A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1016 DIODORUS.
the doctrines of Diodorus we possess only fragmentary information, and not even the titles of
his works are known. It appears, however, certain that it was he who fully developed the
dialectic art of the Megarics, which so frequently degenerated into mere shallow sophistry.
(Cic. Acad. ii. 24, 47.) He seems to have been
much occupied with the theory of proof and of
hypothetical propositions. In the same manner as
he rejected in logic the divisibility of the fundamental notion, he also maintained, in his physical
doctrines, that space was indivisible, and consequently that motion was a thing impossible. He
further denied the coming into existence and all
multiplicity both in time and in space; but he
considered the things that fill up space as one
whole composed of an infinite number of indivisible
particles. In this latter respect he approached the
atomistic doctrines of Democritus and Diagoras.
In regard to things possible, he maintained that
only those things are possible which actually are or
will be; possible was, further, with him identical
with necessary; hence everything which is not
going to be cannot be, and all that is, or is going
to be, is necessary; so that the future is as certain
and defined as the past. This theory approached
the doctrine of fate maintained by the Stoics,
and Chrysippus is said to have written a work,
wrpl 8uvarcv, against the views of Diodorus.
(Diog. Laert. vii. 191; Cic. de Fato, 6, 7. 9, ad
Fam. ix. 4.) He made use of the false syllogism
called Sorites, and is said to have invented two
others of the same kind, viz. the Eiyc-Ktcav/1A'Yos
and the Ktparivas Aoyos. (Diog. La'rt. ii. 111.)
Language was, with him, as with Aristotle, the
result of an agreement of men among themselves.
(Lersch, Sprackphilos. der Alt. i. p. 42; Deycks,
de Megaricorum Doctrina, p. 64, &c.)
7. Of CROTON, a Pythagorean philosopher, who
is otherwise unknown. (Iamblich. Vit. Pylhag. 35.)
8. Of ELAEA, is quoted as the author of elegies
by Parthenius (Erot. 15), who relates from him a
story about Daphne.
9. Of EPHESUS, is mentioned by Diogenes
Lae'rtius (viii. 70) as the author of a work on the
life and philosophy of Anaximander.
10. Surnamed PERIEGETES, was probably a native of Athens, and wrote on topographical and
geographical subjects. He lived at the time of and
after Alexander the Great; for it is clear, from
some fragments of his works, that he wrote at the
time when Athens had only twelve phylae, that is,
previous to B. c. 308; and Athenaeus (xiii. p. 521)
states, that Diodorus was acquainted with the
rhetorician Anaximenes. We know only of two
works of Diodorus Periegetes, viz. 1. llepi /scp wv,
which is frequently quoted by Harpocration and
Stephanus of Byzantium, and from which a considerable number of statements are preserved in consequence. 2. HiEpl p Au'OdTw, or on monuments.
(Plut. Themist. 32, comp. Thes. 36, Cim. 16, Vit.
X Orat. p. 849; Athen. xiii. p. 591.) It is not
impossible that he may also be the author of a
work on Miletus (rcpl MiATrouv orvyypajupca, Schol.
ad Plut. Menex. p. 380; comp. Preller, Polemon.
Fragm, p. 170, &c.)
11. Of PRIENE, is mentioned as a writer upon
agriculture, but is otherwise unknown. (Varro, de
R. R. i. 1; Columella, i. 1; Plin. H. N. Elench.
lib. xv. xvii. &c.)
12. The SICILIAN, usually called DloDOltUS

DIODORUS.
SlcULas, was a contemporary of Caesar and Angustus. (Suid. s. v. AidaSwpos; Euseb. Cl/ron, ad
Ann. 1967.) He was born in the town of Agyrium
in Sicily, where he became acquainted with the
Latin language through the great intercourse between the Romans and Sicilians. Respecting his
life we know no more than what he himself tells
us (i. 4). He seems to have made it the business
of his life to write an universal history from the
earliest down to his own time. With this object
in view, he travelled over a great part of Europe
and Asia to gain a more accurate knowledge of
nations and countries than he could obtain from
previous historians and geographers. For a long
time he lived at Rome, and there also he made
large collections of materials for his work by studying the ancient documents. He states, that he
spent thirty years upon his work, which period
probably includes the time he spent in travelling
and collecting materials. As it embraced the history of all ages and countries, and thus supplied
the place, as it were, of a whole library, he called
it BiGAio0jKoc, or, as Eusebius (Praep. Evang. i. 6)
says, BtsAtoe4ic] 'IopcI4. The time at which
he wrote his history may be determined pretty
accurately from internal evidence: he not only
mentions Caesar's invasion of Britain and his
crossing the Rhine, but also his death and apotheosis (i. 4, iv. 19, v. 21, 25): he further states
(i. 44, comp. 83), that he was in Egypt in 01.190,
that is, B. c. 20; and Scaliger (Animadv. ad Euseb.
p. 156) has made it highly probable that Diodorus
wrote his work after the year B. c. 8, when Augustus corrected the calendar and introduced the intercalation every fourth year.
The whole work of Diodorus consisted of forty
books, and embraced the period from the earliest
mythical ages down to the beginning of J. Caesar's
Gallic wars. Diodorus himself further mentions,
that the work was divided into three great sections. The first, which consisted of the first six
books, contains the history of the mythical times
previous to the Trojan war. The first books o:
this section treat of the mythuses of foreign countries, and the latter books of those of the Greeks.
The second section consisted of eleven books, which
contained the history from the Trojan war down
to the death of Alexander the Great; and the third
section, which contained the remaining 23 books,
treated of the history from the death of Alexander
down to the beginning of Caesar's Gallic wars.
Of this great work considerable portions are now
lost. The first five books, which contain the early
history of the Eastern nations, the Egyptians,
Aethiopians, and Greeks, are extant entire; the
sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth books are
lost; but from the eleventh down to the twentieth
the work is complete again, and contains the history from the second Persian war, B. c. 480, down
to the year B. c. 302. The remaining portion of
the work is lost, with the exception of a considerable number of fragments and the Excerpta, which
are preserved partly in Photius (Bibl. Cod. 244),
who gives extracts from books 31, 32, 33, 36, 37,
38, and 40, and partly in the Eclogae made at the
command of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, from
which they have successively been published by
H. Stephens, Fulv. Ursinus, Valesius, and A. Mai.
(Collect. Nova Script. ii. p. 1, &c., p. 568, &c.)
The work of Diodorus is constructed upon the plan
of annals, and the events of each year are placed