Age of Iron and Rust: Cassius Dio and the History of His Time

Cassius Dio described his own age as one of "e;iron and rust."e; This study, which is the first of its kind in English, examines the decline and decay that Cassius Dio diagnosed in this period (180-229 CE) through an analysis of the author's historiographic method and narrative construction. It shows that the final books were a crucial part of Dio's work, and it explains how Dio approached a period that he considered unworthy of history in view of his larger historiographic project.