ABSTRACT
Diodorus Siculus intended his Bibliotheca Historica, as he tells us (1.4.6; 5.1.4), to be a universal history up to his own day in the mid-first century bce. Originally consisting of forty books, only books 1–5 and 11–20 are extant complete. The Bibliotheca is both the largest surviving Greek history from antiquity and the only surviving large-scale history written in the late republic. Diodorus was not particularly concerned with original scholarship. Rather, he compiled material chosen from the writings of others. As most of these histories are now lost, the information we have from Diodorus is, in many cases, very important. Thus his role as a preserver must not be underestimated. While he has long been seen as a mere copyist, a recent and convincing reappraisal grants Diodorus more responsibility for the ideas and themes of his history than previously allowed. 1
