Recent years have seen a renewed scholarly interest in the time of composition of Cassius Dio?s History. This paper provides a critical assessment of the main versions, in particular Lindholmer?s and Letta?s recent arguments in favour of respectively “the early” and “late” variants of dating. The main conclusion is that Dio began to collect materials for his opus under Septimius Severus and that the bulk of writing was made in the 220s, presumably before the end of 229. Consequently, Dio wrote the most of History while politically active, rather than during retirement.
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