Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the Origins of Rome

Abstract

The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus is often dismissed as a mere slavish panegyric of Rome, written with no other purpose but to persuade her Greek subjects to acquiesce in her domination. Thus Schwartz, in his Pauly-Wissowa article (v, 934 f.), after describing the work as ‘ein trauriges Dokument dafür, wie tief die geistige Potenz noch mehr als die Bildung der Griechen gesunken war’, accuses Dionysius not only of incompetence as a historian, but also of a lack of the feeling proper to a Greek. Comparing him with Polybius and Posidonius, he writes ‘die tragischen Schmerzen, die jenen echten Hellenen das Begreifen des römischen Primats gekostet hatte, sind dieser kleinen Seele fremd’. He further suggests that Dionysius chose his subject because it was remote from contemporary events and he was not likely to meet much competition.

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“…14. Augustus,Res Gestae,3,13,26, and the tone of the entire closing summary. Lidia Mazzolani strikes the note of this re-emphasis in the Res Gestae very well with the phrase that "the Empire is not like the universe, in keeping with the Divine Mind, but rather like a small farm, where the steward accounts for every penny spent."…”

“…At the conclusion of the Third Macedonian War in 167 B.C., -Rome stood forth as the ruler of the world, tolerating neither opposition nor indeed anything but unquestioning compliance with her wishes.‖ 13 Anti-Roman parties existed everywhere, including at Rhodes--but how, if, or when, they would suffer remained unclear. Foremost among those already punished was Macedonia, where the Antigonid house was extinguished, and King Perseus, once on good terms with Rhodes, was dragged off to die in a Roman prison--the victors taking what they wanted from the once proud monarch, including the royal library.…”

“…this. 13 Pax has a role in the Carmen Saeculare (stanza 15), connected by Fides to the equally critical civic virtue Pudor, and the military Honos and Virtus. But the wars would not go away, though they might change in character, and the doors of Janus kept opening.…”

“…However, chronology was needed to classify the existing properly documented material. 13 Figure 2. Indo-European languages are distributed from Ireland to India, and almost all the languages of Europe fall into this family (except Finnish and Hungarian, in the Finno-Ugric group, and Basque) Source: Renfrew, 1989, 108. Due to the geography of the Cycladic islands, it was logical to expect the existence of developed trade and therefore communication along the Mediterranean coast of the Levant and Anatolia through established maritime routes.…”

La identidad griega vista por Roma. Algunos alcances.

“…Evidentemente, Catón el censor fue el máximo contrario a las costumbres griegas acogidas por Roma 48 . Acusó al helenismo de los males republicanos 49 , pero no asumió que Roma estaba sufriendo un proceso de cambio por las conquistas, y que era un fenómeno natural 50 que los romanos debían afrontar si pretendían dominar el Mediterráneo, por ende, el contacto con otras costumbres era inevitable, y eso es lo que los conservadores como Catón no comprendieron. Pero este tuvo su mérito, fue el romano que más defendió las tradiciones romanas, no gustaba de la educación del gymnasion por reconocerla inmoral, ni de los filósofos por considerarlos embusteros 51 , criticó el uso de astrólogos 52 y los ritos griegos 53 y, vaticinó que el helenismo dominaría por sobre la cultura romana 54 .…”