Review of Madsen, Cassius Dio

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Cassius Dio.

Jesper Majbom Madsen, Cassius Dio. Ancients in action. London; New York: Bloomsbury, 2020. Pp. viii, 133. ISBN 9781350033399 $25.95 (pb).

Review by
Adam Kemezis, University of Alberta. kemezis@ualberta.ca

As part of a remarkable recent increase in the volume of scholarship on Cassius Dio, we can now count the first ever English-language study of that author aimed at the non-specialist classically oriented public.[1] Jesper Madsen’s short, inexpensive and accessible book represents an important step toward expanding understanding of Dio as a political and historical analyst. It is a forceful and often persuasive exposition of a particular reading of Dio’s massive history, though a not uncontroversial one among Madsen’s fellow Dio scholars.

[...]

The Roman historian Cassius Dio preserved some important information about Jewish history in Hellenistic-Roman era. Relevant PaleoJudaica posts are here and here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.