Dion Cassius Coceyano (155 - after 235), full name Lucius Claudius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, also known as Dio Cassius or Cassius Dio, it was a Roman senator and historian. He was born in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik), Greece. He belonged to a senatorial family, because he was the son of the influential Casio Aproniano patrician, consul in 191, senator and governor of several provinces, and maternally descended from Dion of Prusa. His full name was perhaps Lucius Cassius Dion. The name may be added Cocceianus Byzantine period, due to a confusion with Dion of Prusa.
He was appointed proconsul of several provinces and exerted the highest offices: senator under Commodus, Pertinax in 194 under Praetor, Consul suffect probably around 204 ... From 218-228 was successively curator (imperial treasury manager) and Pergamon Smyrna, proconsul of Africa and legacy (governor) first of Dalmatia and then of Pannonia Superior. Consul under Alexander Severus (229), later he retired to Bithynia. Governor in Asia Minor. In 235 he resigned from public life and retired to Nicaea to continue his studies there.
Dion lived a turbulent time: he and his Senate colleagues were intimidated to the tyranny of the emperors and lamented the ascension to the throne of a number of men who considered a simple careerists and Pannonia had to face military discipline. All these experiences were evoked in the story that makes its own time and had much to do with the idea that became the past times.