Select Bibliography

I have restricted this bibliography to the most useful and accessible works written in the English language. Some supplementary reading is included in the footnotes of the Introduction and in the Explanatory Notes.

Diodorus

Every relevant book covering the history of the period includes a paragraph or two in which the author expresses his or her opinion about Diodorus’ value as a historian, but the following books and articles are dedicated to Diodoran studies, and especially to Books 16–20.

Atkinson, J., ‘Originality and Its Limits in the Alexander Sources of the Early Empire’, in A. B. Bosworth and E. Baynham (eds), Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 307–25.
Bigwood, J., ‘Diodorus and Ctesias’, Phoenix 34 (1980), 195–207.
Crawford, M., ‘Greek Intellectuals and the Roman Aristocracy in the First Century bc’, in P. Garnsey and C. Whittaker (eds), Imperialism in the Ancient World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 193–207.
Drews, R., ‘Diodorus and His Sources’, American Journal of Philology 83 (1962), 383–92.
Green, P., Diodorus Siculus, Books 11–12.37.1. Greek History, 480–431 bc: The Alternative Version (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006).
Green, P., ‘Diodorus Siculus on the Third Sacred War’, in J. Marincola (ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), 363–70.
Hadley, R., ‘Diodorus 18.60.1–3: A Case of Remodelled Source Materials’, Ancient History Bulletin 10 (1996), 131–47.
Hammond, N., ‘Diodorus’ Narrative of the Sacred War and the Chronological Problems of 357–352 bc’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 57 (1937), 44–78.
Hammond, N., ‘The Sources of Diodorus Siculus XVI: The Macedonian, Greek, and Persian Narrative’, Classical Quarterly 31 (1937), 79–91.
Hammond, N., ‘The Sources of Diodorus Siculus XVI: The Sicilian Narrative’, Classical Quarterly 32 (1938), 137–51.
Hammond, N., Three Historians of Alexander the Great (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Hau, L., ‘The Burden of Good Fortune in Diodorus of Sicily: A Case for Originality?’, Historia 58 (2009), 171–97.
Hau, L., Meeus, A., and Sheridan, B. (eds), Diodoros of Sicily: Historiographical Theory and Practice in the Bibliotheke (Leuven: Peeters, 2018).
Hornblower, J., Hieronymus of Cardia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).
McQueen, E., Diodorus Siculus: The Reign of Philip II. The Greek and Macedonian Narrative from Book XVI (London: Bristol Classical Press, 1995).
Markle, M., ‘Diodorus’ Sources for the Sacred War in Book 16’, in I. Worthington (ed.), Ventures into Greek History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 43–69.
Meeus, A., ‘Diodorus and the Chronology of the Third Diadoch War’, Phoenix 66 (2012), 74–96.
Muntz, C., ‘Diodorus Siculus and Megasthenes: A Reappraisal’, Classical Philology 107 (2012), 21–37.
Muntz, C., Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Rubincam, C., ‘The Organization and Composition of Diodorus’ Bibliotheke’, Echos du Monde Classique 31 (1987), 313–28.
Rubincam, C., ‘Cross-references in the Bibliotheke Historike of Diodorus’, Phoenix 42 (1989), 39–61.
Sacks, K., Diodorus Siculus and the First Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
Sacks, K., ‘Diodorus and His Sources: Conformity and Creativity’, in S. Hornblower (ed.), Greek Historiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 213–32.
Sacks, K., ‘Dating Diodorus’ Bibliotheke’, Mediterraneo Antico 1 (1998), 437–42.
Sheridan, B., ‘The Strange Case of the Missing Archons: Two Lost Years in Diodorus’ History of the Successors’, in H. Hauben and A. Meeus (eds), The Age of the Successors and the Creation of the Hellenistic Kingdoms (323–276 bc) (Leuven: Peeters, 2014), 115–33.
Sinclair, R., ‘Diodorus Siculus and the Writing of History’, Proceedings of the African Classical Association 6 (1963), 36–45.
Stronk, J., Semiramis’ Legacy: The History of Persia according to Diodorus of Sicily (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017).
Stylianou, P., A Historical Commentary on Diodorus Siculus Book 15 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Sulimani, I., Diodorus’ Mythistory and the Pagan Mission: Historiography and Culture Heroes in the First Pentad of the Bibliotheke (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
Walsh, J., ‘Historical Method and a Chronological Problem in Diodorus, Book 18’, in P. Wheatley and R. Hannah (eds), Alexander and His Successors: Essays from the Antipodes (Claremont, CA: Regina, 2009), 72–87.

Historiography

This section lists a few recent relevant works on Greek historiography, and focuses in particular on the kind of universal history that Diodorus was writing.

Alonso-Núñez, J., The Idea of Universal History in Greece from Herodotus to the Age of Augustus (Amsterdam: Gieben, 2002).
Bosworth, A. B., ‘Plus ça change . . . Ancient Historians and Their Sources’, Classical Antiquity 22 (2003), 167–97.
Clarke, K., ‘Universal Perspectives in Historiography’, in C. Kraus (ed.), The Limits of Historiography: Genre and Narrative in Ancient Historical Texts (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 249–79.
Clarke, K., Making Time for the Past: Local History and the Polis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Hau, L., Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016).
Liddel, P., and Fear, A. (eds), Historiae Mundi: Studies in Universal Historiography (London: Duckworth, 2010).
Marincola, J., Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Marincola, J., Greek Historians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Marincola, J., ‘Universal History from Ephorus to Diodorus’, in id. (ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 171–9.
Marincola, J. (ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).
Meeus, A., ‘Compilation or Tradition? Some Thoughts on the Methods of Historians and Other Scholars in Antiquity’, Sacris Erudiri 56 (2017), 395–414.
Yarrow, L., Historiography at the End of the Republic: Provincial Perspectives on Roman Rule (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).

History

I have made this section quite extensive, so that any reader can supplement Diodorus’ account with what we know or think we know from other sources.

Anson, E., Alexander the Great: Themes and Issues (London: Bloomsbury, 2013).
Anson, E., Alexander’s Heirs: The Age of the Successors (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).
Anson, E., Eumenes of Cardia: A Greek among Macedonians (2nd edn, Leiden: Brill, 2015).
Bayliss, A., After Demosthenes: The Politics of Early Hellenistic Athens (London: Continuum, 2011).
Berger, S., Revolution and Society in Greek Sicily and Southern Italy (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1992).
Billows, R., Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
Boehm, R., City and Empire in the Age of the Successors: Urbanization and Social Response in the Making of the Hellenistic Kingdoms (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018).
Bosworth, A. B., Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
Bosworth, A. B., The Legacy of Alexander: Politics, Warfare, and Propaganda under the Successors (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Briant, P., From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2002).
Buckler, J., Philip II and the Sacred War (Leiden: Brill, 1989).
Buckler, J., Aegean Greece in the Fourth Century bc (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
Buckler, J., and Beck, H., Central Greece and the Politics of Power in the Fourth Century bc (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Campbell, D., ‘Ancient Catapults: Some Hypotheses Reexamined’, Hesperia 80 (2011), 677–700.
Carney, E., Women and Monarchy in Macedonia (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000).
Carney, E., Olympias, Mother of Alexander the Great (London: Routledge, 2006).
Cartledge, P., and Spawforth, A., Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: A Tale of Two Cities (London: Routledge, 1989).
Cornell, T., The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (London: Routledge, 1995).
Ellis, J., Philip II and Macedonian Imperialism (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976).
Engels, D., Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
Evans, R., Syracuse in Antiquity: History and Topography (Pretoria: UNISA Press, 2009).
Finley, M., Ancient Sicily (London: Chatto & Windus, 1968).
Fraser, P., Cities of Alexander the Great (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
Habicht, C., Athens from Alexander to Antony, trans. by D. Schneider (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
Hammond, N., Alexander the Great: King, Commander and Statesman (2nd edn, Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1989).
Hauben, H., and Meeus, A. (eds), The Age of the Successors and the Creation of the Hellenistic Kingdoms (323–276 bc) (Leuven: Peeters, 2014).
Heckel, W., Who’s Who in the Age of Alexander the Great (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006).
Heckel, W., and Tritle, L. (eds), Alexander the Great: A New History (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).
Hoyos, D., The Carthaginians (London: Routledge, 2010).
King, C., Ancient Macedonia (London: Routledge, 2018).
Lomas, K., The Rise of Rome: From the Iron Age to the Punic Wars (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018).
Markoe, G., The Phoenicians (London: British Museum Press, 2000).
Marsden, E., Greek and Roman Artillery: Historical Development (London: Oxford University Press, 1969).
Martin, T., ‘Diodorus on Philip II and Thessaly in the 350s bc’, Classical Philology 76 (1981), 188–201.
Meeus, A., ‘The Power Struggle of the Diadochoi in Babylonia, 323 bc’, Ancient Society 38 (2008), 39–82.
Murray, W., The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
O’Sullivan, L., The Regime of Demetrius of Phalerum in Athens, 317–307 bce: A Philosopher in Politics (Leiden: Brill, 2009).
Papazoglu, F., The Central Balkan Tribes in Pre-Roman Times: Triballi, Autariatae, Dardanians, Scordisci and Moesians, trans. by M. Stansfield-Popovic´ (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1978).
Roisman, J., Alexander’s Veterans and the Early Wars of the Successors (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012).
Roisman, J., and Worthington, I. (eds), A Companion to Ancient Macedonia (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
Ruzicka, S., Politics of a Persian Dynasty: The Hecatomnids in the Fourth Century bc (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992).
Salmon, E., Samnium and the Samnites (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967).
Sanders, L., The Legend of Dion (Ontario: Edgar Kent, 2008).
van der Spek, R., ‘Seleukos, Self-appointed General (Strategos) of Asia (311–305 bc), and the Satrapy of Babylonia’, in H. Hauben and A. Meeus (eds), The Age of the Successors and the Creation of the Hellenistic Kingdoms (323–276 bc) (Leuven: Peeters, 2014), 323–42.
Talbert, R., Timoleon and the Revival of Greek Sicily, 344–317 bc (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974).
Vădan, P., ‘The Inception of the Seleukid Empire’, Journal of Ancient History 5 (2017), 2–25.
Waterfield, R., Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great’s Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Waterfield, R., Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Worthington, I., Philip II of Macedonia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).
Worthington, I., Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Athens (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Worthington, I., Ptolemy I, King and Pharaoh of Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Worthington, I. (ed.), Alexander the Great: A Reader (2nd edn, London: Routledge, 2012).