Series | Lexis Supplements
Edited book | Cassius Dio and the Principate
Chapter | ‘Ritorno alla monarchia’, tra Cesare e Augusto: le origini del principato in Cassio Dione
‘Ritorno alla monarchia’, tra Cesare e Augusto: le origini del principato in Cassio Dione
Abstract
For Cassius Dio, there was no continuity between Republic and Principate. The Republic ended between 43 (institution of the triumvirate) and 42 BC (battle of Philippi); the ‘monarchy’ was established between 29 (Octavianus Imperator) and 27 (speech to the senators in January). The founder of the imperial monarchy, however, was not Augustus, but Caesar: his dictatorship was already a means to exert the same monarchic power of his adoptive son. In its inner complexity, such a representation of the transition from the Republic to the Principate is consistent with the way Dio reconstructed the origins of the Republic, in the first (lost) books of his Roman History.
Submitted: Sept. 8, 2020 | Accepted: Oct. 13, 2020 | Published Dec. 21, 2020 | Language: it
Keywords Monarchy • Cassius Dio • Augustus • Caesar • Imperator • Ancient Rome
Copyright © 2020 Gianpaolo Urso. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-472-1/001
