The New International Encyclopædia/Dio Chrysostomus

​DI′O CHRYSOS′TOMUS (Lat., from Gk. Χρυσόστομος, chrysostomos, golden-mouthed, from Χρυσός, chrysos, gold + στόμα, stoma, mouth). An eminent Greek rhetorician. He was born at Prusa, in Bithynia, toward the middle of the first century A.D. His father, Pasicrates, paid great attention to his education, which was also enriched by travel. Dio, after residing for some time in his native town, came to Rome, where, however, he had the misfortune to excite the suspicion of the Emperor Domitian, and was in consequence obliged to flee. On the accession of Nerva, A.D. 96, he returned to Rome, and was honorably received. Nerva’s successor, Trajan, held Dio in the highest estimation, even permitting him to ride beside himself in the imperial chariot. His excellent disposition procured him many friends, while his remarkable powers of oratory excited universal admiration. He died at Rome about A.D. 117. Dio left a very great number of orations, of which eighty are still extant in whole, with fragments of fifteen others. They discuss questions in politics, morals, and philosophy, and are written in good Attic Greek. According to Niebuhr, he was “the first writer after Tiberius that greatly contributed toward the revival of Greek literature.” Good editions of Dio’s orations are those of Reiske (Leipzig, 1784), Emperius (Brunswick, 1844), and Dindorf (Leipzig, 1857).