Diodorus Siculus (90 - 21 BC)
Diodorus Siculus was a Sicilian Greek historian who lived from 90 to 21 BC. He wrote, a world history in 40 books, ending it near the time of his death with Caesar's Gallic Wars. Fully preserved are Books I-V and XI-XX, which cover Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Scythian, Arabian, and North African history and parts of Greek and Roman history.
His histories, while not considered great scholarly material in their own right, borrowed heavily from other writers whose works are now lost. In this regard, Siculus is valuable as a historical record for those writers who came before him.
Works:
- Bibliotheca Historica Library of History. Surviving books cover the ancient Egyptian, Assyrians, Ethiopians and Greeks up to about 302 BC.
Did you know...
Diodorus Siculus wrote down the story of the Amazons and their myth of the great Atlantis.