This document provides an overview of the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus and his work "Roman Antiquities". It discusses his biography, intention in writing the work, methodology, and key sections including his account of Aeneas' wanderings and establishment of settlements in Italy which helped prove the Greek origins of the Romans. Dionysius synthesized information from over 50 sources to compose his own version of early Roman history from its founding to the First Punic War in order to make it accessible to a Greek audience and dispel myths about the Romans' barbarian origins.

1. Der römische
GründungsmythosHistoriographie
Dionysios von Halikarnassos

2. Gliederung
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Biographie
Werk
Intention
Arbeitsweise
Aeneas
Thesen
Quellen

3. Biographie
• * 54 v.Chr. in Halikarnassos
• † ca. 8 n.Chr. ebenda
• Historiograph und Rhetor
• Lebte nach dem Ende des römischen
Bürgerkrieges (31 v.Chr.) für 22 Jahre in Rom (Archaeologia I,7,2)

4. Werk
• Hauptwerk: Ῥωμαϊκὴ Ἀρχαιολογία
(Römische Frühgeschichte) in 20 Bänden (8 v.Chr.)
• Umfassende Darstellung der römischen Geschichte
von der Gründung Roms (751 v.Chr.) bis zum Ersten
Punischen Krieg (241 v.Chr.)
• Pro-römische Einstellung
• Beeinflusst von der augusteischen Kulturpolitik

5. Intention
• 1. Öffnen der römischen Geschichte für ein griechisches Publikum
Archaeologia I, 4,2: Ἔτι γὰρ ἀγνοεῖται παρὰ τοῖσ Ἕλληςιν ὀλίγου δεῖν πᾶςιν ἟ παλαιὰ τῆσ Ῥωμαίων πόλεωσ ἱςτορία, καὶ δόξαι τινὲσ οὐκ ἀληθεῖσ, ἀλλ´ ἐκ τῶν
ἐπιτυχόντων ἀκουςμάτων τὴν ἀρχὴν λαβοῦςαι τοὺσ πολλοὺσ ἐξηπατήκαςιν, ὡσ ἀνεςτίουσ μέν τινασ καὶ πλάνητασ καὶ βαρβάρουσ καὶ οὐδὲ τούτουσ ἐλευθέρουσ
οἰκιςτὰσ εὐχομένησ, οὐ δι´ εὐςέβειαν δὲ καὶ δικαιοςύνην καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἀρετὴν ἐπὶ τὴν ἁπάντων ἟γεμονίαν ςὺν χρόνῳ παρελθούςησ, ἀλλὰ δι´ αὐτοματιςμόν τινα καὶ
τύχην ἄδικον εἰκῆ δωρουμένην τὰ μέγιςτα τῶν ἀγαθῶν τοῖσ ἀνεπιτηδειοτάτοισ· καὶ οἵ γε κακοηθέςτεροι κατηγορεῖν εἰώθαςι τῆσ τύχησ κατὰ τὸ φανερὸν ὡσ βαρβάρων
τοῖσ πονηροτάτοισ τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ποριζομένησ ἀγαθά.
- For to this day almost all the Greeks are ignorant of the early history of Rome and the great majority of them have been imposed upon by sundry false opinions
grounded upon stories which chance has brought to their ears and led to believe that, having come upon various vagabonds without house or home and barbarians,
and even those not free men, as her founders, she in the course of time arrived at world domination, and this not through reverence for the gods and justice and every
other virtue, but through some chance and the injustice of Fortune, which inconsiderately showers her greatest favours upon the most undeserving. And indeed the
more malicious are wont to rail openly at Fortune for freely bestowing on the basest of barbarians the blessings of the Greeks.
• 2. Beweisen des griechischen Ursprungs der Römer
Archaeologia I, 5,2: Ταύτασ δὴ τὰσ πεπλανημένασ, ὥςπερ ἔφην, ὑπολήψεισ ἐξελέςθαι τῆσ διανοίασ τῶν πολλῶν προαιρούμενοσ καὶ ἀντικαταςκευάςαι τὰσ ἀληθεῖσ,
περὶ μὲν τῶν οἰκιςάντων τὴν πόλιν, οἵτινεσ ἦςαν καὶ κατὰ τίνασ ἕκαςτοι καιροὺσ ςυνῆλθον καὶ τίςι τύχαισ χρηςάμενοι τὰσ πατρίουσ οἰκήςεισ ἐξέλιπον, ἐν ταύτῃ
δηλώςω τῇ γραφῇ, δι´ ἧσ Ἕλληνάσ τε αὐτοὺσ ὄντασ ἐπιδείξειν ὑπιςχνοῦμαι καὶ οὐκ ἐκ τῶν ἐλαχίςτων ἠ φαυλοτάτων ἐθνῶν ςυνεληλυθότασ.
- In order, therefore, to remove these erroneous impressions, as I have called them, from the minds of many and to substitute true ones in their room, I shall in this
Book show who the founders of the city were, at what periods the various groups came together and through what turns of fortune they left their native countries. By
this means I engage to prove that they were Greeks and came together from nations not the smallest nor least considerable.
• 3. Historische Exempla aufzeigen

6. Arbeitsweise
• Dionysios sammelte unterschiedliche Originalquellen (50+ Autoren)
• Archaeologia I, 7,1: Καὶ τὰ μὲν παρὰ τῶν λογιωτάτων ἀνδρῶν, οἷσ εἰσ ὁμιλίαν ἦλθον, διδαχῇ παραλαβὼν, τὰ δ´ ἐκ τῶν ἱςτοριῶν ἀναλεξάμενοσ, ἃσ οἱ πρὸσ αὐτῶν
ἐπαινούμενοι Ῥωμαίων ςυνέγραψαν Πόρκιόσ τε Κάτων καὶ Φάβιοσ Μάξιμοσ καὶ Οὐαλέριοσ Ἀντιεὺσ καὶ Λικίνιοσ Μάκερ Αἴλιοί τε καὶ Γέλλιοι καὶ Καλπούρνιοι καὶ ἕτεροι ςυχνοὶ
πρὸσ τούτοισ ἄνδρεσ οὐκ ἀφανεῖσ, ἀπ´ ἐκείνων ὁρμώμενοσ τῶν πραγματειῶν τότε ἐπεχείρηςα τῇ γραφῇ
Some information I received orally from men of the greatest learning, with whom I associated; and the rest I gathered from histories
written by the approved Roman authors — Porcius Cato, Fabius Maximus, Valerius Antias, Licinius Macer, the Aelii, Gellii and Calpurnii, and
many others of note; with these works as a basis, I set about the writing of my history.
• Synoptisches Verfahren
• Antike „Quellenkritik“
•
Archaeologia I, 45,4: […] ἐπεὶ τῶν ςυγγραφέων τοῖσ μὲν ἞γνόηται, τοῖσ δὲ διαπεφώνηται ὁ περὶ αὐτοῦ λόγοσ, μὴ παρέργωσ διελθεῖν τάσ τε τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ τὰσ
Ῥωμαίων τῶν μάλιςτα πιςτευομένων ἱςτορίασ παραβαλών.
I wish to give more than a cursory account, having compared the histories of those writers, both Greek and Roman, who are the best accredited.
•
•
•
•
1. Beweismaterial
(z.B. Archaeologia II, 59, 5: But I do not know how this could be proved, since it is not supported, so far as I know, by the testimony of any
author of note, either Greek or Roman.)
2. Begründetes Argument
3. Generelle Glaubwürdigkeit
• Komposition eigener Version

7. Vorgeschichte - Die griechischen
Wanderungen
• The nations, therefore, which came together and shared in a common life and from which the
Roman people derived their origin before the city they now inhabit was built, are these: first, the
Aborigines, who drove the Sicels out of these parts and were originally Greeks from the
Peloponnesus, the same who with Oenotrus removed from the country now called Arcadia,
according to my opinion; then, the Pelasgians, who came from Haemonia, as it was then called,
but now Thessaly; third, those who came into Italy with Evander from the city of Pallantium; after
them the Epeans and Pheneats, who were part of the Peloponnesian army commanded by
Hercules, with whom a Trojan element also was commingled; and, last of all, the Trojans who had
escaped with Aeneas from Ilium, Dardanus and the other Trojan cities.

8. Die Vorgeschichte – Aeneas
Wanderungen
Archaeologia I, 8,1: Ἄρχομαι μὲν οὖν τῆσ ἱςτορίασ ἀπὸ τῶν παλαιοτάτων μύθων, οὓσ παρέλιπον οἱ πρὸ ἐμοῦ γενόμενοι ςυγγραφεῖσ χαλεποὺσ ὄντασ ἄνευ
πραγματείασ μεγάλησ ἐξευρεθῆναι.
- I begin my history, then, with the most ancient legends, which the historians before me have omitted as a subject difficult to be cleared up with diligent study.

9. Aeneas in Italien
• Landung in Laurentum (I, 53)
• Gründung der Stadt Lavinium durch Aeneas (I, 56)
• Verschmelzen mit der Urbevölkerung Latiums, den Aborigines und nehmen den Namen Latiner an (I, 57-59)
• Errichtung von Alba Longa (I, 66)
• Neubesiedlung der alten arkadischen Stadt Pallantium und Umbennung in Rom nach dem Gründer Romulus
• Krieg mit dem Volk der Rutuler und Tod des Latinus, König der Aboriginer (I, 64)
• Aeneas fällt ebenfalls im Kampf mit den Latinern, Ascanius wird sein Nachfolger (I, 65)
• Ascanius gründet die Stadt Alba Longa (I, 66)

10. Thesen
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.

11. Quellen
• Quellen
• Dionysii Halicarnasei quae extant. Sechs Bände, Leipzig 1885–1929.
Band 1 (1885) ed. Karl Jacoby: Dionysi Halicarnasensis Antiquitatum Romanarum quae supersunt
Band 2 (1888) ed. Karl Jacoby: Dionysi Halicarnasensis Antiquitatum Romanarum quae supersunt
• Literatur
• E. Gabba, Dionysios and the History of Archaic Rome, Berkeley 1991.
• Wörner, Ernst: Die Sage von den Wanderungen des Aeneas bei Dionysios von Halikarnasos und Vergilius, Leipzig 1882.
• Schultze, Clemence: Authority, Originality and Competence in the Roman Archaeology of Dionysius of Halicarnassus

12. Vielen Dank für Eure
Aufmerksamkeit