Diodorus Siculus, Books 11-12.37.1 : : Greek History, 480-431 BC—the Alternative Version.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• TeilnehmendeR: Green, Peter.
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (336 p.)

Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus (ca. 100-30 BCE) is our only surviving source for a continuous narrative of Greek history from Xerxes' invasion to the Wars of the Successors following the death of Alexander the Great. Yet this important historian has been consistently denigrated as a mere copyist who slavishly reproduced the works of earlier historians without understanding what he was writing. By contrast, in this iconoclastic work Peter Green builds a convincing case for Diodorus' merits as a historian. Through a fresh English translation of a key portion of his multi-volume history (the so-called Bibliotheke, or "Library") and a commentary and notes that refute earlier assessments of Diodorus, Green offers a fairer, better balanced estimate of this much-maligned historian. The portion of Diodorus' history translated here covers the period 480-431 BCE, from the Persian invasion of Greece to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. This half-century, known as the Pentekontaetia, was the Golden Age of Periclean Athens, a time of unprecedented achievement in drama, architecture, philosophy, historiography, and the visual arts. Green's accompanying notes and commentary revisit longstanding debates about historical inconsistencies in Diodorus' work and offer thought-provoking new interpretations and conclusions. In his masterful introductory essay, Green demolishes the traditional view of Diodorus and argues for a thorough critical reappraisal of this synthesizing historian, who attempted nothing less than a "universal history" that begins with the gods of mythology and continues down to the eve of Julius Caesar's Gallic campaigns.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION -- Translation and Commentary, Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheke Book 11: 480 – 451 b.c.e. -- Translation and Commentary, Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheke Book 12.1.1–12.37.1: 450 – 431 b.c.e. -- Appendix A: The Terminal Date of the Bibliotheke -- Appendix B: Athenian Losses in the Egyptian Campaign -- Maps (all by Bill Nelson) -- Chronological Table -- Bibliography -- Index