In the opening chapter of his thirty-sixth oration, Dio Chrysostom tells his listeners how in the course of a journey ‘through the lands of the Scythians to that of the Getae’, he stopped over in the city of Borysthenes (Olbia) ‘in the summer after my exile’ (τὸ θέρος … μετὰ τὴν φυγήν).Footnote ¹ Dio had been exiled by Domitian, probably in a.d. 83 or 84; since his exile ended after the death of Domitian in September 96, it is generally accepted that his visit to Borysthenes took place in the summer of 97.Footnote ²

This seemingly straightforward dating, however, disagrees with the information found elsewhere in the writings of Dio. Later in the thirty-sixth oration, a certain Hieroson, an ‘old and respected’ citizen of Borysthenes expresses both his pleasure at Dio's visit to their city and his hope that ‘your time (with us) will not be long, and that you will be lucky and return home as soon as possible’ (Or. 36.25 οὐ μέντοι πολύν τινα χρόνον ἡγούμεθα ἔσεσθαι τοῦτον οὐδὲ βουλόμεθα, ἀλλά σε εὖ πράξαντα οἴκαδε κατελθεῖν τὴν ταχίστην). This seems to imply that, for the moment, Dio is not free to return to his homeland.Footnote ³

In his twelfth or ‘Olympian’ oration, Dio describes a journey ‘to the Danube and the lands of the Getae’ (Or. 12.16–19):

The speech was held in Olympia during the Games,Footnote ⁵ and 97 was an Olympic year, but Borysthenes and Olympia are 1,300 km apart as the crow flies. If Dio's visit to Borysthenes took place in the summer of a.d. 97, as the majority view would have it, it is difficult to see how Dio could have been in Olympia by August of the same year.

In the first ‘Discourse on Kingship’, Dio relates how, wandering over the Peloponnese in the guise of a beggar, he met an old woman with prophetic powers who foretold him ‘that the time of wandering and sufferings shall not last much longer, neither for yourself nor for the rest of mankind’ (Or. 1.55 ὅτι οὐ πολὺς χρόνος ἔσοιτό μοι τῆς ἄλης καὶ τῆς ταλαιπωρίας, οὔτε σοί, εἶπεν, οὔτε τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις). This obvious reference to the impending death of Domitian places Dio's encounter with the prophetess in a.d. 95 or 96, and no later than the summer of 96 (Domitian died in September).

Von Arnim, in accordance with other editors before and after his time,Footnote ⁶ took μετὰ τὴν φυγήν in 36.1 to be a later interpolation. The elimination of the phrase would allegedly resolve the apparent contradiction between 36.1 and 36.25:Footnote ⁷ the visit to Borysthenes described in Or. 36 took place at a date when Dio was still in exile. Von Arnim would therefore place it in the summer of 95,Footnote ⁸ whereas the most recent commentator, Nesselrath, argues in favour of 96.Footnote ⁹ Either hypothesis would give Dio sufficient time to reach Olympia in time to report on his ‘recent journey’ at the Olympics of 97.

An entirely different approach to the problem is taken by C.P. Jones. Rejecting the excision of μετὰ τὴν φυγήν as ‘a desperate measure’,Footnote ¹⁰ Jones postulates two journeys to the northern Black Sea: one in 96–97 and a later one in 101—an Olympic year—where Dio travelled ‘in the emperor's entourage’,Footnote ¹¹ this latter journey being the one described in Or. 12. It was during the first voyage that Dio learned of Domitian's death; on the homeward leg of his journey, he stopped over in Borysthenes in the summer of 97. Although this eliminates the apparent chronological incompatibilities between Or. 12 and Or. 36, it fails to resolve the internal contradictions within Or. 36.1 and 36.25; if Dio had arrived in Borysthenes with the news that his banishment had been lifted, Hieroson's words seem out of place. Furthermore, to Dio's Prusan audience, the ‘end’ of Dio's exile would be the date on which he returned to his hometown; thus, to their ears, an event taking place on Dio's way home would not be ‘after the exile’.

In fact, it is highly unlikely that Dio visited either Olympia or Borysthenes in the summer of 97. A section of the forty-fifth oration, held in Prusa, is devoted to an apologia for his inactivity in that year (Οr. 45.2):

If Dio had returned to Prusa in the summer of 97 after more than ten years of absence, he could not, and would not, be expected to embark on a new, long journey before October 1 (the latest possible departure date to be sure of reaching Rome before the end of the sailing season). Had he spent the summer in Borysthenes, he would not need to excuse his inaction on grounds of ill health; had it been spent in Olympia, he could not claim to have been too ill to travel. Nerva died in January 98, and by the time the sailing season opened, news of the emperor's death had reached Prusa and forced Dio to cancel his travel plans.

A third possibility, which has received little attention,Footnote ¹² is that μετὰ τὴν φυγήν in Or. 36 refers not to the conclusion of Dio's exile, but to its beginning, that is the date of his banishment from Rome.

The word φυγή is an action noun derived from the root of φεύγω. It may denote flight or escape in the face of an enemy or some other imminent peril, but in post-Homeric Greek it also signifies the expulsion from one's native country as a punishment or a political measure. According to aspect and context, the verb may describe either the action of ‘going into exile’ or the state of ‘being in exile’.Footnote ¹³ The noun φυγή has the same semantic range: in addition to the older meaning ‘flight, escape’, it also denotes an ‘exile’, and both meanings may be analysed either as an action or as a state, according to context.

The two different meanings may be illustrated by two examples from Thucydides: δι᾽ ὃ δὴ καὶ ἡ φυγὴ αὐτῷ ἐγένετο ἐκ Σπάρτης δόξαντι χρήμασι πεισθῆναι τὴν ἀναχώρησιν, ‘therefore he had to go into exile from Sparta, because he was thought to have been bribed into withdrawing’ (Hist. 2.21.1) ~ καὶ γενομένῳ παρ᾽ ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς πράγμασι, καὶ οὐχ ἧσσον τοῖς Πελοποννησίων διὰ τὴν φυγήν, καθ᾽ ἡσυχίαν τι αὐτῶν μᾶλλον αἰσθέσθαι, ‘since I was present at both sides, especially among the Peloponnesians due to my exile, I could observe things there quietly’ (Hist. 5.26.5).

In other words, since φυγή can mean both ‘going into exile’ and ‘being in exile’, the question is whether our particular context would make one interpretation more natural than the other. Most interpreters have taken it for granted, though without stating it explicitly, that the phrase μετὰ τὴν φυγήν would automatically carry the latter meaning, since the preposition μετά ‘after’ would force us to see the exile as something completed and therefore as a state in the past. In English, a phrase such as ‘after his exile’ would have this meaning in most cases, even though an internet search yields examples which imply that the exile is in fact still a reality at the time of the action in question (for instance, ‘This scene takes place in Mantua, where Romeo is staying after his exile’).Footnote ¹⁴

In his commentary to Or. 36, D.A. Russell points to Or. 40.12 as an argument against the authenticity of the phrase μετὰ τὴν φυγήν:Footnote ¹⁵ καὶ γὰρ ἦν γελοῖον μετὰ φυγὴν οὕτως μακρὰν καὶ πράγματα τοσαῦτα καὶ τύραννον ἐχθρὸν δεῦρο ἀφικόμενον … ἔπειτα ἐνταῦθα ὥσπερ ἐν λιμένι ναυαγεῖν, ‘it was ridiculous, after such a long exile, so many troubles and a tyrannical foe, to return home … and then to suffer shipwreck here’. The line of thought seems to be that, if Dio uses μετὰ φυγήν in the meaning ‘after (the end of) the exile’ in one speech, he would not have used μετὰ τὴν φυγήν in the meaning ‘during the exile’ in another speech. Russell implies that the preposition μετά determines the aspect of the noun—at least in Dio's own idiom.

We have surveyed all examples where μετά is combined with φυγήν in Greek texts until a.d. 300. There are several examples where the most straightforward interpretation is in fact ‘after his exile ended’:

• • Isocrates, De bigis 11.7: πάντων δ᾽ ἂν εἴη δεινότατον, εἰ τοῦ πατρὸς μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν δωρεὰν λαβόντος ἐγὼ διὰ τὴν ἐκείνου φυγὴν ζημιωθείην (‘the worst thing would be if, whereas my father was recompensed after his exile, I was punished owing to his exile’).

• • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Dinarchus 3: ἱστοριῶν τῶν Φιλοχόρου καὶ ἐξ ὧν αὐτὸς περὶ αὐτοῦ ξυνέγραψεν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ κατὰ Προξένου, ὃς εἴρηται μὲν μετὰ τὴν φυγήν (‘according to Philochorus and what he has written himself in the speech against Proxenus, which he delivered after the exile’).

• • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Dinarchus 9: ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἀναγκαία πρὸς ταῦτα ἡ τῶν χρόνων διάγνωσις, τοὺς Ἀθήνησιν ἄρξαντας, ἀφ᾽ οὗ Δείναρχον ὑπεθέμεθα γεγονέναι χρόνου, μέχρι τῆς δοθείσης αὐτῷ μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν καθόδου, γενομένους ἑβδομήκοντα, προθήσομεν (‘since it is necessary to know the age, we will start with the archons of Athens from the time where I have put Dinarchus' birth until he was allowed to return after the exile, all in all seventy years’).

• • Plutarch, Alcibiades 32.2: οὔτ᾽ εἰκὸς ἦν οὕτως ἐντρυφῆσαι τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις μετὰ φυγὴν καὶ συμφορὰς τοσαύτας κατερχόμενον (‘Alcibiades would hardly have treated the Athenians with such contempt after an exile and such calamities’).

• • Plutarch, Cicero 33.7: κατῄει δὲ Κικέρων ἑκκαιδεκάτῳ μηνὶ μετὰ τὴν φυγήν (‘Cicero returned home fifteen months after his exile’).

• • Dio Chrysostom, Oratio 40.12: quoted above.

• • Appian, Bellum Civile 1.8.75: τοῦ δ᾽ ἐπιόντος ἔτους ὕπατοι μὲν ᾕρηντο Κίννας τε αὖθις καὶ Μάριος ἕβδομον, ᾧ μετὰ φυγὴν καὶ ἐπικήρυξιν … τὸ μάντευμα ὅμως ἀπήντα τὸ τῶν ἑπτὰ νεογνῶν ἀετῶν (‘the following year Cinna was elected consul for the second and Marius for the seventh time; after an exile and a proscription, the latter saw the fulfilment of the prophecy of the seven young eagles’).

However, there are many more examples where the events take place after the beginning of an exile or a flight, but before the person returns to the place he had been forced to leave:

• • Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca 30.22.1: ὅτι ὁ Αἰμίλιος μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν Περσέως ἐπεζήτει τὸν νεώτερον τῶν υἱῶν Πόπλιον Ἀφρικανόν (‘after the flight of Perseus, Aemilius looked for his younger son, Publius Africanus’).

• • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 8.29.1: καὶ μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν οὐκ ἀπεστράφητέ με καταφρονήσει τῆς τότε τύχης (‘not even after my exile did you turn away from me and look down on my fate at the time’).

• • Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae 7.267: μετὰ γὰρ τὴν Δαυίδου φυγὴν οὔτε ἀπεκείρατο λυπούμενος οὔτ᾽ ἐκάθηρε τὴν ἐσθῆτα (‘after the flight of David, he was so sad that he did not cut his hair, nor did he wash his clothes’).

• • Plutarch, Aristides 26.2: μετὰ γὰρ τὴν Θεμιστοκλέους φυγήν φησιν ὥσπερ ἐξυβρίσαντα τὸν δῆμον ἀναφῦσαι πλῆθος συκοφαντῶν (‘after the exile of Themistocles, the people were insolent and produced an abundance of sycophants’).

• • Plutarch, Camillus 23.2: τὸ δὲ πλεῖστον αὐτῶν καὶ μάλιστα συντεταγμένον ἐχώρει πρὸς τὴν Ἀρδεατῶν πόλιν, ἐν ᾗ διέτριβε Κάμιλλος ἀργῶν ταῖς πράξεσι μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν καὶ ἰδιωτεύων (‘the largest and best organized of them marched against the city of Ardea, where Camillus had been staying since his exile, as a private man without any business of his own’).

• • Plutarch, Eumenes 6.1: ὁ Νεοπτόλεμος δὲ μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν ἀφικόμενος πρὸς αὐτούς, τήν τε μάχην ἀπήγγελλε καὶ παρεκάλει βοηθεῖν (‘Neoptolemus came to them after his flight, told them about the battle and asked for their help’).

• • Plutarch, Themistocles 21.5: πολὺ δ᾽ ἀσελγεστέρᾳ καὶ ἀναπεπταμένῃ μᾶλλον εἰς τὸν Θεμιστοκλέα βλασφημίᾳ κέχρηται μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν καταδίκην ὁ Τιμοκρέων (‘Timocreon's slander against Themistocles was much more uninhibited and extravagant after the latter's exile and condemnation’).

• • Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica 230F: ἐπαινοῦντος δ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐν Τεγέᾳ μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους, εἶπέ τις ‘διὰ τί οὖν οὐκ ἔμενες ἐν Σπάρτῃ ἀλλ᾽ ἔφυγες;’ (‘when he commended the Spartans in Tegea after his exile, someone said: “Why did you go into exile instead of staying in Sparta?”’).

• • Plutarch, De tranquillitate animi 467C: ἐφυγαδεύθη Διογένης· ‘οὐδ᾽ οὕτως κακῶς’· ἤρξατο γὰρ φιλοσοφεῖν μετὰ τὴν φυγήν (‘Diogenes was exiled: “That is not that bad.” For he started his career as a philosopher after his exile’).

• • Plutarch, De exilio 601F: οὗτος μὲν γὰρ ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν πρῶτος ὢν τῶν Πτολεμαίου φίλων οὐ μόνον αὐτὸς ἐν ἀφθόνοις διῆγεν ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις δωρεὰς ἔπεμπε (‘after his exile Demetrius was first among Ptolemy's friends in Alexandria, where he did not only live a rich life himself but he could also send presents to Athens’).

• • Appian, Historia Macedonica 16.1: ὅτι Περσεὺς ἀναθαρρῶν ἤδη κατ᾽ ὀλίγον μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν Νικίαν καὶ Ἀνδρόνικον … ἀπέκτεινεν ἀθεμίστως (‘Perseus had now regained his courage after his flight and murdered Nicias and Andronicus unlawfully’).

• • Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae 43.9.1: Καῖσαρ δὲ τό τε σταύρωμα εὐθὺς μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν αὐτοῦ ἔλαβε, καὶ φόνον πλεῖστον τῶν προστυχόντων ἁπάντων σφίσιν ἐποίησεν (‘Caesar took the palisade immediately after his flight and killed all who stood in their way’).

• • Pausanias, Graeciae descriptio 1.25.8: Δημήτριος δὲ ὁ Ἀντιγόνου τυράννων ἐλευθερώσας Ἀθηναίους τό τε παραυτίκα μετὰ τὴν Λαχάρους φυγὴν οὐκ ἀπέδωκέ σφισι τὸν Πειραιᾶ καὶ ὕστερον πολέμῳ κρατήσας ἐσήγαγεν ἐς αὐτὸ φρουρὰν τὸ ἄστυ (‘after the liberation of Athens, Demetrius did not give them back Piraeus immediately after Lachares’ exile, and later he defeated them and put a garrison in the city’).

• • Acta Pauli et Theclae 1: ἀναβαίνοντος Παύλου εἰς Ἰκόνιον μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν τὴν ἀπὸ Ἀντιοχείας ἐγενήθησαν σύνοδοι αὐτῷ Δημᾶς καὶ Ἑρμογένης ὁ χαλκεύς (‘when Paul went up to Iconium after his flight from Antioch, he had Demas and the smith Hermogenes with him as his companions’).

• • Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 12.535c: μετὰ δὲ τὴν φυγὴν κυρίους Ἀθηναίους ποιήσας τοῦ Ἑλλησπόντου καὶ πλείους τῶν πεντακισχιλίων Πελοποννησίους λαβὼν ἀνέπεμψεν εἰς τὰς Ἀθήνας (‘after he went into exile he made the Athenians masters of the Hellespont and he captured more than 5,000 Peloponnesians and sent them to Athens’).

• • [Phalaris], Epistulae 51.1: ὁ γὰρ τὰ μέγιστά με τῶν κακῶν ἐργασάμενος οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ μετὰ τὴν ἐμὴν φυγὴν Ἐρύθειαν τὴν γυναῖκα, βουλομένην ἐμὲ διώκειν, ἀναινομένην δὲ τούτῳ γήμασθαι, φαρμάκῳ διαφθείρας (‘I have suffered the most harm from the man who, after my exile, poisoned and killed my wife, when she wanted to follow me and rejected his proposals’).

• • [Themistocles], Epistulae 20: ταῦτ᾽ ἔστιν, ὦ Πολύγνωτε, τὰ συμβάντα ἡμῖν μετὰ τὴν ἐξ Ἄργους φυγήν (‘this is, Polygnotus, what happened to me after my exile from Argos’).

There can be no doubt that Plutarch believes that Diogenes is still away from Sinope when he lives as a philosopher, or that Demetrius of Phalerum is away from Athens when he lives a luxurious life in Alexandria and sends presents back to Athens. Athenaeus describes the deeds of Alcibiades on behalf of Athens before he actually returns to his hometown (the text continues with the words κατιών τε μετὰ ταῦτα εἰς πατρίδα). The writer of [Phalaris’] letter is certainly not at home when his enemy murders his wife.

In all these cases, the correct interpretation is determined by the context, not by the combination μετά + φυγήν. In seven cases (three of them without the article), the exile is seen as a state which is now completed,Footnote ¹⁶ and the person has returned to his previous location. In seventeen cases, on the other hand, the exile or flight is portrayed as a single event, and the actions take place as a consequence of this event.

In the light of this evidence, the most probable way to translate the sentence ἐτύγχανον μὲν ἐπιδημῶν ἐν Βορυσθένει τὸ θέρος, ὡς τότε εἰσέπλευσα μετὰ τὴν φυγήν would be ‘Well, I resided in Borysthenes during summertime, since I had travelled there after I went into exile …’

The established view that Dio's journey(s) to the Scythians fell at the end of his exile goes back to an anecdote in Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists,Footnote ¹⁷ according to which Dio found himself in an army camp at the time of Domitian's death; when a mutiny threatened, he stripped off his rags and jumped naked on to an altar, from which he gave an impromptu address that calmed the unruly soldiers. Though Philostratus provides no hints whatsoever as to the location of this camp, von Arnim identified it as Viminacium (Kostolac) on the Danube frontier,Footnote ¹⁸ thus reconciling, after a fashion, Philostratus’ account with the twelfth oration of Dio. Such a procedure was very much in the tradition of nineteenth-century positivism and Quellenforschung. An alternative approach would analyse the narratives provided by Philostratus and by Dio as distinct biographies, each with its own plot structure and its own interpretations.

Philostratus does not think much of Dio's exile (VS 488):

Clearly, Philostratus had read some of Dio's orations: the thirty-sixth, the only oration to link Dio's φυγή with his journey to the Getae, and the ‘Kingship’ orations (1–4) addressed to Trajan.Footnote ¹⁹ On the other hand, he clearly was not familiar with the twelfth oration, where Dio describes himself as unable to dig a trench, nor the thirteenth oration ‘On his exile’, where Dio relates how an influential friend was executed on suspicion of maiestas while Dio was sentenced to exile (13.1). He travelled, we are told, to Delphi to seek the advice of the oracle, which told him to continue his work ἐπὶ τὸ ὕστατον … τῆς γῆς, ‘to the end of the earth’.Footnote ²⁰ Philostratus knows nothing of all this; he simply assumes that Dio fled Italy to escape Domitian's ban on philosophers in a.d. 93.Footnote ²¹

Yet while the content of Philostratus’ story may be dubious, its plot is at least coherent. Domitian banishes philosophers (93); Dio leaves Rome and goes on a journey to the Getae (94); on his return, he works as a manual labourer and visits army camps, in one of which he quells an incipient mutiny (96).

That Philostratus’ biography follows a coherent storyline is not, however, to say that it provides a credible narrative of actual events taking place a century earlier. Parts of it are contradicted by contemporary sourcesFootnote ²² and are probably fabrications by the author himself. Even less reliable is the account of Synesius, whose main concern is to present an idealized portrait of Dio as a person who underwent a spiritual conversion from ‘sophistry’ to ‘philosophy’ as a result of his experiences in exile.Footnote ²³

Attempting to combine the accounts of Philostratus and Synesius with that of Dio, von Arnim and later scholars produced a narrative that is far from coherent. First, Dio is banished from Rome by the emperor (83 or 84) and goes to Delphi, where Apollo tells him to keep going until he reaches ‘the end of the earth’. Having received his answer from the oracle, Dio now dawdles for ten years before finally setting off to the Getae (96) at a time when, thanks to the old woman's prophecy, he knows the end of his exile to be approaching. The year 97 has too many events (Olympic games, visit to Borysthenes, illness) to fit into one summer and we are forced either to emend Or. 36 (von Arnim, Russell, Nesselrath) or to introduce one or several hypothetical journey(s) not mentioned in any of Dio's other speeches (Jones, Bost-Pouderon).

If, on the other hand, the interpretation of μετὰ τὴν φυγήν in Or. 36.1 proposed in this paper is followed, and we limit ourselves to the evidence of Dio's own works—excluding the second- or third-hand information of Philostratus and Synesius—a coherent narrative emerges: Dio is banished (a.d. 83); he goes to Delphi, then, taking the advice of the oracle, sets off to ‘the end of the earth’. Crossing the Black Sea by boat, he arrives in Borysthenes in the summer of 84 (‘the summer after my exile’). From Borysthenes, he makes his way overland to the Scythians and the Getae; he visits an army camp on the Danube frontier (a.d. 85) and reaches Greece in time to give the twelfth oration (describing the journey which he has just completed) during the Olympic Games of 85. At some time between 85 and 95, he undertakes a voyage to Cyzicus to meet his friends, but is careful not to enter his home province.Footnote ²⁴ In 95 or early in 96, the end of his exile is prophesied by an old woman whom he meets in the Peloponnese. At the death of Domitian, Dio travels to Prusa (96) and, after setting his domestic affairs in order, prepares for a journey to Rome the following summer, but this voyage is postponed owing to Dio's illness (97), then cancelled after the death of Nerva (98).