Dionysius and The History of Archaic Rome

Emilio Gabba

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520073029
• eBook ISBN: 9780520342170
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: Literature

In The History of Archaic Rome, Dionysius purposely viewed Roman history as an embodiment of all that was best in Greek culture. Gabba places Dionysius's remarkable thesis in its cultural context, comparing this author with other ancient historians and evaluating Dionysius's treatment of his sources.

In truth, the last decades B.C. made the historian's task an enormous challenge. On the one hand, the ancient writers knew Rome to be the greatest empire the world had seen, seemingly impregnable in military power and still capable of expansion. On the other hand, they were acutely aware that it recently had barely survived half a century of civil strife.

Gabba recalls to us how little was confidently known of Rome's actual origins in an illuminating examination of Dionysius's methodology as a historian.


In The History of Archaic Rome, Dionysius purposely viewed Roman history as an embodiment of all that was best in Greek culture. Gabba places Dionysius's remarkable thesis in its cultural context, comparing this author with other ancient historians

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introductory Note on the Text
• List of Abbreviations
• CHAPTER ONE Greek Historiography and Rome before Dionysius
• CHAPTER TWO Political and Cultural Aspects of the Classicistic Revival in the
• CHAPTER THREE Dionysius’s Historical Tenets and Methods
• Appendix: Comments on Polybius
• CHAPTER FOUR History and Antiquarianism
• Appendix: The Matrimonial Norms Established by Romulus
• CHAPTER FIVE Dionysius on the Social and Political Structures of Early Rome
• CHAPTER SIX The Political Meaning of Dionysius’s History
• Bibliography
• General Index
• Index Locorum