Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus (os ) ( altgr.: Διόδωρος; Latinized Diodorus [ Siculus ] ) was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the 1st century BC. About his life almost nothing is known. He came from Agyrion in Sicily and has spent some time in Rome and in Egypt ( at the time of the 180th Olympiad, ie in the period 60/59 bis 57/56 BC).

Diodorus' universal history

Diodorus authored in Greek historical work bears the name Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική, Libraries historiké ' ( complete: Διόδωρου Σικελιώτου Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική, lat Diodori Bibliotheca historica Siculi ) and is a universal history in 40 books, of which us the books 1-5 and 11-16 and 18-20 are obtained. The 17th book has some small gaps. The books 6-10 and 21-40 are fragmentary narrated mainly by quotations Byzantine authors. The display ranges from the legendary prehistoric (where he worked mythological tales ) to the time of Caesar ( probably to the year 60/59 BC). It is thus the most comprehensive history book that was written by a Greek in ancient times and has been handed down to us.

Diodorus has made claims to be 30 years traveling and researching. He took in his history on old representations and rewrote it ( for example, missing many speeches that are otherwise typical of ancient historiography ), so that they were easier to understand for the audience. The quality of Diodorus' work varies, but that is also its historical value is not always safe to predict because it depends on the sources used in each case. However, some were undoubtedly of high quality, especially since he apparently heranzog only relevant works. So he used, for example, the otherwise lost from a few fragments of the work of Hieronymus of Cardia, an apparently excellent history of the Diadochi (see below " Diodorus ' sources ' ).

Shortens can say that Diodorus is only as good as his sources, which he calls quite often. His narrative style is vorattizistisch (less embellished and total sober ), although Diodorus style is clear and legible. There are several errors have been identified in his work, such as wrong datings or name confusion that could probably at least partially based on the sources used. Diodorus is also the temporal information of his models are not always followed, as he used a different chronology ( in Olympiads, Archontenjahren and consulates, see below) which had temporal inaccuracies result. His self-written texts have only modest value, but his collection of quotations from lost works is invaluable, because it parts the only source is therefore, have come across the fragments of these books to date on us. Great importance to him is for the period of Philip II of Macedon to the time of the Diadochi, but also for large parts of the 5th century BC, Sicily generally, and partly for the Roman period.

Thus, the work in spite of obvious defects ( as the strong dependence of its templates or editorial errors or inaccuracies ) also undeniable advantages. For some events, it is solely to thank Diodorus, that ever present reports. Overall, its easy to read universal history appears as a notable attempt to at the beginning of the Roman period show the historical tradition more or less uniform.

Diodorus' sources

Diodorus used for his universal history numerous, partly lost, or only fragmentary sources, he apparently remained generally known to the relevant authors. The identification of separately relied works is quite problematic, especially in the earlier research, especially the " Einquellentheorie " dominated. According to Diodorus was followed for one period a source that he had more or less processed mechanically in his work. This thesis has been disputed, however in recent times. So go Klaus Meister and other researchers believe that one can not assume this is the main source, or perhaps several main sources, but rather from a main source and one or more secondary sources, which complemented the presentation. Eduard Schwartz, who has extensively studied the source criticism to Diodorus, said that could be called the Universal History of Diodorus not as work, but only as a compilation. This aspect is evaluated differently today because it can be shown that Diodorus has the amount of material processed relatively independently and thus claims to be pursued the goal to present the deeds of all people in his universal history, which should admonish the reader to virtue ( Diodorus I 1 et seq. ).

Diodorus drew alongside Ctesias of Cnidus and Megasthenes for the Oriental or Indian history approach several other specialty authors. The chronology provided him with an unknown Greek source, dated the events in Olympiads and Archontenjahren as well as Roman consulate years, but probably not always very accurate or detailed was so some chronological errors can be attributed to this fact. For the Greek history in the true sense Diodorus used Ephorus as the main source of Kyme, but was supplemented by other sources. For the West, especially the Timaeus of Tauromenion was used. It is very uncertain whether Diodorus has also used Theopompus of Chios. For the story of Alexander, he relied on Kleitarchos well, he mentioned in question 17 book. The already mentioned Hieronymus of Cardia was then used as Polybius and also apparently Latin sources for the subsequent period. Whether games based on Silenos Kaleakte of Sicily, is controversial in the research, such as the source situation is generally problematic.

The following list contains an (incomplete ) overview of some of the most important sources of Diodorus with details of each article being treated. However, several sources are unknown or lost.

• Hecataeus of Abdera ( History of Egypt )
• Ctesias of Cnidus ( history of Assyria and Persia )
• Megasthenes (India until about 300 BC)
• Skytobrachion Dionysius ( Greek Myths )
• Theopompus of Chios ( use questionable ) ( Hellenika 411-394 BC; Philippika )
• Ephorus of Kyme ( Greek History to 340 BC)
• Kleitarchos (Alexander the Great)
• Hieronymus of Cardia ( Diadochenkriege 323-272 BC)
• Duris of Samos ( Agathocles of Syracuse )
• Timaeus of Tauromenion ( Histories: Sicily, Italy, Epirus, Greece, Syria, Agathocles, Pyrrhus )
• Philinos of Akragas ( Punic Sicily and First War)
• Silenos of Kaleakte? ( Sikelia; Hannibal )
• Polybius (Universal History 264-146 BC)
• Agatharchides ( Asian )
• Posidonius (Universal History 146-79 BC)

Significant historians such as Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon are indeed called by Diodorus as sources, but apparently found only through indirect mediation through other authors input into his work, which probably Ephorus played the most important role.

Text output

• Bibliotheca historica Diodori ( Bibliotheca Teubneriana ). Vol 1 post I. BEKKER / L. Dindorf rec. F. BIRD. Leipzig 1888 ( book 1-4; reprint Stuttgart 1964).
• Vol 2 post I. BEKKER / L. Dindorf rec. F. BIRD. Leipzig 1890 (Book 5-12; reprint Stuttgart 1985).
• Vol 3 post I. BEKKER / L. Dindorf rec. F. BIRD. Leipzig 1893 ( Paper 13-15; reprint Stuttgart 1985).
• Vol 4 post I. BEKKER / L. Dindorf rec. C. Th FISCHER. Leipzig 1906 (Book 16-18; reprint Stuttgart 1964).
• Vol 5 post I. BEKKER / L. Dindorf rec. C. Th FISCHER. Leipzig 1906 (Book 19-20; reprint Stuttgart 1964).
• Vol 6 post I. BEKKER / L. Dindorf rec. C. Th FISCHER. Leipzig 1867/1868 (fragments, index; reprint Stuttgart 1991).

Translations

German

• Diodoros, Greek World History ( Library of Greek literature, Hiersemann -Verlag). Book 1-10, Part 1 (Book 1-3), translated by G. Wirth, introduced and commented by Thadden Nothers, Stuttgart 1992. Directory 1-10, Part 2 (Book 4-10), translated v. O. Veh, introduced and commented by Thadden Nothers, Stuttgart 1993. 11-13 book, translated v. O. Veh, introduced and commented by W. Will, Stuttgart 1998. 14-15 book, translated v. O. Veh, revised, and commented initiated by Thadden Frigo, Stuttgart 2001. Book 16, translated v. O. Veh, revised, and commented initiated by Thadden Frigo, Stuttgart, 2007. Book 17, translated v. . O. Veh, introduced and commented v. M. Böhme, Stuttgart 2009 Paper 18-20, translated v. O. Veh / G. Wirth, introduced and commented v. M. Rathmann, Stuttgart 2005 Book 21. - 40, translated and commented by G. Wirth, Stuttgart 2008.

• Julius Friedrich Wurm: Diodorus of Sicily 's historical library. Metzler, Stuttgart 1831 (Book 1-10) ( Online ), Stuttgart 1832 (Book 11-14) (online), Stuttgart 1838 ( Paper 15-18) (online), Stuttgart 1839 (Book 19-40 ) (online).

English

• The Library of History. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts ( Loeb Classical Library, Greek- English, translated by Charles Henry Oldfather, for the most part online at LacusCurtius )