Cassius Dionysius of Utica ( grc, Διονύσιος ὁ Ἰτυκαῖος) was an ancient Greek agricultural writer of the 2nd century BC. The Roman nomen, ''Cassius'', combined with the Greek cognomen, ''Dionysius'', make it likely that he was a slave (perhaps a prisoner of war), originally Greek-speaking, who was owned and afterwards freed by a Roman of the ''

gens Cassia The gens Cassia was a Roman family of great antiquity. The earliest members of this gens appearing in history may have been patrician, but all those appearing in later times were plebeians. The first of the Cassii to obtain the consulship was Sp ...

''. Cassius Dionysius compiled a farming manual in Greek, now lost. Its title was ''Georgika'' ("Agriculture"); it was divided into twenty books, and was dedicated by its author to the Roman

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vario ...

Sextilius. According to Columella, who referred to the work in his own surviving '' De Agricultura'' ("On Farming"), an amount equivalent to eight books of Cassius Dionysius' work, two-fifths of the whole, was translated from a preceding work in Punic by Mago. After Rome's destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, the Carthaginian libraries were given to the kings of

Numidia Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...

, but Mago's work was considered too important to lose. It was brought to Rome and Decimus Junius Silanus was commissioned by the

Roman Senate The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...

to translate it into Latin. Whether Cassius Dionysius worked independently, or on the basis of Silanus's work, is not known; however, his residence in Utica, in formerly Carthaginian north Africa, leads to the suggestion that he knew Punic as well as Greek and Latin. Cassius Dionysius's compilation is occasionally cited by later authors, but its length rendered it unpopular. It was soon afterwards abridged by

Diophanes of Nicaea Diophanes of Nicaea or Diophanes the Bithynian (; grc-gre, Διοφάνης) was a Greek agricultural writer of the 1st century BC. He was a native of or associated with the city of Nicaea in Bithynia (northwestern Anatolia). Diophanes abridged i ...

, whose version was divided into six books. The following is a partial list of fragments of Cassius Dionysius' work: *Greek names of the winds and their importance to the farmer. *How to select labourers for hire. *Types of manure. *Mules sometimes foal in Africa. Mules and mares foal in the twelfth month after conception. *Notes on farmyard animals. *Two names for

leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus ''Alli ...

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...

, ''

Deipnosophistae The ''Deipnosophistae'' is an early 3rd-century AD Greek work ( grc, Δειπνοσοφισταί, ''Deipnosophistaí'', lit. "The Dinner Sophists/Philosophers/Experts") by the Greek author Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of liter ...

'' 648e.

Footnotes

{{Authority control Translators to Greek Translators from Punic Writers of lost works Ancient Greek writers Geoponici

Dionysius The name Dionysius (; el, Διονύσιος ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; la, Dionysius) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name ...

2nd-century BC Greek people 2nd-century BC Romans 2nd-century BC writers Republican era slaves and freedmen