CONCERNING THE ORIGINAL.




A.--THE WRITING.


Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman senator and prætor, when about forty
years of age delivered himself of a pamphlet describing the dreams and
omens that had led the general Septimius Severus to hope for the
imperial office which he actually secured. One evening there came to
the author a note of thanks from the prince; and the temporary
satisfaction of the recipient was continued in his dreams, wherein his
guiding angel seemed to urge him to write a detailed account of the
reign of the unworthy Commodus (Book Seventy-two), just ended. Once
again did Dio glow beneath the imperial felicitations and those of the
public. Inoculated with the bacillus of publication and animated by a
strong desire for immortality,--a wish happily realized,--he undertook
the prodigious task of giving to the world a complete account of Roman
events from the beginning to so late a date as Fortune might
vouchsafe. Forthwith he began the accumulation of materials, a task in
which ten active years (A.D. 200 to 210) were utilized. The actual
labor of composition, continued for twelve years more at intervals of
respite from duties of state, brought him in his narrative to the
inception of the reign of his original patron, the first Severus.--All
the foregoing facts are given us as Dio's own statement, in what is at
present the twenty-third chapter of the seventy-second book, by that