The modern historian of Greece and Rome often depends for his information on writings whose reliability is no greater, though often much less, than that of the histories, now lost in whole or part, which their authors followed. The quality of these histories can sometimes be detected from the internal evidence of the extant derivative accounts, even when we cannot name the historians with any certainty.

Previously Cassius Dio's Romaika has generally served as a quarry for the reconstruction of lost sources and the historical narrative. On the other hand, the view of the Roman Republic held by this member of the imperial elite has hardly been considered. This work combines two separate strands of research, in that it examines the criteria according to which he employed his sources: he adhered to an ideal of a harmonious society which was particularly influenced by the Stoic Poseidonios, according (...) to which everybody served for the good of all. (shrink)