that is, Dion the golden-mouthed, a surname which he owed to his great talents as an orator.
He bore also the surname Cocceianu (Plin. Epist 10.85, 86), which he
derived from the emperor Cocceius Nerva, with whom he was connected by intimate friendship.
(Orat. xlv. p. 513.) Dion Chrysostomus was born at Prusa in Bithynia,
about the middle of the first century of our era, and belonged to a distinguished equestrian
family. Reimarus has rendered it very probable that a daughter of his was the mother of Dio
Cassius, the historian. His father,Pasicrates, seems to have bestowed great care on his son
Dion's education and the early training of his mind; but he appears to have acquired part of
his knowledge in travels, for we know that he visited Egypt at an early period of his life. At
first he occupied himself in his native place, where he held important offices, with the
composition of speeches and other rhetorico-sophistical essays, but on perceiving the futility
of such pursuits he abandoned them, and devoted himself with great zeal to the study of
philosophy : he did not, however, confine give himself up to any profound speculations, his
object being rather to apply the doctrines of philosophy to the purposes of practical life,
and more especially to the administration of public affairs, and thus to bring about a better
state of things. The Stoic and Platonic philosophies, however, appear to have had the greatest
charms for hilm. Notwithstanding these useful and peaceful pursuits, he was looked upon in his
native place with suspicion and hostility (Orat. xlvi. p. 212, &c.),
which induced him to go to Rome Here he drew upon himself the hatred of Domitian, who had so
great an aversion to philosophers, that by a senatus-consultum all were expelled from Rome and
Italy, and Dion found himself obliged to quit Rome in secret. (Orat.
xlvi. p. 215, xiii. p. 418.) On the advice of the Delphic oracle, it is said, he put on the
attire of a beggar, and with nothing in his pocket but a copy of Plato's Phaedon and
Demosthenes's oration on the Embassy, he undertook a journey to the countries in the north and
east of the Roman empire. He thus visited Thrace, Mysia, Scythia, and the country of the
Getae, and owing to the power and wisdom of his orations, he met everywhere with a kindly
reception, and did much good. (Orat. xxxvi. p. 74; comp. xiii. p. 418.)
In Orat. xlv. p. 202.) Nerva's
successor, Trajan, entertained the highest esteem for Dion, and shewed hint the most marked
favour, for he is said to have often visited hill, and even to have allowed him to ride by his
side in his golden triumphal car. Having thus received the most ample satisfaction for the
unjust treatment he had experienced before, he returned to Prusa about A. D. 100. But the
petty spirit he found prevailing there, which was jealous of his merits and distinctions, and
attributed his good actions to impure motives (Orat. l. p. 254, &c.),
soon disgusted him with his fellow-citizens, and he again went to Rome. Trajan continued to
treat him with the greatest distinction: his kindly disposition gained him many eminent
friends, such as Apollonius of Tyana and Euphrates of Tyre, and his oratory the admiration of
all. In this manner he spent his last years, and died at Rome about
Dion Chrysostomus is one of the most eminent among the Greek rhetoricians and sophists.
This is the opinion not only of the ancients who have written about him, such as Philostratus, Synesius, and Photius, but it is also confirmed by the eighty orations of his which are still extant, and which were the only ones known in the time of Photius, who, however, enumerates them in a somewhat different order from that in which they now stand. These orations are for the most part the productions of his later years, and there are very few, if any, among them that can with certainty be at tributed to the early period of his life. They are more like essays on political, moral, and philosophical subjects than real orations, of which they have only the form. We find among them
There are extant also five letters under the name of Dion, and addressed to one Rufus.
They are published in Boissonade's Ad Marini Vit. Procl. p. 85,
&c., and some critics are inclined to consider them as productions of Dion
Chrysostolmus. All the extant orations of Dion are distinguished for their refined and
elegant style; the author most successflly imitated the classic writers of Greece, such as
Plato, Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Aeschines. His ardent study of those models, combined
with his own eminent talents, his firm and pleasing voice, and his skill in extempore
speaking, raised him at once above all contemporary rhetoricians. His style is throughout
clear, and, generally speaking, free from artificial embellishment, though he is not always
able to escape from the influence of the Asiatic school of rhetoric. His sentences are often
interrupted by the insertion of parenthetical clauses, and his prooemia are frequently too
long in proportion to the other parts of his discourses. " Dion Chrysostomus," says Niebuhr
(Lecturses. on Rom. Hist. ii. p. 263, ed. Schmitz), " was an author of
u ncommon Vit. Soph. 1.7;
Photius, Bibl. Cod. 209; Synnesius, s. v.
Gesch. d. Griech.
Bereds. § 87, &c., and Beilage x. p. 317, &c.; Emperius, de Exilio Dionis Chrisostomi, Braunschweig, 1840, 8vo.)
Passing over the editions of separate orations of Dion Chrysostomus, we mention only those
which contain all of them.