Lotte e problemi sociali in Cassio Dione

This article studies the way in which Dio deals with social issues in his Roman History. In particular, it examines the rise of the parvenus in Severan Rome, the problem of indebtedness of individual citizens and the state, the recurring phenomenon of banditry, famines and ‘hunger revolts’. The impression of the historian’s insensitivity to the needs of the most disadvantaged social classes is diminished by the analysis of his narrative concerning the struggle between patricians and plebeians in the archaic age, which Dio re-examines also in light of the problems of his time, and in which an unexpected attention to the motives of the poor emerges.