Library of History, Volume XII

Remains of a universal chronicle. Diodorus Siculus, Greek historian of Agyrium in Sicily (ca. 8020 BC), wrote forty books of world history, called Library of History, in three parts: mythical history of peoples, non-Greek and Greek, to the Trojan War; history to Alexander's death (323 BC); history to 54 BC. Of this we have complete Books 15 (Egyptians, Assyrians, Ethiopians, Greeks) and Books 1120 (Greek history 480302 BC); and fragments of the rest. He was an uncritical compiler, but used good sources and reproduced them faithfully. He is valuable for details unrecorded elsewhere, and as evidence for works now lost, especially writings of Ephorus, Apollodorus, Agatharchides, Philistus, and Timaeus. The Loeb Classical Library edition of Diodorus Siculus is in twelve volumes.