Speaking truth to power: the case of Dio of Prusa (4:00)
Dio of Prusa (a.k.a Dio Cocceianus or Dio Chrysostom/“Golden-mouthed”) was a Greek philosopher, orator, and politician born in the province of Bithynia in the northwestern part of modern-day Turkey (circa AD 40-115). After a traditional education in rhetoric and philosophy in his hometown, Dio travelled to Rome during the reign of the emperor Vespasian (AD 69-79). Dio was critical of Vespasian’s younger son, Domitian, and was ultimately exiled from Rome, Italy, and his native Bithynia in AD 82 for conspiring against the emperor. He claims to have lived the life of an ascetic philosopher during this period, teaching and practicing an eclectic mix of Platonic, Stoic, and Cynic beliefs. Dio maintained a friendship with Nerva, however, and was restored from his exile in the wake of Domitian’s assassination and Nerva’s rise to power.
Dio also enjoyed the favor of Nerva’s adopted son and successor, Trajan, and the four Kingship Orations are his gift to the emperor in the early days of his reign. Scholars have long speculated that Dio delivered these orations before Trajan in Rome, but that hypothesis is based solely on evidence internal to the speeches themselves. Two of the orations are, in fact, dialogues rather than pure speeches. Each of the Kingship Orations takes a different tack in trying to educate Trajan on what the qualities of the ideal king are and how one develops those qualities. Kingship Oration 1 is a prescriptive portrait of the ideal king (as opposed to the tyrant), concluded by a myth about Heracles’ choice between Kingship and Tyranny. Kingship Oration 2 is a dialogue between an young Alexander the Great and his father Philip II of Macedon, in which Alexander argues that everything a king needs to learn can be found in the works of Homer. In the third Kingship Oration, Dio endeavors to teach the emperor about the difference between friendship and flattery. Finally, Alexander reappears in the fourth Kingship Oration, now in conversation with the Cynic philosopher Diogenes, yet again rehashing the topic of how to be a good king, and what defects of character must be moderated in order to rule both oneself and others well.
