A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

25. Of HALICARNASSUS, the most celebrated among the ancient writers of the name of Dionysius. He was the son of one Alexander of Halicarnassus, and was born, according to the calculation of Dodwell, between B. C. 78 and 54. Strabo (xiv. p.656) calls him his own contemporary. His death took place soon after B. C. 7, the year in which he completed and published his great work on the history of Rome. Respecting his parents and education we know nothing, nor any thing about his position in his native place before he emigrated to Rome; though some have inferred from his work on rhetoric, that he enjoyed a great reputation at Halicarnassus. All that we know for certain is, the information which he himself gives us in the introduction to his history of Rome (1.7), and a few more particulars which we may glean from his other works. According to his own account, he went to Italy immediately after the termination of the civil wars, about the middle of Ol. 187, that is, B. C. 29. Henceforth he remained at Rome, and the twentytwo years which followed his arrival at Rome were mainly spent by him in making himself acquainted with the Latin language and literature, and in collecting materials for his great work on Roman history, called Archaeologia. We may assume that, like other rhetoricians of the time, he had commenced his career as a teacher of rhetoric at Halicarnassus; and his works bear strong evidence of his having been similarly occupied at Rome. (De Comp. Verb. 20, Rhetor. 10.) There he lived on terms of friendship with many distinguished men, such as Q. Aelius Tubero, and the rhetorician Caecilius; and it is not improbable that he may have received the Roman franchise, but his Roman name is not mentioned anywhere. Respecting the little we know about Dionysius, see F. Matthäi, de Dionysio Halic., Wittenberg, 1779, 4to.; Dodwell, de A elate Dionys. in Reiske's edition of Dionysius, vol. i. p. xlvi. &c.; and more especially C. J. Weismann, de Dionysii Halic. Vita et Script., Rinteln, 1837, 4to., and Busse, de Dionys. Vita et Ingenio, Berlin, 1841, 4to.