Customer Reviews

Diodorus Siculus: Library of History, Volume XI, Books 21-32 (Loeb Classical Library No. 409)

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The way amazon lists the books of Diodorus makes it hard to find what you want, since some books are listed by the number Diodorus put on them, some by the number Loeb put on them, and two just by date. To get the complete Diodorus in order, here is what you do.

Vol 1 (out of print) = myths of the Egyptians, Etheopeans, Babylonians and Greeks

Vol 2 (out of print) = more myths

Vol 3 only identified here as "1939", end of the myths, beginning of history, lots of fragments.

Vol 4 = Loeb #375 History of the Peloponesian War

Vol 5 = Diodorus #XII.41 Peloponesian War

Vol 6 = Loeb #399 end of the Peloponesian War

Vol 7 = Loeb #389 from 382 B.C. to 345 B.C.

Vol 8 = Diodorus #XVI.66 Later Greek history

Vol 9 = Loeb #377 Later Greek history

Vol 10 = Loeb # 390 Later Greek history

Vol 11 = only identified here as "1957" lots of fragments

Vol 12 = Loeb #423 last of the fragments

When you search for Diodorus, this book pops up on top, which doesn't make much sense, since it is volume 11 of 12.

Diodorus is who you read next, after you have read Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch, and find you just can't get enough ancient history of the Greeks. What I like best is that Diodorus, unlike the others, tells what was happening in Greece and Rome at the same time.

Diodorus wrote 40 books of history, of which Books 1 - 5 and 11 - 20 survive. Each of the 12 Loeb Library books reprints one and a fraction "books", so the numbers don't match up. If you like myth, I recommend starting with Loeb Vol 1. If you prefer history of real events, begin with Diodorus 11, which is roughly Loeb 4 or 5.

The Loeb volumes give the Greek on one page and the translation on the facing page. Since I don't read Greek, it would be nice in Penguin would do a paperback with just the translation, but I haven't seen one yet.

Rick Norwood

Plutarch tends to be moralistic and tangential. Thucydides slows down his narrative with an abundance of detail and set speeches. If you want a good, straightforward "rumpty tumpty" presentation of exciting and dramatic historical events, then Diodorus is your man. He doesn't shy away either from describing violence and brutality when necessary. Plutarch's characterization and Thucydides's clarity are beyond compare, but Diodorus's history can compete because its sweep is so much grander.

This volume from the Loeb Classical Library, Greek on one page, English on the other, is a collection of the surviving fragments of Diodorus's epic history of the years 301 BC to 145 BC. This was a fascinating period in which the great Hellenic Empires were eclipsed by the rising power of the Roman Republic. However, instead of good detailed, descriptive history, we get a selection of disjointed passages. Worse still, these passages are by no means the original work of Diodorus, but distorted abridgements and summaries, rewritten to suit the bigoted tastes of Byzantine monks. This said, there is still much of interest here to the well-read reader who already knows a lot about the era. If you are dipping into the history of this period for the first time, this is not the book for you, although I would highly recommend Diodorus's histories of the period before 301 BC.

This work features incomplete but still enjoyable accounts of Agathocles, the Syracusan tyrant, the Sicilian campaigns of Pyrrhus, the First Punic War, the Carthaginian Conquest of Spain, the Second Punic War, the defeats of Philip V and Antiochus III, the downfall of Perseus, and the destruction of Carthage.

The accounts of the Gaulish eruption into Greece and Asia Minor, and the succession struggles and wars of the Seleucids and Ptolemids are, however, frustratingly patchy.

The choice of the material that survived obviously depended on the whims of monkish chroniclers. An incident like the humiliation of the Seleucid King, Antiochus IV, after his conquest of Egypt, by a Roman embassy, was obviously tailor-made for homilies on pride and so it survives pretty intact. In a similar way, Diodorus's account of some cases of hermaphroditism also appealed to certain monkish sensibilities and is therefore preserved in rather gruesome detail.

As Always with Loeb editions, each page is dated in the side margin so that the chronology of events is always clear.

Alexander the Great, was born on or around July 20, 356 B.C.E., and is my favorite personality to read about in history. To me he is the whole package general, statesman, conqueror, and philosopher. The smartest man who ever lived, Aristotle, tutored him. Alexander conquered more of the known world than any other figure in history, accomplishing all this before he dies at the ripe old age of 33. Some people called him conqueror and violent overlord. Some other called him civilizer and even God! All of them yet, called him "The Great". He was the first man in modern history that took this name, "The Great"! Even as a young boy, he shows great promise.

Diodorus a Greek historian who lived from 80-20 BCE wrote 40 books of world history. He is an uncritical compiler who used good sources and produced them faithfully. His work is one of the oldest works available and is based on eyewitness accounts. He does a better job than most in explaining the battle scenes, and seems to be more balanced in his admiration and criticism of Alexander then any of the other early biographers. I love his Bucephalus Story, and I recount it here so you get a flavor of the promise this young Alexander shows.

The legend begins with Philoneicus, a Thessalian, bringing a wild horse to Philip for him to buy. None of the hands was able to handle it, and Philip grew upset at Philoneicus for bringing such an unstable horse to him. Alexander, however, publicly defied his father and claimed that he could handle the horse. The bet between Philip and Alexander was that if Alexander could ride the horse, Philip would buy it, if not, Alexander would have to pay the price of the horse, which was 13 talents, an enormous sum for a boy of Alexander's age to have.

Alexander apparently noticed that the horse had been shying away from its own shadow, and so he led it gently into the sun, so that its shadow was behind it, all the while stroking it gently and whispering into its ear, (Alexander seems to be the original horse whisperer). Eventually the horse let Alexander mount him, and Alexander was able to show his equestrian skill to his father and all who were watching. The incident so impressed Alexander's father, King Philip that he told the boy "Look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of you, for Macedonia is too little for thee". He named the horse Bucephalus, which means Ox head, and rode it across Asia, founding a city in its honor in India after its death. This story gives you an inkling about the man.

This book is a necessary read for students of Alexander, I also recommend Plutarch's and Arrian's work, and from contemporary writers, J. F. C. Fuller and Tarn. Most of Alexander's greatest military traits are in the area of military logistics and to understand his genius in this area I highly recommend reading, "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army," by Donald W. Engels.

As a retired U. S. Army Major, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in ancient warfare, and history.