Discourses 1-11

by Dio Chrysostom, J. W. Cohoon (Translator)

Overview

The man with the golden mouth.

Dio Cocceianus Chrysostomus (AD ca. 40–ca. 120), of Prusa in Bithynia, Asia Minor, inherited with his brothers large properties and debts from his generous father Pasicrates. He became a skilled rhetorician hostile to philosophers. But in the course of his travels he went to Rome in Vespasian’s reign (69–79) and was converted to Stoicism. Strongly critical of the emperor Domitian (81–96) he was about 82 banned by him from Italy and Bithynia and wandered in poverty, especially in lands north of the Aegean, as far as the Danube and the primitive Getae. In 97 he spoke publicly to Greeks assembled at Olympia, was welcomed at Rome by emperor Nerva (96–98), and returned to Prusa. Arriving again at Rome on an embassy of thanks about 98–99 he became a firm friend of emperor Trajan. In 102 he traveled to Alexandria and elsewhere. Involved in a lawsuit about plans to beautify Prusa at his own expense, he stated his case before the governor of Bithynia, Pliny the Younger, 111–112. The rest of his life is unknown.

Nearly all of Dio’s extant Discourses (or Orations) reflect political concerns (the most important of them dealing with affairs in Bithynia and affording valuable details about conditions in Asia Minor) or moral questions (mostly written in later life; they contain much of his best writing). Some philosophical and historical works, including one on the Getae, are lost. What survives of his achievement as a whole makes him prominent in the revival of Greek literature in the last part of the first century and the first part of the second.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Dio Chrysostom is in five volumes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674992832
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1932
Series:	Loeb Classical Library , #257
Edition description:	4th printing/1st pub.1932/index
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	4.25(w) x 6.38(h) x 0.90(d)
Language:	Greek, Ancient (to 1453)

About the Author

James Wilfred Cohoon (1878–1946) was Professor of Classics at Mount Allison University.

Table of Contents

Prefatory Note

Introduction

The First Discourse, On Kingship

The Second Discourse, On Kingship

The Third Discourse, On Kingship

The Fourth Discourse, On Kingship

The Fifth Discourse: A Libyan Myth

The Sixth Discourse: Diogenes, Or On Tyranny

The Seventh, Or Euboean, Discourse

The Eighth Discourse, On Virtue

The Ninth, Or Isthmian, Discourse

The Tenth Discourse, On Servants

The Eleventh, Or Trojan, Discourse

Index