Marriage, Gender, and the Family in Dio

Abstract Dio has proved an excellent source for historians interested in the politics, philosophies, and ideas of the first two centuries of the Roman era, and there are many studies of these areas. However, there is not even a basic collection of Dio’s views on family relations, a crucial topic: in social history. This essay attempts to fill that gap. How one conducted oneself in private, behind the doors of one’s house, with one’s family and friends had long been a commonplace of social philosophy, from the pithy apophthegms of the Seven Sages to the elaborate abstract theoretical webs of Aristotle or Cicero. Dio lived in an exciting time of cultural rediscovery and renaissance. Traditional, classical texts were dusted off and represented to Greek communities who derived great comfort from seeing their glorious past commemorated and celebrated. Dio and his contemporaries