DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS

flourished c. 20 BC, ; b. Halicarnassus, Caria, Asia Minor Greek Dionysios Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric whose history of Rome, from its origins to the First Punic War, written from a pro-Roman standpoint but carefully researched, is, with Livy's, the most valuable source for early Roman history. Dionysius migrated to Rome in 30 BC, and his history, which sought to justify the Romans to the Greeks, began to appear in 7 BC. Of its 20 books, only the first 10 are extant. His literary and rhetorical theories are propounded in several extant treatises: On Imitation (containing assessments of individual authors), Commentaries on the Ancient Orators, and On the Arrangement of Words, the only surviving ancient study of the principles of word order and euphony.