DIO, Lucius Cassius & XIPHILINUS, John; MANNING, Francis (translator).
The History of Dion Cassius
The History of Dion Cassius
abridg'd by Xiphilin. Containing the most considerable passages under the Roman Emperors, from the time of Pompey the Great, to the reign of Alexander Severus.
Stock Code 124541
London, Printed for A. and J. Churchill, in Paternoster-Row, 1704.
first edition in English of the Rerum Romanorum
The first edition in English of Cassius Dio's (c.165-235 AD) Historia Romana, translated from the edition abridged by John Xiphilinus in the eleventh century.Dio belonged to one of the leading families of Nicaea in the Roman province of Bithynia. His father, Cassius Apronianus, was Proconsul of Lycia and Pamphylia, and Dio too would serve as Governor and Consul during his political career.
This abridgement by Xiphlin is a crucial source for the last nineteen books of Dio's history, which otherwise only partially survives in fragments. The work covers the events from Book 36 through to Book 80, beginning with the period of civil wars which strafed the last years of the Roman Republic, with the subsequent chapters given over to biographic essays covering the reigns of Julius Caesar and Rome's emperors from Augustus to Severus Alexander, roughly the period when Dio's history was composed.
Little is known of the translator Francis Manning (fl. 1688-1716) who otherwise completed an English translation of Flechier's Life of Emperor Theodosius the Great printed in 1693, and Horace's odes which appeared in 1738.
From the library of Sir Herbert Maxwell, 7th Baronet of Monreith (1845-1937). Maxwell was elected Member of Parliament for Wigtownshire in 1880 in the Conservative interest, and served as Junior Lord of the Treasury during the Salisbury administration. A keen antiquarian, Maxwell was President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Chairman of the National Library of Scotland, and Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, amassing an impressive library at his seat of Monreith House.
First edition in English; 2 vols; 8vo (20 x 12.5 cm); vol. I a4 cancel, armorial bookplate to front pastedown of each vol., front free endpaper of vol. II torn with loss at gutter margin, minor wear, internally crisp and clean; contemporary panelled calf, corners and spine ends slightly rubbed, spine labels renewed, sprinkled edges, very good; [22], 407, [1]; [8], 375, [1]pp.
ESTC T130908.
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