Diodorus of Sicily lived in the time of Julius Caesar. He is considered an ancient Greek historian. The work of his whole life, called the “Historical Library”, is used by modern scholars of the past as the main source of information. What is known about the historian of antiquity and his outstanding work?
Information about the life of Diodorus
Diodorus of Sicily was from a Sicilian place called Aguirius. He lived in the period 90-30. BC.
He spent a long time in Rome, visited a significant part of Europe and Asia. Around the 50s BC, he visited Egypt. Diodorus of Sicily mentions Egypt in unflattering form. He described the reprisal of the crowd with a Roman citizen who accidentally killed a cat - a sacred animal of that land. It happened in the one hundred and eightieth Olympiad.
He created his main work for thirty years. He sought to compose world history. The writer was of high opinion about the work of historians. Believed that they benefit people.
Once Diodorus of Sicily, whose biography contains very little information, decided to collect information from around the world and set it out as the history of a whole state, starting from ancient times to his time.
Sources for the Historical Library
For a long time it was believed that Diodorus used only information taken from Efor for his work on Greek history. Today, the opinions of researchers are mixed. Everyone agrees that the source was not one.
In his work, Diodorus of Sicily collected information from the works of the following authors:
- Herodotus;
- Hecate of Miletus;
- Duris;
- Megasthene;
- Jerome of Cardia.
About eighty sources can be claimed. Their choice can be called successful. Diodorus did not just rewrite them, he combined information, supplementing it from several sources. However, there is practically no criticism in his work. In addition, the researchers found that sometimes he twice talks about the same event, but as different stories.
Structure of the work
Diodorus of Sicily composed his work from forty books. It is written in ancient Greek.
Books from the first to the fifth and from the eleventh to the twentieth have completely reached our days. All his work is divided into blocks, each includes five books. The block is called the pentad. What can be learned in each block?
Book's contents
The author described the events that occurred with the ancient states before the Gallic war during Julius Caesar.
A brief description of the first four pentads:
- The ancient history of the states of the East and Greece is revealed, events are intertwined with myths.
- A review of the archaic history of Greece with Rome is given from the moment of the Trojan War until the Persian ruler Xerxes made a campaign against Greece - the period 1200-480. BC.
- The history of classical Greece is described in detail, namely, the Greek-Persian confrontation, the creation of the Athenian Maritime Union, the time of the Fiftieth Anniversary, the Peloponnesian War - the period 480-360 BC.
- It concerns the events of early Hellenistic times, when the Macedonian hegemony was established, the campaign of Alexander the Great took place, his empire collapsed - the period 360-302 BC.
The remaining pentads are preserved in fragments. In them, the author details the fate of the Hellenistic states, the process of the rise of Rome to the period of successful actions of Julius Caesar.
Chronology
The peculiarity of the work is a unique chronology. Ancient historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides did not use the concept of the historical era, they did not date the events that they set forth.
Diodorus, on the contrary, described events in an analytical way, that is, over the years. As a designation of the year, he indicated the number and time of the Olympics. Today, the year of the First Olympics is considered the 776th BC.
However, there is a lot of confusion in the chronology. This can be partially explained by the fact that the author could describe the event, dating it to one year, despite the fact that it lasted several years. Also, confusion arises due to the fact that the beginning of the Olympics, consulates and archonies did not coincide with each other.
Researchers attempted to sort out the chronological confusion, but they were not effective enough.
The value of labor
The “historical library” of Diodorus of Sicily is a work that, despite its shortcomings, has important historical significance. It is an extensive source with a rich content. Without this work can not do in the study of ancient history. Thanks to the book, historians learned not only about the most important events, but also about the existence of many works of other authors of antiquity.
Some sources became known thanks to Diodorus. Of particular importance is his work for studying the past of Sicily, as well as the history of Hellas. In many moments, Diodorus describes the past more accurately and more accurately than Xenophon. Thanks to him, there is information about the Athenian archons for a fairly long period of time.