The Roman History: The Reign of Augustus (Penguin Classics) By Cassius Dio
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And if he decreed one then he likely decreed others later Agrippa stands out as the man without whom the triumph and ascension of Augustus would not have been possible Cassius Dio heaps praise on him but otherwise neglects to tell us anything about him that might make him interesting My eyes tended to gloss over most of the rest I couldn t tell you much about anything else that was in it Worth reading for those of us who are interested in classical history not so much for the ordinary reader The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics A standard penguin book The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics This classic text was extremely helpful in my studies Highly Recommend The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics Compared to well written ancient histories by Tacitus.
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The origin of each legion and a discussion of the military budget It is interesting that initially Augustus paid military pensions out of his own funds and then reverted to a 5% death inheritance tax to supplement the military budget it is apparent from Dio that the Roman army in Augustus time was maintained on a financial shoestring The Battle of Teutobergerwald is also discussed and Dio suggests that the Romans were lulled into a false sense of security by conspiring German tribes and committed the mistake of making an essentially administrative road march complete with camp followers through hostile territory After this catastrophe.
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I first read Cassius Dio when I was a Classics student in graduate school and I have wanted tor read it again refresh myself with it for 30 years It was as interesting as I d remembered it The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics Very good translation I currently use it for my university course and recommend it to all students at any level as well as all the other penguin classics books great value money The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics I read Cassius Dio for a class on the Early Roman Empire and found this work to be an absolute joy Its saddening that Cassius Dio is not widely read The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics I found this book most useful I was able to equate it to the book I received from the Library and when I sent the book back was able to follow on with my e book without pause The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics No complaints The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics 
I didn t expect this book to be exciting but even by the standards of classical history this book was exceedingly dull full of long and improbable speeches and short on anything that would liven up the narrative I did learn a few interesting factssecular historians for instance dispute the Gospel account of Augustus empire wide tax census that reportedly took place around the time of Christ s birth but Cassius Dio records that Augustus did in fact decree such a census in 10 B. A history of rome book Suetonius or Ammianus Marcellinus Cassius Dio s history of the reign of Augustus is a great disappointment Cassius Dio was a Greek c 163 235 AD who wrote the history about 214 226 AD Although Dio was well educated his approach is far less methodical and tends to focus on what would now be called urban legends Throughout these pages there is a seemingly endless recounting of strange incidents and oddities involving sea monsters odd sounds weird apparitions statues frowning or bleeding tigers swarms of ants or bees flames wolves comets owls and even crows dropping flaming fragments of meat At times the reader will be embarrassed for Cassius Dio and wish that some of these pages had been lost to posterity While there is no doubt that Dio does offer a full account of sorts of the reign of Augustus there is little information that is not better presented by Suetonius or Tacitus The history consists of seven books chapters numbered 50 56 that cover the period 32 BC to 14 AD While there are some missing parts these are not very significant The Penguin edition begins with a 29 page introduction that is interesting and informative There are a series of maps that cover most of the empire in this period but as usual Penguin omits to cover the crucial area of the Balkans Much of the campaigns of Tiberius Drusus and Germanicus in Dacia and Moesia that are mentioned in the history are not depicted on any of the maps The history begins with two books covering the confrontation between Mark Antony and Octavian While interesting the account is very superficial and the decisive Battle of Actium is glossed over with little detail Book 52 which covers the infamous debate between Agrippa and Maecenas about the virtues of monarchy and democracy is a 37 page historical wasteland Aside from the obvious fact that the author inserted this fictional dialogue to expound his own theories of government much of the dialogue is inconsistent with the characters and of little practical historical value The history gets back on track with the narrative in Book 53 and Dio does discuss interesting aspects of the development of the principate in the early years For example to maintain the pretense of senatorial rule Augustus allowed the senate to administer the interior provinces of the empire while he governed the frontier provinces However since the Roman army was only deployed in the frontier provinces Augustus effectively controlled all the military resources in the empire including his Praetorian Guard Dio also mentions the Roman expedition down the Red Sea in 24 BC which reached as far as modern day Yemen There is also considerable detail on the Imperial family in the last half of the book which fans of I Claudius will find interesting and readers will note how Robert Graves used rumors of imperial plots and conspiracies mentioned by Dio to weave his tale The last two books 55 and 56 are the most interesting from the point of view of the military historian Although Dio rarely goes into great detail he does discuss the campaigns of Tiberius Drusus and Germanicus at some length On pages 213 215 Dio provides an order of battle for the legions Augustus was hard pressed to scrape up replacements and was forced to conscript freedmen by lots and execute malingerers Clearly the Roman Empire had no reserve military capacity it was all in the window Finally Dio concludes that the main contribution of Augustus was the length of his 44 year reign which provided vital stability to Rome By the time that Augustus died Romans had grown accustomed to monarchy and did not yearn for an unfamiliar Republic which brought back distant memories of civil war The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics Great book The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin Classics
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