Reception of Cassius Dio’s Roman History in Pompey’s Chapter of John Xiphilinos' Epitome

Abstract

Xiphilinos’ Epitome constitutes one of the most understudied Byzantine sources despite its great importance and role as a transmitter of the unpreserved parts of Cassius Dio’s Roman History. Until recently it was mainly perceived as an unoriginal product whose author was only a passive and often incompetent copyist. For scholars of Ancient Rome Epitome was seen only as a substitute for Dio, while Byzantinists deemed Xiphilinos as an uninteresting author. Analysis of Epitome’s first chapter devoted to Pompey shows that in fact, he was an author who actively shaped his work according to his own literary tastes and trends functioning in eleventh-century Byzantine historiography. Epitome, a didactic work dedicated to the emperor Michael VII Doukas, was an intellectual product of an era where the ancient roots of Byzantium started to play an increasingly important role in contemporary political discourse. It was also the first work of Byzantine historiography which devoted as much space to Roman history before the establishment of imperial monarchy.