A History Of The World

A RACEY read, it is not, but Diodorus of Sicily's Bibliotheca makes up for that with quantity, covering the history of the known world - known, that is, to Ancient Greeks - from mythical times to shortly before the birth of Jesus.

It originally appeared in 40 'books', of which less than half survive, and was based on the work of earlier historians.

This is volume one - I have a second to go through

An introduction, probably written by historian Giles Laurén, who is listed as having edited the work, admits Diodorus's compilation method "made it almost impossible ... to write either a readable story or an accurate history."

That is somewhat off-putting, to say the least, but, with the proviso that everything needs to be checked before re-use, it nevertheless should make a good reference book.

It does not help that the history starts with ponderous retellings of myths, but the pace does pick up when Diodorus reaches the firmer ground of genuine historical events.