We have no information regarding the date of his death. If he was the author of the summary of his History in five books which Photius (Cod. 84) attributes to him, he doubtless wrote this after the publication of the large work, and so must have lived for some little time at least after 7 B.C. There are several passages in his shorter works in which he promises to discuss this or that topic ‘if I have the time,’ or ‘if it is possible,’ or ‘if Heaven keeps us safe and sound.’ These have sometimes been taken to indicate that he was already an old man or in poor health; but it is by no means necessary to put such a construction upon his words.
THE ROMAN ANTIQUITIES
The work which Dionysius undoubtedly regarded as his masterpiece and the practical embodiment of his theories regarding historical writing was the Roman Antiquities. It treated the history of Rome from the earliest legendary times down to the beginning of the First Punic War, the point at which Polybius’ history began. The work was in twenty books, of which the first ten are preserved, together with the greater part of the eleventh. Of the remaining books we have fragments amounting all told to a little more than the average length of one of the earlier books. Most of these fragments come from the great collection of historical extracts made at the direction of the emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetus in the tenth century.
In his preface Dionysius lays down two principles as fundamental for historians, first, that they should choose subjects noble and lofty and of great utility to their readers, and, second, that they should use the greatest care and discrimination in gathering their materials. He then proceeds to justify his own choice of subject and to describe the careful preparation he had made for his task. In two chapters, obviously imitated from Polybius’ introduction, he gives a brief survey of the empires of the past, from the Assyrian to the Macedonian, with a glance at the Greek hegemonies, and points out how greatly Rome had surpassed them all, both in the extent of her dominion and in the length of time it had already endured. He then undertakes to answer the anticipated criticism of those who might censure him for choosing the humble beginnings of Rome as his particular theme when there were so many glorious periods in her later history that would furnish excellent subjects. He declares that the Greeks for the most part were ignorant of Rome’s early history, having been misled by baseless reports that attributed the founding of the city to some homeless wanderers, at once barbarians and slaves, and hence were inclined to rail at Fortune for unfairly bestowing the heritage of the Greeks upon the basest of barbarians. He promises to correct these erroneous impressions and to prove that Rome’s founders were in reality Greeks, and Greeks from no mean tribes; he will also show that Rome from the very beginning produced countless instances of men as pious, just and brave as any other city ever did, and that it was due to these early leaders and to the customs and institutions handed down by them that their descendants advanced to so great power. Thus he hopes to reconcile his Greek readers to their subjection to Rome. He points out that there had been no accurate history of Rome written by Greeks, but only summary accounts, and even the Romans who had written histories of their country in Greek had passed lightly over events occurring before their own days. He feels, therefore, that in this earlier period of Rome’s history he has found a noble theme virtually untouched as yet. By treating this period adequately he will confer immortal glory upon those worthy men of early Rome and encourage their descendants to emulate them in leading honourable and useful lives; at the same time he will have the opportunity of showing his goodwill toward all good men who delight in the contemplation of great and noble deeds, and also of making a grateful return to Rome for the cultural advantages and other blessings that he had enjoyed while residing there. He declares, however, that it is not for the sake of flattering the Romans that he has turned his attention to this subject, but out of regard for truth and justice, the proper objects of every history. He then describes his preparation for his task, — the twenty-two years he had spent in familiarizing himself with the language and literature of the Romans, the oral information he had received from the most learned men, and the approved Roman histories that he had read. Finally, he announces the period of Roman history to be covered in his work and the topics to be treated. He will relate the wars waged by Rome with other peoples and the seditions at home, her various forms of government, the best of her customs and the most important of her laws; in short, he will picture the whole life of the ancient city. As regards the form of his History, it will not be like the works of those who write of wars alone or treat solely of political constitutions, nor will it be monotonous and tiresome like the annalistic histories of Athens; but it will be a combination of every style, so as to appeal alike to statesmen and to philosophers as well as to those who desire mere undisturbed entertainment in their reading of history.
More than once in the course of his History (v. 56, xi. 1; cf vii. 66) Dionysius interrupts his narrative to insist on the importance of acquainting the reader not only with the mere outcome of events, but also with the causes, remote as well as proximate, that led up to them, the circumstances in which the events occurred and the motives of the chief participants, — in fact, the whole background of the action. Such information, he says, is of the utmost importance to statesmen, in order that they may have precedents for the various situations that may confront them and may thus be able to persuade their fellow-citizens when they can adduce numerous examples from the past to show the advantage or the harm of a given course of action. Dionysius here shows an understanding of the true function of history, as he does also, in a measure, in his various protestations of devotion to the truth, though he nowhere sets up such a strict standard of absolute impartiality as did Polybius (i. 14, 4).
Unfortunately, in spite of these high ideals which Dionysius tried to keep before him, his Antiquities is an outstanding example of the mischievous results of that unnatural alliance between rhetoric and history which was the vogue after the time of Thucydides. The rhetoricians regarded a history as a work of art whose primary purpose was to give pleasure. Events in themselves seem to have been considered as of less importance than the manner in which they were presented. Hence various liberties could be taken with the facts in order to produce a more telling effect; and as long as this was done not out of fear or favour, but simply from the desire to make the account more effective, the writer was not conscious of violating the truth. Dionysius doubtless thought that he was living up to his high ideals; but he was first and foremost a rhetorician and could see history only through a rhetorician’s eyes. The desire to please is everywhere in evidence; there is a constant straining after rhetorical and dramatic effects.
In conformity with the rhetorical tradition, he interlarded his narrative with speeches which he managed to insert on every possible occasion from the third book onward. One technical purpose which they were intended to serve — to give variety to the narrative — is clear from the very circumstance that there are scarcely any speeches at all in Books I. and II., which have a sufficiently diversified narrative to require no further efforts at variety, whereas from Book III. onward the speeches occupy very nearly one-third of the total text. Dionysius himself occasionally felt the need of some justification of his insertion of so many speeches and argued that, inasmuch as the crisis under consideration was settled by discussion, it was therefore important for the reader to know the arguments that were advanced on both sides (vii. 66; xi. 1). Yet he had no adequate conception of the talents required for carrying out this ambitious programme successfully. Possessing neither the historical sense nor psychological insight, nor even any special gift of imagination, he undertook to compose speeches for any and all occasions by the simple process of following certain stereotyped rhetorical rules. The main argument of many of his speeches he doubtless found already expressed in his sources, either in some detail or in the form of a brief résumé, while in other cases there was probably a mere form of statement that implied a speech at that point, numerous instances o
f each of these methods can be seen in Livy (who was not one of his sources) on the occasions where Dionysius inserts a speech. But it was little more than the main argument at best that he took over from his sources in most of the speeches of any length. The speeches were the part of a history in which the author was expected to give the freest reign to his rhetorical talents; and that Dionysius did not fail to make full use of this opportunity is evident from the many imitations of the classical Attic prose writers that are found in his speeches. One of his fundamental principles for the acquiring of a good style was the imitating of classical models, and in the speeches of the Antiquities we see how it was to be done. Not only do we find single phrases and sentences from Demosthenes, Thucydides and Xenophon paraphrased and amplified, but even the tenor of entire passages in those authors is imitated. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that these speeches fail almost completely to perform their true function of revealing the character and the motives of the different speakers. Nor are they redeemed by any profound thoughts, unless in the imitated passages, or by any original sentiments; for the most part they are little more than a succession of cheap platitudes and rhetorical commonplaces. Indeed, we might almost believe at times that we were reading the declamations of Dionysius’ own pupils.
It has generally been suspected that Dionysius invented a good many of his speeches outright, inserting them at points where there was no indication of any speech in his sources. One fairly clear instance of the sort is found in his account of Coriolanus (viii. 5-8). Atter giving much the same account as Livy does of the trick played on the Romans by Attius Tullus at Coriolanus’ suggestion in order to provoke them into giving the Volscians a just cause for going to war, Dionysius then represents Coriolanus as summoned by the Volscian leaders to advise them how best to prosecute the war. Coriolanus, in a speech clearly modelled upon the one addressed to the Spartans by the exiled Alcibiades (Thuc vi. 89 ff.), says much by way of self-justification, and finally offers a fresh plan for providing the Volscians with a just ground for war. There is no valid excuse for this second plan, the first one having already proved successful; Dionysius clearly wished to offer a parallel in his History to the famous episode in Thucydides. It is quite probable that several other speeches in this long account of Coriolanus also originated with Dionysius. Yet it must be remembered that he drew largely on the late annalists, some of whose histories were very voluminous; and he may have found at least hints of speeches more frequently than has generally been supposed.
Quite in keeping with the tiresome speeches of the Antiquities are the long, circumstantial accounts of such events as Dionysius chose to emphasize in his narrative, and the cumulation of pathetic or gruesome details in tragic situations. His account of the combat between the Horatii and the Curiatii, followed by Horatius’ slaying of his sister, occupies ten chapters (iii. 13-22) as against but three in Livy (i. 24-26); and there is even a greater disproportion in the length of their accounts of the events leading up to the combat (Dionys, iii. 2-12, Livy i. 22 f.) due in part to several long speeches in Dionysius. The outstanding instance of prolixity in the Antiquities is the account of Coriolanus. The events leading up to his exile (including 15 speeches) require 48 chapters (vii. 20-67), whereas Livy relates them in one-half of a single chapter (ii. 34, 7-12); the remaining events to the end of his life are told by Dionysius in 62 chapters (viii. 1-62), and by Livy in 6 (ii. 35-40). Almost everywhere in the extant portions of Dionysius his account is longer than that of Livy; but this relative fullness of detail was not maintained to the end of the History. To the struggle between the orders and to the Samnite wars he devoted less than four books (part of xiv and xv.-xvii), where Livy has more than six (vi.-xi and part of xii.). In other words, for events nearer his own day, for which the traditions should have been fuller and more reliable, he contented himself with a briefer narrative than for the earlier periods, which for most historians had been full of doubt and uncertainty, thereby exactly reversing the logical procedure of Livy. An exception is seen in his detailed account of the war with Pyrrhus, a war which aroused his special interest for more reasons than one. Nowhere is his fondness for minute detail more out of place than in his accounts of tragic events, such as the encounter of the triumphant Horatius with his sister, Tullia’s behaviour when she forces the driver of her car to continue on his way over the dead body of her father, the grief of Lucretius when his daughter slays herself, Verginius’ slaying of his own daughter, and Veturia’s visit to the camp of her son Coriolanus. By his constant effort to make us realize the full pathos or horror of the scene he defeats his own purpose. The dignified restraint shown by Livy in relating these same events is far more impressive.
Dionysius perhaps felt that he was making a distinct contribution toward the solidarity of the Graeco-Roman world when he undertook to prove, as his principal thesis, the Greek origin of Rome’s founders. Not only did he trace the Aborigines back through the Oenotrians to Arcadia, but he even showed that the ancestors of the Trojans had come originally from that same district of Greece; other Greek elements represented in the population of early Rome were the Pelasgians, naturally of Greek origin, Evander and his company from Arcadia, and some Peloponnesian soldiers in the following of Hercules, who had remained behind in Italy when that hero passed through the peninsula on his return from Spain to Argos. None of the various details of this theory was original with Dionysius, for he cites his authorities at every step; but he may have been the first to combine these separate strands of tradition into a single, comprehensive argument. The entire first book is devoted to the proving of this thesis; and the argument is further strengthened at the end of Book VII. by a detailed comparison of the ceremonies at the Ludi Romani with early Greek religious observances. As we saw from his introduction, he hoped by this demonstration to reconcile his fellow Greeks to Rome’s supremacy; at the same time, he obviously understood the Romans of his day well enough to realize that, far from regarding Rome’s glory as thereby diminished in any way, they would feel flattered by the thought of such a connexion with the heroic age of Greece. Incidentally, the proving of his thesis afforded him an excellent opportunity for dealing with the legendary period and thus giving greater variety to his work. But the acceptance of this theory was bound to give him an inverted view of the course of Roman history. Instead of recognizing the gradual evolution of the people and their institutions from very rude beginnings, he sees an advanced stage of civilization existing from the very first; and Rome’s kings and later leaders are in such close contact with the Greek world that they borrow thence most of the new institutions that they establish from time to time. Thus he assumes that the celeres, the senate, the two consuls with joint powers, and the custom whereby the members of each curia dined together on holy days, were all based on Spartan models; that the division of the citizens into patricians and plebeians followed a similar division at Athens; that Servius Tullius organized a Latin League on the analogy of the Amphictyonie League of Greece, and that even the dictatorship was suggested by the practice followed in various Greek cities of appointing an aisymnetes to deal with a particular emergency. Dionysius probably found most, if not all, of these institutions thus explained in his sources; in about half of the instances he qualifies his statement by the words ‘in my opinion,’ but this does not seem a sufficient criterion for deciding the authorship of these views.
Dionysius is so ready to praise Rome’s ancient heroes and institutions on every occasion, with never a word of disapprobation, that his impartiality may well be questioned. On a number of occasions he praises the piety and other virtues of the early Romans, which secured for them the special favour of Heaven; once (xx. 6) he styles them the most holy and just of Greeks. A number of their laws and practices, especially some of those said to have been instituted by Romulus, are declared to be superior to those in vogue among the Greeks. Thus, Romulus’ policy of colonizing captured cities and sometimes even granting them the franchise is contrasted with the ruthless
practices of the leading Greek states and their narrow-minded policy of withholding the rights of citizenship from outsiders (ii. 16 f., xiv. 6); and his laws regarding marriage and the patria potestas are described as better than the corresponding Greek practices (ii. 24-27). Romulus is praised also for rejecting such of the myths as attributed any unseemly conduct to the gods and all grosser forms of religious worship (ii. 18 f.). Indeed, our historian even approves of the Roman censorship, the inquisitorial powers of which were not limited, as in Athens and Sparta, to the public behaviour of the citizens, but extended even inside the walls of private homes (xx. 13). But it is not the Greeks alone who are contrasted unfavourably with the old Romans; Dionysius is just as ready to point out to the Romans of his own day their failure to maintain the high standards set by their ancestors. He contrasts the spirit of mutual helpfulness and forbearance that characterized the relations of the plebeians and patricians in the early days with the era of bloodshed that began under Gaius Gracchus (ii. 11); similarly, he praises the simplicity of the first triumph (ii. 34), the excellent grounds on which Servius Tullius granted the franchise to manumitted slaves (iv. 24), the deference shown by the early consuls to the authority of the senate (v. 60), and the lawful and modest behaviour of the dictators down to the time of Sulla (v. 77), contrasting each of these practices and institutions with the evil forms they assumed in later days. In one instance (viii. 80) he leaves it to the reader to decide whether the traditional Roman practice or the practice of the Greeks which some had recently wished to introduce at Rome, was the better. The pointing of all these contrasts is part of the historian’s function as moralist, the function which he had in mind when in his Letter to Pompeius (chap. 3) he said that the attitude of Herodotus toward the events he was describing was everywhere fair, showing pleasure in those that were good and grief at those that were bad. Dionysius doubtless endeavoured to be fair and sincere in his judgments; but he was, nevertheless, biased in favour of the Romans and in favour of the senatorial party, the Optimates of his own day. He even attempts to palliate one or two of the less savoury incidents associated with Rome’s beginnings: he pictures Romulus as plunged into the depths of grief and despair at the death of Remus; and again, as addressing words of comfort and cheer to the captured Sabine maidens, assuring them that their seizure was in accordance with a good old Greek custom, and that it was the most distinguished way for women to be married! Livy makes no attempt to save the character of Romulus in the first instance, and in the second stops far short of Dionysius.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 702