DIODORUS SICULUS

flourished 1st century BC, , Agyrium, Sicily Greek historian, the author of a universal history, Bibliotheca historica. Diodorus lived in the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, and his own statements make it clear that he travelled in Egypt during 6057 BC and spent several years in Rome. The latest event mentioned by him belongs to the year 21 BC. His history consisted of 40 books and was divided into three parts. The first treats of the mythic history of the non-Hellenic and Hellenic tribes to the destruction of Troy; the second ends with Alexander's death; and the third continues the history as far as the beginning of Caesar's Gallic War. The Bibliotheca, invaluable where no other continuous historical source has survived, supplies to some extent the loss of the works of earlier authors, from which it was compiled. Diodorus does not always quote his authorities, but in the books that have survived his most important sources for Greek history were certainly Ephorus (for 480340 BC) and Hieronymus of Cardia (for 323302).