Dion
（
Δίων).
1.
An inhabitant of Syracuse, who became a disciple of Plato, invited to the court of Syracuse
by the elder Dionysius. He was nearly connected with Dionysius by having married his
daughter, and because his sister was one of his wives; and he was also much esteemed by him,
so as to be employed on several embassies. At the accession of the younger Dionysius, Plato
was again, at Dion's request, invited to Syracuse. (See
Plato.) In order, however, to counteract his influence, the courtiers obtained the
recall of Philistus, a man notorious for his adherence to arbitrary principles. This faction
determined to supplant Dion, and availed themselves of a real or supposititious letter to fix
on him the charge of treason. Dion, precluded from defence, was transported to Italy, and
from thence proceeded to Greece, where he was received with great honour. Dionysius became
jealous of his popularity in Greece, especially at Athens, stopped his remittances,
confiscated his estates, and compelled his wife, who had been left at Syracuse as an hostage,
to marry another person. Dion, incensed at this treatment, determined to expel the tyrant.
Plato resisted his intentions; but, encouraged by other friends, he assembled a body of
troops, and with a small force sailed to Sicily, took advantage of the absence of Dionysius
in Italy, and freed the people from his control. Dionysius returned; but, after some
conflicts, was compelled to escape to Italy. The austere and philosophic manners of Dion,
however, soon lost him the favour of his countrymen, and he was supplanted by Heraclides, a
Syracusan exile, and obliged to make his retreat to Leontini. He afterwards regained the
ascendency and caused Heraclides to be assassinated, which robbed him ever after of his peace
of mind. An Athenian, an intimate friend, formed a conspiracy against his life, and
Dion was assassinated in the fifty-fifth year of his age, B.C. 354 (
Diod. Sic. xvi. 6 foll.;
Dion.; Corn. Nep.
Dion).
2.
Dio Cassius Cocceiānus, son of Cassius Apronianus, a
Roman senator, born A.D. 155, at Nicaea, in Bithynia. His true name was Cassius, but he
assumed the other two names, as being descended on the mother's side from Dion Chrysostom.
Thus, though he was on his mother's side of Greek descent, and though, in his writings, he
adopted the prevailing language—Greek—of his native province, he must be
considered as a Roman. Dio Cassius passed the greater part of his life in public employments.
He was a senator under Commodus and governor of Smyrna after the death of Septimius Severus;
and afterwards consul, as also proconsul in Africa and Pannonia. Alexander Severus
entertained the highest esteem for him, and made him consul for the second time, with
himself, though the Praetorian Guards, irritated against him on account of his severity, had
demanded his life. When advanced in years (about A.D. 229), he returned to his native
country. Dio published a Roman history, in eighty books, the fruit of his researches and
labours for the space of twenty-two years. It embraced a period of 983 years, extending from
the arrival of Aeneas in Italy, and the subsequent founding of Rome, to A.D. 229. Down to the
time of Iulius Caesar, he only gives a summary of events; after this, he enters somewhat more
into details; and from the time of Commodus he is very circumstantial in relating what passed
under his own eyes. We have fragments remaining of the first thirty-six books: but there is a
considerable portion of the thirtyfifth book, on the war of Lucullus against Mithridates, and
of the thirty-sixth, on the war with the pirates and the expedition of Pompey against the
king of Pontus. The books that follow, to the fifty-fourth inclusive, are nearly all entire:
they comprehend a period from B.C. 65 to B.C. 12, or from the eastern campaign of Pompey and
the death of Mithridates to the death of Agrippa. The fifty-fifth book has a considerable gap
in it. The fifty-sixth to the sixtieth, both included, which comprehend the period from A.D.
9 to A.D. 54, are complete, and contain the events from the defeat of Varus in Germany to the
death of Claudius. Of the following twenty books we have only fragments and the meagre
abridgment of Xiphilinus. The eightieth or last book comprehends the period from A.D. 222 to
A.D. 229, in the reign of Alexander Severus. The abridgment of Xiphilinus, as now extant,
commences with the thirty-fifth and continues to the end of the eightieth book. It is a very
indifferent performance, and was made by order of the emperor Michael VII., Parapinaces. The
abbreviator, Xiphilinus, was a monk of the eleventh century.
The fragments of the first thirty-six books, as now collected, are of four kinds: (
a) Fragmenta Valesiāna, such as were
dispersed throughout various writers, scholiasts, grammarians, lexicographers, etc., and were
collected by Henri de Valois. (
b) Fragmenta
Peiresciāna, comprising large extracts, found in the section entitled
“Of Virtues and Vices,” in the great collection or portative library
compiled by order of Constantine VII., Porphyrogenitus. The manuscript of this belonged to
Peiresc. (
c) The fragments of the first thirty-four books, preserved
in the second section of the same work of Constantine's, entitled
“Of Embassies.” These are known under the name of Fragmenta Ursiniāna, because the manuscript containing them was found in
Sicily by Fulvio Orsini. (
d) Excerpta
Vaticāna, by Mai, which contain fragments of books i.-xxxv. and lxi.-lxxx. To
these are added the fragments of an unknown continuator of Dio , which go down to the time of
Constantine. Other fragments from Dio belonging chiefly to the first thirtyfive books were
found by Mai in two Vatican MSS., which contain a collection made by Maximus Planudes. The
annals of Zonaras also contain numerous extracts from Dion.
Dio has taken Thucydides for his model; but the imitator is comparable with his original
neither in arrangement and the distribution of materials nor in soundness of view and just
and accurate reasoning. His style is generally clear, where there appears to be no corruption
of the text, though full of Latinisms. His diligence is unquestionable, and, from his
opportunities, he was well acquainted with the circumstances of the Empire during the period
for which he is a contemporary authority; and, indeed, we may assign a high value to his
history of the whole period from the time of Augustus to his own age. Nor is his work without
value for the earlier periods of Roman history, in which, though he has fallen into errors,
like all the Greek and Roman writers who have handled the same obscure subject, he still
enables us to correct some erroneous statements of Livy and Dionysius. The best editions are
those of Fabricius, completed by Reimar, 2 vols.
(Hamb. 1751); of Sturz, 8 vols.
(Leipzig, 1824-25); of Bekker
(1849); and especially of L. Dindorf
(revised by Melber, 1890 foll.). The small Tauchnitz edition, 4 vols. 16mo, contains all the
fragments.
3.
Surnamed
Chrysostŏmus, or the
Goldenmouthed, on account of the beauty of his style, was a native of Prusa in Bithynia, born
about A.D. 50. He was a sophist and Being in Egypt when Vespasian, who had been proclaimed
emperor by his own army, came there, he was consulted by that prince on the proper course to
be adopted under the circumstances. Dion had the candour to advise him to restore the
Republic. Afterwards he resided for years at Rome, till, one of his friends having engaged in
a conspiracy against Domitian, Dion, fearing for himself, fled to what is now Moldavia, where
he remained till the tyrant's death, labouring for his subsistence with his own hands.
Domitian having been assassinated, the legions quartered on the Danube were about to revolt,
when Dion got upon an altar and harangued them so effectually that they submitted to the
decision of the Senate. Dion was in high favour with Nerva and Trajan, and when the latter
triumphed after his Dacian victories the orator sat in the emperor's car in the procession.
He returned to Bithynia, where he spent the remainder of his life. Accusations of peculation
and treason were brought against him, but rejected as frivolous. He died at an advanced age,
but it is not known in what year. We have eighty orations attributed to him, which are very
neatly written in pure Attic Greek, but are not of much intrinsic value. The best editions
are those of Reiske, 2 vols.
(Leipzig, 1784); Emper
(1844); and L.
Dindorf
(1857).
