Dionysius of Halicarnassus - Work

Work

His great work, entitled Ῥωμαϊκὴ Ἀρχαιολογία (Rhōmaikē archaiologia, Roman Antiquities), embraced the history of Rome from the mythical period to the beginning of the First Punic War. It was divided into twenty books, of which the first nine remain entire, the tenth and eleventh are nearly complete, and the remaining books exist in fragments in the excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus and an epitome discovered by Angelo Mai in a Milan manuscript. The first three books of Appian, and Plutarch's Life of Camillus also embody much of Dionysius.

His chief object was to reconcile the Greeks to the rule of Rome, by dilating upon the good qualities of their conquerors and also by arguing, using more ancient sources, that the Romans were genuine descendants (book 1,11) of the older Greeks. According to him, history is philosophy teaching by examples, and this idea he has carried out from the point of view of the Greek rhetorician. But he has carefully consulted the best authorities, and his work and that of Livy are the only connected and detailed extant accounts of early Roman history.

Dionysius was also the author of several rhetorical treatises, in which he shows that he has thoroughly studied the best Attic models:

• The Art of Rhetoric (Τέχνη ῥητορική, Téchne rhētorikē), which is rather a collection of essays on the theory of rhetoric, incomplete, and certainly not all his work;
• The Arrangement of Words (Περὶ συνθέσεως ὀνομάτων, Perì synthéseōs onomátōn), treating of the combination of words according to the different styles of oratory;
• On Imitation (Περὶ μιμήσεως, Perì mimēseōs), on the best models in the different kinds of literature and the way in which they are to be imitated—a fragmentary work;
• Commentaries on the Attic Orators (Περὶ τῶν Ἀττικῶν ῥητόρων, Perì tôn Attikôn rhētórōn), which, however, only deal with Lysias, Isaeus, Isocrates and (by way of supplement) Dinarchus;
• On the Admirable Style of Demosthenes (Περὶ λεκτικῆς Δημοσθένους δεινότητος, Perì lektikês Dēmosthénous deinótētos); and
• On the Character of Thucydides (Περὶ Θουκυδίδου χαρακτῆρος, Perì Thoukydídou charaktêros).

The last two treatises are supplemented by letters to Gn. Pompeius and Ammaeus (two).

He is often cited as Dion. Halic. in print publications.