Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Ancient Greek: Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς,
Dionúsios Alexándrou Halikarnasseús, ''Dionysios (son of Alexandros) of Halikarnassos''; c. 60 BC – after 7 BC) was an ancient Greekhistorian and teacher of rhetoric.[1] He flourished when Augustus was ruler of the Roman Empire.[2] His writing style was "atticistic" meaning that it imitated Attic Greek.[1] Dionysius wrote a history of Rome titled the Roman Antiquities.[1]
Life
Dionysius was a native of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor.[1] He moved to Rome in 30/29 BCE after the end of the Roman civil wars and studied Latin.[1][3] During this time, Dionysius taught rhetoric.[4] The date of his death is unknown.[4] In the 19th century, it was commonly thought that he was the ancestor of Aelius Dionysius of Halicarnassus.[5]
Works
Dionysius wrote an important work titled Roman Antiquities (Greek: Ῥωμαϊκὴ Ἀρχαιολογία, Rhōmaikē Archaiologia).[1][3] It narrates the history of Rome from the mythical period to the start of the First Punic War.[1][3] The work has twenty books but only the first nine have survived while the other books exist only as fragments.[1][3] The thesis of Dionysius' work "was that Rome was a Greek city, Latin a Greek dialect, and Romans really Greeks."[1]
Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Dionysius, Aelius". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Archived from the original on 2012-10-07. Retrieved 2024-02-08.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
