en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerva
1 correction found
Cassius Dio states that Nerva was an Italiot, a Greek colonist in Italy, but doesn't specify his provincial origin.
This overstates what Cassius Dio says. In the surviving text of Dio's Book 68, he does not explicitly identify Nerva as an "Italiot"; he only says Trajan was a Spaniard rather than "an Italian or Italot."
Full reasoning
In the surviving epitome of Cassius Dio, Roman History 68, Dio introduces Nerva simply as "Nerva Cocceius" and later explains Trajan's adoption by saying Trajan was "a Spaniard instead of an Italian or Italot". That passage does not explicitly say that Nerva himself was an Italiot.
A scholarly discussion of Dio's language makes the point even clearer: Marie-Laure Freyburger-Galland notes that the term "Italiot" appears only once in Dio and, in that passage, refers to the Greek colonists of southern Italy in contrast to "Italian". So the article's wording goes beyond the source by turning Dio's contrast about Trajan into a direct statement about Nerva.
In short: Dio's text supports that Trajan was contrasted with an "Italian or Italot," but it does not support the stronger claim that Cassius Dio states Nerva was an Italiot.
2 sources
- Cassius Dio — Epitome of Book 68
"After Domitian, the Romans appointed Nerva Cocceius emperor." ... "nor was he less inclined to adopt Trajan because the latter was a Spaniard instead of an Italian or Italot".
- Marie-Laure Freyburger-Galland, "L'Italie vue par Dion Cassius"
"Chez Dion Cassius encore, le terme, qui n'est attesté qu'une fois, il est vrai, désigne les anciens colons grec d'Italie du Sud et s'oppose à 'italien'" (At Cassius Dio, the term, attested only once, designates the ancient Greek colonists of southern Italy and is opposed to 'Italian').