Diodorus Siculus, the unloved historian

Abstract

Diodorus Siculus, a historian that lived in the first century before the Common Era, wrote a work entitled Library of History constituted of forty volumes from which remained intact only the books I through V (fragments of the books VI through X), and from the books XI through XX (fragments of the books XXI through XL). The author wrote in this monumental work of universal history since the primordial times (including Egyptian history, barbaric peoples history, Greek and Roman history) through his own (last date mentioned by Diodorus concerns the Tauromenion colonization that took place during the reign of Octavian [XVI, VII, 1]). However, Diodorus has never been considered, not even on his own time, nor in the eras after that, an original historian: His writings were considered an inexorable copy of others authors. The focus of this controversy in modern times (starting in the XIX century) was the Quelleforschung (sources research) that intended to search on the diodorian texts for lost authors (that he explicitly quotes in his Library) from the Hellenistic era as if they were solely copied. This research aimed to reclaim the originality of the Library of History seeking to confer to its author the authorship of his writings. Far from being a mere copyist, Diodorus is a historian-educator that seeks to instruct his readers giving a utility character in the learning of a correct and just life.