Roman Antiquities
Also known as: Antiquitates Romanae, Romaike Archaiologia, Roman Antiquities (Loeb)
A Greek historian’s extended account of Rome’s origins and early history, from mythic foundations through the early Republic, blending legendary narratives with antiquarian inquiry.
Description
Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote Roman Antiquities to explain Rome’s beginnings to a Greek audience, tracing the city’s genealogy from Trojan and Greek settlers through the reigns of the kings and into the formative struggles of the Republic. He synthesizes Roman annalists, laws, priestly records, and oral traditions, aiming to show the Hellenic roots of Roman institutions and virtues. The work interweaves foundation legends (Aeneas, Romulus) with constitutional developments, festivals, and exemplary stories that model pietas, virtus, and civic order. While overtly moralizing and often harmonizing conflicting sources, it remains a major witness to early Roman myth-history and the reception of Rome in Augustan intellectual life.
Historiography
Written by a Greek rhetorician after his arrival in Rome, the work consciously addresses Greek readers and defends Roman antiquity as compatible with Hellenic tradition. Its manuscript tradition preserves Books 1–11 complete; the remainder survives via Byzantine epitomes and later excerpts, revealing losses and abridgments. Dionysius draws on Roman annalists, pontifical records, and antiquarians, alongside comparative Greek materials. Reception has oscillated between skepticism of his harmonizations and appreciation of his preservation of otherwise lost sources.
Date Notes
Composed and published in Rome during the age of Augustus; Books 1–11 survive complete, Books 12–20 in fragments and excerpts.
Major Characters
- Romulus
- Remus
- Numa Pompilius
- Tarquinius Priscus
- Servius Tullius
- Tarquinius Superbus
- Lucius Junius Brutus
- Horatius Cocles
Myths
- Aeneas in Italy
- Founding of Alba Longa
- Romulus and Remus
- The Rape of the Sabines
- Numa’s Sacred Institutions
- The Horatii and Curiatii
Facts
- Covers Rome’s history from mythic Trojan origins through the early Republic, reaching to the eve of the First Punic War.
- Books 1–11 are fully extant; Books 12–20 survive only in fragments and Byzantine excerpts.
- Written in Greek by an author resident in Augustan Rome, aimed at persuading Greek readers of Rome’s Hellenic affinities.
- Preserves unique versions of early Roman legends and institutional lore not fully available in other sources.
- Draws on Roman annalists, priestly records, laws, and antiquarian traditions alongside Greek parallels.
- Offers detailed accounts of royal institutions, censuses, military levies, and civic rituals attributed to early kings.
- Frequently harmonizes conflicting traditions, providing rationalizing explanations for mythic episodes.
- Serves as a major comparative source with Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita for Rome’s regal and early republican periods.
- Influenced later antiquarian and humanist reconstructions of early Roman religion and constitutional history.
- A key witness to Augustan-era interpretations of Rome’s moral exempla (pietas, virtus, fides).