Burden-Strevens, Christopher William (2015) Cassius Dio's speeches and the collapse of the Roman Republic. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7325/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Cassius Dio’s Speeches and the Collapse of the Roman Republic Christopher Burden-Strevens Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities College of Arts University of Glasgow st October 1 , 2015 © Christopher Burden-Strevens, 01/10/2015 Abstract: Dio’s Speeches & the Collapse of the Roman Republic This thesis argues that Cassius Dio used his speeches of his Late Republican and Augustan narratives as a means of historical explanation. I suggest that the interpretative framework which the historian applied to the causes and success of constitutional change can be most clearly identified in the speeches. The discussion is divided into eight chapters over two sections. Chapter 1 (Introduction) sets out the historical, paideutic, and compositional issues which have traditionally served as a basis for rejecting the explanatory and interpretative value of the speeches in Dio’s work and for criticising his Roman History more generally. Section 1 consists of three methodological chapters which respond to these issues. In Chapter 2 (Speeches and Sources) I argue that Dio’s prosopopoeiai approximate more closely with the political oratory of that period than has traditionally been recognised. Chapter 3 (Dio and the Sophistic) argues that Cassius Dio viewed the artifice of rhetoric as a particular danger in his own time. I demonstrate that this preoccupation informed, credibly, his presentation of political oratory in the Late Republic and of its destructive consequences. Chapter 4 (Dio and the Progymnasmata) argues that although the texts of the progymnasmata in which Dio will have been educated clearly encouraged invention with a strongly moralising focus, it is precisely his reliance on these aspects of rhetorical education which would have rendered his interpretations persuasive to a contemporary audience. Section 2 is formed of three case-studies. In Chapter 5 (The Defence of the Republic) I explore how Dio placed speeches-in-character at three Republican constitutional crises to set out an imagined case for the preservation of that system. This case, I argue, is deliberately unconvincing: the historian uses these to elaborate the problems of the distribution of power and the noxious influence of φθόνος and φιλοτιμία. Chapter 6 (The Enemies of the Republic) examines the explanatory role of Dio’s speeches from the opposite perspective. It investigates Dio’s placement of dishonest speech into the mouths of military figures to make his own distinctive argument about the role of imperialism in the fragmentation of the res publica. Chapter 7 (Speech after the Settlement) argues that Cassius Dio used his three speeches of the Augustan age to demonstrate how a distinctive combination of Augustan virtues directly counteracted the negative aspects of Republican political and rhetorical culture which the previous two case-studies had explored. Indeed, in Dio’s account of Augustus the failures of the res publica are reinvented as positive forces which work in concert with Augustan ἀρετή to secure beneficial constitutional change. © Christopher Burden-Strevens, 01/10/2015 3 Acknowledgements ‘This was not, like the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.’ James Madison, March 10th 1834 I would not dream of comparing this thesis to an undertaking as momentous as the United States Constitution must have been, even if the process of writing it has at times felt comparably exhausting. However, this thesis would never even have been started without the support and contribution of many other heads and hands. The thanks I extend here do not match up to their input, but I will try my best. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to my supervisors, Catherine Steel and Henriette van der Blom. I would not have wanted to supervise me as I first arrived, a rather shambolic 22-year-old graduate. I owe to them the inspiration for the methodological chapters of this thesis: it was they who underlined the importance of Dio’s education and his relationship with his time and sources. For the case-studies, their expertise in the Late Republic has been invaluable. But this is not comparable to the debt I owe them for their patience and support in the herculean (but happily not sisyphean) task of turning me into an efficient and organised human being. I would have been unable to put this thesis together without the support of my colleagues. Within Glasgow, I am grateful above all to Lisa Hau. She has been an endless source of encouragement and friendship in research and teaching. Outwith Glasgow, I am particularly grateful to Adam Kemezis, Christopher Mallan, Brandon Jones, and William Rees, whose research in recent years on Cassius Dio has been of enormous help. The stimulating discussion and kind encouragement of John Rich, Christa Grey, Jen Hilder, Saskia Roselaar, Roman Frolov, Jesper Madsen, Carsten Lange, Zara Chadha, and Elena Giusti has furthermore been invaluable. Particular thanks are also due to Luke Pitcher for his meticulous and invaluable corrections to this thesis above and beyond the call of duty. Above all, I thank my family for persevering in the unenviable Burden of supporting me in the classics. It is only thanks to the huge sacrifices made by my father that I was able to enter my degree and my doctorate. He is the intellectual model of my life; I would be lost without him. I am blessed for my mother and her limitless understanding when faced with my cancellations of our weekly catch-ups. And for my grandmother, Valerie, I cannot write the words. Finally, thank you, Duncan, for putting up with me. 4 Note on Texts and Translations For my primary source of Cassius Dio I have used Cary’s 1914-1927 LCL edition of the text, and have preferred his book-numberings over those of Boissevain’s 1898 edition and those of earlier scholars. However, for books 72-80 of the history, I have placed the book- number of Boissevain’s edition after Carey’s numbering in square brackets (e.g. Cass. Dio. 73[72].1.1). All Cassius Dio fragments are taken from the first two of the nine LCL volumes and are denoted by ‘F’ followed by Carey’s fragment and section number (e.g. Cass. Dio. F 2.4). All translations of Dio are my own unless otherwise indicated. For the progymnasmata of Aelius Theon, pseudo-Hermogenes, Aphthonius, and Nicolaus, I have used G. A. Kennedy’s Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of Prose Composition and Rhetoric, Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2003. In all cases I have preferred to use his translation. Chapter- and section-numbers for Aelius Theon’s progymnasmata are those contained within Kennedy’s 2003 edition, and not those of Spengel’s Rhetores Graeci. For the treatise of pseduo-Hermogenes I have followed Kennedy’s practice and used the page-numbers of Rabe’s Hermogenis Opera. For that of Aphthonius I have used the page-numbers of Rabe’s Aphthonii Progymnasmata and of Spengel’s Rhetores Graeci interchangeably, as does Kennedy. For Nicolaus’ text I have used the page-numbers of Felten’s Nicolai Progymnasmata, again as followed in Kennedy’s 2003 edition. For Philostratus’ Vitae Sophistarum I have used Wright’s 1921 LCL edition, but translations of this text are my own unless otherwise indicated. For his Vita Apollonii I have used the first two of three volumes of C. P. Jones’ new 2005-2006 LCL edition, again preferring my own translations. Translations into English of French, German, and Italian scholarship are my own, usually with important points of translation preserved in italics in the body of the translation or in the corresponding footnote. All other book, section, and chapter numbers are taken from the LCL edition of each author and quotations of these are my own translation unless otherwise specified. 5 List of Abbreviations Aphth. Aphthonius Prog. Progymnasmata App. Appian BC Bellum Civile Gall. Gallica Mith. Mithridatica Apul. Apuleius Ap. Apologia As. Asinius Aureus Flor. Florida Arist. Aristotle NE Ethica Nicomachea Pol. Politica Rhet. Rhetorica [Arist.] pseudo-Aristotle Rh. Al. Rhetorica ad Alexandrum Aristid. Aristides Or. Orationes Aug. Augustus RG Res Gestae Divi Augusti Caes. Julius Caesar BC De Bello Civile BG De Bello Gallico Cass. Dio. Cassius Dio Historia Romana Cic. Cicero Att. Epistulae ad Atticum Brut. Brutus Cael. Pro Caelio Cat. In Catilinam Deiot. Pro Rege Deiotaro Dom. De Domo Sua Fam. Epistulae ad Familiares Fin. De Finibus Har. Resp. De Harispicum Responso Inv. De Inventione Man. De Imperio Gnaei Pompei Or. De Oratore 6 Part. Or. Partitiones Oratoriae Phil. Philippicae Red. Sen. Post Reditum in Senatu Rep. De Republica Tusc. Tusculanae Disputationes Verr. In Verrem [Cic.] Auctor ad Herennium Rhet. Her. Rhetorica ad Herennium Dem. Demosthenes FL De Falsa Legatione D.H. Dionysius of Halicarnassus AR Antiquitates Romanae Dio. Dio of Prusa Or. Orationes Diod. Diodorus of Sicily Bibliotheca Historica Diog. Laert.