monarchy.
After briefly surveying earlier approaches to Dio, Madsen then introduces his own thesis (13-18) and some consideration of Dio’s context in Severan Rome. There is then a brief summary of the content of Dio’s work and the state of its preservation. The introduction begins with a biographical sketch stressing Dio’s career achievements, followed by a strong section on the historian’s background in Bithynia (3-9). It assumes no previous familiarity with the author but some general knowledge of Roman history and geography. It contains only minimal endnotes, a selective bibliography and no Greek text. The book is targeted toward a wide range of readers, including undergraduates, with a mainly historical interest in Dio.
This volume, which includes an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion, constitutes a reading of the whole of Dio, emphasizing key episodes from the fully preserved text of Books 36 to 56, describing the years from the mid-60s BCE to Augustus’ death in 14 CE.
This is a view of Dio that Madsen has also argued in some of his many recent specialist contributions. He favors a strong form of monarchy and admires Augustus for introducing such a system, though in Dio’s view emperors should be selected from and advised by the senatorial order. Dio has a deep antipathy toward ‘democracy’ (which includes Republican Rome) because it leads to anarchic competition among the elite and eventually civil war. Rather his book is a focused argument for a single thesis that applies to Dio’s whole 80-book history of Rome from its foundation to 229 CE: in Madsen’s view, the Roman History is a work of political advocacy. Madsen has not written an overview designed to introduce readers to all aspects of Dio’s work. It is a forceful and often persuasive exposition of a particular reading of Dio’s massive history, though a not uncontroversial one among Madsen’s fellow Dio scholars. Jesper Madsen’s short, inexpensive and accessible book represents an important step toward expanding understanding of Dio as a political and historical analyst. In numbers killed, this battle is regarded as the greatest defeat of Rome ever throughout its ancient history.As part of a remarkable recent increase in the volume of scholarship on Cassius Dio, we can now count the first ever English-language study of that author aimed at the non-specialist classically oriented public. Roman losses are described as being up to 80,000 troops, as well as another 40,000 auxiliary troops (allies), servants and camp followers - virtually all of their participants in the battle. The terrible defeat gave Gaius Marius the opportunity to come to the fore and radically reform the organization and recruitment of Roman legions. However, bitter differences between the commanders prevented the Roman armies from cooperating, with devastating results. Ranged against the migratory tribes of the Cimbri under Boiorix and the Teutoni were two Roman armies, commanded by the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. The Battle of Arausio took place on October 6, 105 BC, at a site between the town of Arausio (modern day Orange, Vaucluse) and the Rhône River.
0 kommentar(er)
