Ch. 7. Autopsy from a Broken Monarchy: Trauma-based Readings from Cassius Dio’s Contemporary Rome

Abstract

Cassius Dio’s contemporary books are often held to be for historians a particularly useful part of his Roman History. As a senator in Rome, Dio was well placed to describe what he saw during a long career in Roman politics. Dio’s eyewitness reports bring us right into the middle of the action but his own personal investment in the affairs raise the question of reliability and accuracy. In this article I read Dio’s contemporary books as a trauma-based narrative, where Dio uses personally invested autopsy accounts to paint the picture of a political collapse that follows the death of Marcus Aurelius. In Dio’s narrative, Rome is falling apart at the hands of tyrannical emperors who humiliated, pursued, prosecuted, or murdered members of the political elite who for their part were gradually losing their moral compass. Dio criticises the emperor of his time but the scope seems bigger. By sharing his traumatic experience from Roman politics, Dio’s trauma-based narrative serves to mobilise sympathy for the senators and thus a united front against the emperor of the time and the form of reign they choose. Published in Andrew G. Scott,, ed., Studies in Contemporary Historiography (HISTOS Supplement 15), p. 163-189.