Editing Dionysius of Halicarnassus (section)

==Works==
===Roman Antiquities===
His major work, entitled '''''Roman Antiquities''''' ({{langx|grc|Ῥωμαϊκὴ Ἀρχαιολογία}}, ''Rhōmaikē Archaiologia''), frequently abbreviated '''''Ant. Rom.''''' ({{langx|la|Antiquitates Romanae}}), narrates the history of Rome from the mythical period to the beginning of the [[First Punic War]] in twenty books, of which the first nine remain extant while the remaining books only exist as fragments,<ref name=Sandys-1894/> in the excerpts of the Roman emperor [[Constantine VII|Constantine Porphyrogenitus]] and an epitome discovered by [[Angelo Mai]] in a [[Milan]] manuscript. Dionysius is the first major historian of early Roman history whose work is now extant. Several other ancient historians who wrote of this period, almost certainly used Dionysius as a source for their material. The works of [[Appian]], [[Plutarch]] and [[Livy]] all describe similar people and events of Early Rome as Dionysius.{{citation needed|reason=little of Dionysius' Camillus narrative survives|date=April 2017}}

In the preamble to Book&nbsp;I, Dionysius states that the Greek people lack basic information on Roman history, a deficiency he hopes to fix with the present work.

:;Book I &nbsp; (1300?)–753&nbsp;BC: Mythic early history of Italy and its people. Book I also narrates the history of [[Aeneas]] and his progeny as well as Dionysius' telling of the [[Romulus and Remus|Romulus and Remus myth]], ending with the death of [[Remus]].

:;Book II &nbsp; 753–673&nbsp;BC: The Roman monarchy's first two Kings, [[Romulus]] and [[Numa Pompilius]]. Romulus formulates customs and laws for Rome. [[Roman–Sabine wars|Sabine war]]- as in subsequent parts of the history, this early conflict is described as involving numerous categories of officer, thousands of infantry, and cavalry combatants. This is highly unlikely, but is a common anachronism found in ancient historians.

:;Book III &nbsp; 673–575&nbsp;BC: Kings [[Tullus Hostilius]] through [[Lucius Tarquinius Priscus]].

:;Book IV &nbsp; 575–509&nbsp;BC: Last of the Roman kings and end of the monarchy with overthrow of [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus]].

:;Book V &nbsp; 509-497&nbsp;BC: Start of [[Roman Republic]] and [[Roman consul#Consular dating|Consular years]].

:;Book VI &nbsp; 496–493&nbsp;BC: Includes the first instance of [[Secessio plebis|Plebeian secession]].

:;Book VII &nbsp; 492–490&nbsp;BC: This book describes at length the background leading to the Roman [[Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus|Coriolanus]]' trial, ending in his exile. Much of the book is a debate between supporters of the oligarchy and the plebeians.

:;Book VIII &nbsp; 489–482&nbsp;BC: Coriolanus, now exiled, allies with Rome's current primary enemy, the [[Volsci]]ans. Coriolanus leads the Volscian army on a successful campaign against Roman allies and finally is near to capturing Rome itself. Coriolanus' mother intercedes for the Roman state and manages to end the military campaign. Coriolanus then is treacherously murdered by the Volscians. The remaining part of the book covers the military campaigns to recover land from the Volscians.

:;Book IX &nbsp; 481–462&nbsp;BC: Various military campaigns of mixed fortune in foreign matters. Domestically the plebeians and patricians argue and the [[conflict of the orders]] continues. The number of [[Tribune]]s is raised from 5 to 10. Book&nbsp;IX ends with the first two years of the [[decemviri|decemvirate]] and the creation of the first Roman Law Tables.

:;Book X &nbsp; 461–449&nbsp;BC: The [[decemviri|decemvirate]] continued.

::;''Note'': The last ten books are fragmentary, based on excerpts from medieval Byzantine history compilations. Book&nbsp;XI is mostly extant at around 50&nbsp;pages (Aeterna Press, 2015&nbsp;edition), while the remaining books, have only 12–14&nbsp;pages per book.

:;Book XI &nbsp; 449–443&nbsp;BC: ''fragments''

:;Book XII &nbsp; 442–396&nbsp;BC: ''fragments''

:;Book XIII &nbsp; 394–390&nbsp;BC: ''fragments''

:;Book XIV &nbsp; 390&nbsp;BC: [[Gauls]] [[Sack of Rome (387 BC)|sack of Rome]].

:;Book XV: [[First Samnite War|First]] and [[Second Samnite war|Second Samnite War]].

:;Book XVI–XVII: [[Third Samnite War]].

:;Book XIX: The beginnings of conflicts between Rome and the warlord [[Pyrrhus of Epirus]]. Threatened by Roman expansion into southern Italy, the city of [[Taranto|Tarentum]] asks Pyrrhus to protect them.

:;Book XX: Roman-[[Pyrrhic war]], with Pyrrhus's second invasion of Italy.

Because his prime objective was to reconcile the Greeks to [[Roman Republic|Roman]] rule, Dionysius focused on the good qualities of their conquerors, and also argued that – based on sources ancient in his own time – the Romans were genuine descendants of the older Greeks.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus |date=March 29, 2018 |orig-year=1937 |series=[[Loeb Classical Library]] |volume=I |publisher=[[University of Chicago]] |place=Chicago, IL |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html |via=Penelope, [[University of Chicago|U. Chicago]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gabba |first=E. |year=1991 |title=Dionysius and the History of Archaic Rome |place=Berkeley, CA}}</ref> According to him, history is philosophy teaching by examples, and this idea he has carried out from the point of view of a Greek rhetorician. But he carefully consulted the best authorities, and his work and that of [[Livy]] are the only connected and detailed extant accounts of early Roman history.<ref name=Usher-1969>{{cite book |first=S. |last=Usher |year=1969 |title=The Historians of Greece and Rome |place=London, GB |pages=239–241}}</ref>{{rp|pages=240–241}}

===Other works===
Dionysius was also the author of several rhetorical treatises, in which he shows that he had thoroughly studied the best Attic models:
:'''''The Art of Rhetoric''''' ({{Langx|grc|Τέχνη ῥητορική|translit=Tékhnē rhētorikḗ|label=none}}: a collection of essays on the theory of rhetoric, incomplete, and certainly not all his work;
:'''''The Arrangement of Words'''''  ({{Langx|grc| Περὶ συνθέσεως ὀνομάτων |translit=Perì sunthéseōs onomátōn|label=none}}, {{Langx|la|De compositione verborum}}): on the combination of words according to the different styles of oratory;
:[[Dionysian imitatio|'''''On Imitation''''']] ({{Langx |grc|Περὶ μιμήσεως |translit=Perì mimḗseōs |label=none}}): 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''''' ({{Langx |grc|Περὶ τῶν Ἀττικῶν ῥητόρων |translit=Perì tôn Attikôn rhētórōn|label=none}}: which covers [[Lysias]], [[Isaeus]], [[Isocrates]], and by way of supplement, [[Dinarchus]];
:'''''On the Admirable Style of [[Demosthenes]]''''' ({{Langx |grc|Περὶ λεκτικῆς Δημοσθένους δεινότητος |translit=Perì lektikês Dēmosthénous deinótētos |label=none}})
:'''''On the Character of Thucydides''''' ({{Langx |grc|Περὶ Θουκιδίδου χαρακτῆρος |translit=Perì Thoukidídou kharaktêros|label=none}})

The last two treatises are supplemented by letters to [[Pompey|Gn. Pompeius]] and [[Ammaeus]] (two, one of which is about Thucydides).<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Dionysian ''imitatio''===
{{main article|Dionysian imitatio}}
''Dionysian imitatio'' is the [[literary method]] of imitation as formulated by Dionysius, who conceived it as the [[rhetoric]]al practice of emulating, adapting, reworking, and enriching a source text by an earlier author.<ref name="Ruthven79">Ruthven (1979) pp. 103–104</ref><ref name="Jansen">Jansen (2008)</ref> It shows marked similarities with [[Quintilian]]'s view of imitation, and both may derive from a common source.<ref>S F Bonner, ''The Literary Treatises of Dionysius of Halicarnassus'' (2013) p. 39</ref>

Dionysius' concept marked a significant departure from the concept of ''[[mimesis]]'' formulated by [[Aristotle]] in the 4th century BC, which was only concerned with "imitation of nature" and not "imitation of other authors."<ref name="Ruthven79"/> Latin orators and rhetoricians adopted Dionysius' method of ''imitatio'' and discarded Aristotle's ''mimesis''.<ref name="Ruthven79"/>