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Perseus Encyclopedia
Diodorus, (Diodoros). An historian, surnamed Siculus, because
born at Agyrium in Sicily, and the contemporary of Iulius Caesar and Augustus.
Our principal data for the events of his life are derived from his own work. In
early life he travelled into Asia, Africa, and Europe, and on his return established
himself at Rome, where he published a general history, in forty books, under the
title of Bibliotheke Historike, or Historical Library. To this labour he devoted
thirty years of his life. The history comprehended a period of 1138 years, besides
the time preceding the Trojan War, and was carried down to the end of Caesar's
Gallic war. His work was written after the death of Caesar. The first six books
were devoted to the fabulous history anterior to the war of Troy, and of these
the three former to the antiquities of barbarian States, the three latter to the
archaeology of the Greeks. But the historian, though treating of the fabulous
history of the barbarians in the first three books, enters into an account of
their manners and usages, and carries down the history of these nations to a point
of time posterior to the Trojan War. Thus, in the first book he gives a sketch
of Egyptian history from the reign of Menes to Amasis. In the eleven following
books he details the different events which happened between the Trojan War and
the death of Alexander the Great; while the remaining twenty-three books contain
the history of the world down to the Gallic War and the conquest of Britain. We
have only a small part remaining of this vast compilation--namely, the first five
books; then from the eleventh to the twentieth, both inclusive; and, finally,
fragments of the other books from the sixth to the tenth inclusive, and also of
the last twenty. These rescued portions we owe to Eusebius; to John Malalas, Georgius
Syncellus, and other writers of the Lower Empire, who have cited them in the course
of their own works; but, above all, to the authors of the "Extracts respecting
Embassies" and of the "Extracts respecting Virtues and Vices."We
are indebted also for a part of them to the patriarch Photius, who has inserted
in his Myriobiblon extracts from several of the books, from the thirtyfirst to
the thirty-third, and from the thirty-sixth to the thirty-eighth and fortieth.
Important additions have also been made from MSS. in the Vatican Library.
A great advantage possessed by Diodorus over most of the ancient
historians is his indicating the order of time, though it must be acknowledged
at the same time that his chronology offers occasional difficulties and often
needs educing. Diodorus, who wrote at Rome, and at a period when the dominion
of that city extended over the greater part of the civilized world, arranges his
narrative in accordance with the Roman calendar and consular fasti; but he frequently
adds the names of the Athenian archons who were contemporaneous.
With regard to the historical value of the work itself and
the merits of the author, the most varying opinions have been entertained by modern
writers. The principal fault of Diodorus seems to have been the too great extent
of his work. It was not possible for any man living in the time of Augustus to
write an unexceptionable universal history. It is not, then, a matter of surprise
that Diodorus, who does not appear to have been a man of superior abilities, should
have fallen into a number of particular errors and should have placed too much
reliance on authorities sometimes far from trustworthy. Wherever he speaks from
his own observation he may, perhaps, generally be relied upon; but when he is
compiling from the writings of others he has shown little judgment in the selection.
The literary style of Diodorus, though not very pure or elegant, is sufficiently
perspicuous and presents but few difficulties, except where the MSS. are defective,
as is frequently the case.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Diodorus. The Sicilian, usually called Diodorus Siculus, was a contemporary of
Caesar and Augustus. (Suid. s. v. Diodoros; Euseb. Chron. ad Ann. 1967.) He was
born in the town of Agyrium in Sicily, where he became acquainted with the Latin
language through the great intercourse between the Romans and Sicilians. Respecting
his life we know no more than what he himself tells us (i. 4). He seems to have
made it the business of his life to write an universal history from the earliest
down to his own time. With this object in view, he travelled over a great part
of Europe and Asia to gain a more accurate knowledge of nations and countries
than he could obtain from previous historians and geographers. For a long time
he lived at Rome, and there also he made large collections of materials for his
work by studying the ancient documents. He states, that he spent thirty years
upon his work, which period probably includes the time he spent in travelling
and collecting materials. As it embraced the history of all ages and countries,
and thus supplied the place, as it were, of a whole library, he called it Bibliotheke,
or, as Eusebius (Praep. Evang. i. 6) says, Bibliotheke historike. The time at
which he wrote his history may be determined pretty accurately from internal evidence
: he not only mentions Caesar's invasion of Britain and his crossing the Rhine,
but also his death and apotheosis (i. 4, iv. 19, v. 21, 25) : he further states
(i. 44, comp. 83), that he was in Egypt in 01.190, that is, B. C. 20; and Scaliger
(Animadu. ad Euscb.) has made it highly probable that Diodorus wrote his work
after the year B. C. 8, when Augustus corrected the calendar and introduced the
intercalation every fourth year.
The whole work of Diodorus consisted of forty books, and embraced
the period from the earliest mythical ages down to the beginning of J. Caesar's
Gallic wars. Diodorus himself further mentions, that the work was divided into
three great sections. The first, which consisted of the first six books, contains
the history of the mythical times previous to the Trojan war. The first books
of this section treat of the mythuses of foreign countries, and the latter books
of those of the Greeks. The second section consisted of eleven books, which contained
the history from the Trojan war down to the death of Alexander the Great; and
the third section, which contained the remaining 23 books, treated of the history
from the death of Alexander down to the beginning of Caesar's Gallic wars. Of
this great work considerable portions are now lost. The first five books, which
contain the early history of the Eastern nations, the Egyptians, Aethiopians,
and Greeks, are extant entire; the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth books
are lost; but from the eleventh down to the twentieth the work is complete again,
and contains the history from the second Persian war, B. C. 480, down to the year
B. C. 302. The remaining portion of the work is lost, with the exception of a
considerable number of fragments and the Excerpta, which are preserved partly
in Photius (Bibl. Cod. 244), who gives extracts from books 31, 32, 33, 36, 37,
38, and 40, and partly in the Eclogae made at the command of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
from which they have successively been published by H. Stephens, Fulv. Ursinus,
Valesius, and A. Mai. (Collect. Nova Script. ii.) The work of Diodorus is constructed
upon the plan of annals, and the events of each year are placed by the side of
one another without any internal connexion. In composing his Bibliotheca, Diodorus
made use, independent of his own observations, of all sources which were accessible
to him; and had he exercised any criticism or judgment, or rather had he possessed
any critical powers, his work might have been of incalculable value to the student
of history. But Diodorus did nothing but collect that which he found in his different
authorities : he thus jumbled together history, mythus, and fiction; he frequently
misunderstood or mutilated his authorities, and not seldom contradicts in one
passage what he has stated in another. The absence of criticism is manifest throughout
the work, which is in fact devoid of all the higher requisites of a history. But
notwithstanding all these drawbacks, the extant portion of this great compilation
is to us of the highest importance, on account of the great mass of materials
which are there collected from a number of writers whose works have perished.
Diodorus frequently mentions his authorities, and in most cases he has undoubtedly
preserved the substance of his predecessors. (See Heyne, de Fontibus et Auctorib.
Hist. Diodori, in the Commentat. Societ. Gotting. vols. v. and vii., and reprinted
in the Bipont edition of Diodorus, vol. i., which also contains a minute account
of the plan of the history by J. N. Eyring) The style of Diodorus is on the whole
clear and lucid, but not always equal, which may be owing to the different character
of the works he used or abridged. His diction holds the middle between the archaic
or refined Attic, and the vulgar Greek which was spoken in his time. (Phot. Bibl.
Cod. 70.)
The work of Diodorus was first published in Latin translations of
separate parts, until Vinc. Opsopaeus published the Greek text of books 16-20,
Basel, 1539, 4to., which was followed by H. Stephens's edition of books 1-5 and
11-20, with the excerpta of Photius, Paris, 1559, fol. The next important edition
is that of N. Rhodomannus (Hanover, 1604, fol.), which contains a Latin translation.
The great edition of P. Wesseling, with an extensive and very valuable commentary,
as well as the Eclogae of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, as far as they were then
known, appeared at Amsterdam, 1746, 2 vols. fol. This edition was reprinted, with
some additions, at Bipont (1793, &c.) in 11 vols. 8vo. The best modern edition
is that of L. Dindorf, Leipzig, 1828, 6 vols. 8vo. The new fragments discovered
and published by A. Mai were edited, with many improvements, in a separate volume
by L. Dindorf, Leipzig, 1828, 8vo. Wesseling's edition and the Bipont reprint
of it contain 65 Latin letters attributed to Diodorus. They had first been published
in Italian in Pietro Carrera's Storia di Catana, 1639, fol., and were then printed
in a Latin version by Abraham Preiger in Burmann's Thesaur. Antig. Sicil. vol.
x. and in the old edition of Fabr. Bibl. Gr. vol. xiv. p. 229, &c. The Greek original
of these letters has never been seen by any one, and there can be little doubt
but that these letters are a forgery made after the revival of letters. (Fabr.
Bibl. Gr. iv.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Diodorus: Perseus Project index
Editor's Information
The e-texts of the works by Diodorus are found in Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings.
Diodorus Siculus: Various WebPages
Diodorus Siculus was born on Sicily
and was a contemporary of Julius Caesar, Marc Anthony, Cleopatra and Augustus.
Diodorus wrote the Historical Library, Bibliotheca Historica,
which was a history of the world in 40 books. This work has only partly survived,
for example his description of Alexander the Great's giant funeral procession.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
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