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Cassius Dio was a Greek historian and Roman official. He was the son of Cassius Apronianus, governor of Cilicia and Dalmatia, and may have been a descendant of the Greek orator and philosopher Dio Chrysostom. Dio Cassius came to Rome at the age of 16, in the early years of the reign of Commodus (180-192 AD), under whom he subsequently became a member of the Roman Senate. During the brief principate of Pertinax (193) he was nominated to a praetorship, which he held in the following year after the accession of Septimius Severus. In 205 he served as consul, and during the reign of Severus Alexander (222-35) was appointed successively to the governorships of Africa, Dalmatia, and Upper Pannonia. In 229 he became consul again, as the colleague of the emperor himself. However, he did not spend his year of office in Rome, since the unpopularity of his strict discipline with the soldiers and praetorian guardsmen prompted the emperor to suggest that he should absent himself from the city. Leaving the public service, Dio withdrew to his native Bithynia, where he apparently remained. He wrote, in Greek, a Roman history in 80 books (of which 26 survive), covering the period from the founding of the city to AD 229, including the only surviving account of the invasion of Britain by Claudius 43 BC. Dio's history took him 10 years to prepare and 12 more to write. The principal value of the work lies in the period from A.D. 180 onward, during which time Dio's own official career enabled him, as an importantly placed eyewitness, to collect firsthand information. Dio also wrote a biography of Arrian, and an account of the dreams and portents of Septimius Severus, but both these works are lost.
