Everything about Dionysius Of Halicarnassus totally explained
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Halicarnassus c.
60 BC–after
7 BC) was a
Greek historian and teacher of
rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of
Caesar Augustus.
Life
He went to
Rome after the termination of the civil wars, and spent twenty-two years in studying the
Latin language and literature and preparing materials for his history. During this period he gave lessons in
rhetoric, and enjoyed the society of many distinguished men. The date of his death is unknown. It is commonly supposed he's the ancestor of
Aelius Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Work
His great work, entitled Ῥωμαικὴ ἀρχαιολογία (
Rhōmaikē archaiologia,
Roman Antiquities), embraced the history of Rome from the mythical period to the beginning of the
First Punic War. It was divided into twenty books, of which the first nine remain entire, the tenth and eleventh are nearly complete, and the remaining books exist in fragments in the excerpts of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus and an epitome discovered by
Angelo Mai in a Milan manuscript. The first three books of
Appian, and
Plutarch's
Life of Camillus also embody much of Dionysius.
His chief object was to reconcile the Greeks to the rule of
Rome, by dilating upon the good qualities of their conquerors. According to him, history is philosophy teaching by examples, and this idea he's carried out from the point of view of the Greek rhetorician. But he's carefully consulted the best authorities, and his work and that of
Livy are the only connected and detailed extant accounts of early Roman history.
Dionysius was also the author of several rhetorical treatises, in which he shows that he's thoroughly studied the best Attic models:
The Art of Rhetoric (which is rather a collection of essays on the theory of rhetoric), incomplete, and certainly not all his work;
The Arrangement of Words (Περὶ συνθέσεως ὀνομάτων
Peri suntheseōs onomatōn), treating of the combination of words according to the different styles of oratory;
On Imitation (Περὶ μιμήσεως
Peri mimēseōs), on the best models in the different kinds of literature and the way in which they're to be imitated—a fragmentary work;
Commentaries on the Attic Orators (Περὶ τῶν Ἀττικῶν ῥητόρων,
Peri tōn Attikōn rhētorōn), which, however, only deal with
Lysias,
Isaeus,
Isocrates and (by way of supplement)
Dinarchus;
On the Admirable Style of Demosthenes (Περὶ λεκτικῆς Δημοσθένους δεινότητος
Peri lektikēs Dēmosthenous deinotētos); and On the Character of Thucydides (Περὶ Θουκιδίδου χαρακτῆρος,
Peri Thoukudidēs charaktēros), a detailed but on the whole an unfair estimate. These two treatises are supplemented by letters to
Gn. Pompeius and
Ammaeus (two).
He is often cited as Dion. Halic. in print publications.
Editions
- Complete edition by Johann Jakob Reiske (1774–1777
- of the Archaeologia by A. Kiessling and V. Prou (1886) and C. Jacoby (1885–1891)
- Opuscula by Hermann Usener and Ludwig Radermacher (1899) in the Teubner series
- Roman Antiquities by V. Fromentin and J. H. Sautel (1998-), and Opuscula rhetorica by Aujac (1978-), in the Collection Budé
- English translation by Edward Spelman (1758).
- Trans. Earnest Cary, Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library:
- Roman Antiquities, I, 1937.
- Roman Antiquities, II, 1939.
- Roman Antiquities, III, 1940.
- Roman Antiquities, IV, 1943.
- Roman Antiquities, V, 1945.
- Roman Antiquities, VI, 1947.
- Roman Antiquities, VII, 1950.
- Trans. Stephen Usher, Critical Essays, I, Harvard University Press, 1974, ISBN 978-0-674-99512-3
- Trans. Stephen Usher, Critical Essays, II, Harvard University Press, 1985, ISBN 978-0-674-99513-0
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