Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Guide to Diodoros of Sicily,' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified August 8, 2024, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=13313.

This post provides a guide for reading sequentally through ethnographic passages from Diodoros of Sicily’s Library of History (ca. 36 BCE) on this website:

Geographically arranged books:

• Egyptians – book 1 (link)
• Egyptian and Ethiopian diasporas – 1.28-29 (link)
• Ethiopians – 2.15 (link)
• Assyrians, Medes and Persians – 2.1-34 (link)
• Babylonians – 2.24-31 (link)
• Indians – 2.36-42 (link)
• Scythians, Amazons, and Hyperboreans – 2.43-46 (link)
• Arabians, including Nabateans – 2.48-54 (link)
• Indians on an island, perhaps imagined as Sri Lanka – 2.55-60 (link)
• Other Ethiopians – 3.2-10 (link)
• Still other Ethiopians – 3.23-34 (link)
• Arabians in Arabia Felix on the eastern coast of the Red Sea – 3.42-47 (link)
• Libyans – 3.49-55 (link)
• Atlantians – 3.56-61 (link)
• “Libyan” stories about Dionysos – 3.62-74 (link)
• Egyptians, Libyans, Iberians, and Celts in connection with Herakles – 4.17-19 (link)
• Ligurians in connection with Herakles – 4.20 (link)
• Romans in connection with Herakles – 4.21 (link) 
• Sikanians, Sicilians, Sardinians, and Iolaeians on and around Sicily – 4.23-30; 4.78-85; 5.2-15 (link)
• Taurians and Colchians in connection with Herakles and the Argonauts – 4.44-48 (link)
• Teukrians, Dardanians, and Trojans – 4.75 (link)
• Baliaridian barbarians off the coast of Iberia or Spain- 5.16-18 (link)
• Peoples on an island in the Atlantic off the Libyan coast – 5.19-20 (link)
• Britons – 5.21-22 (link)
• Celts and Galatians in France and to the east – 5.24-32 (link)
• Celtiberians, Iberians, and Lusitanians in Spain – 5.33-38 (link)
• Ligurians again – 5.39 (link)
• Tyrrhenians – 5.40 (link)
• Panachaians off the southern coast of Arabia, drawing on Euhemeros  – 5.41-46 and 6.1 (link)
• Egyptians again – 5.57 (link)
• Cretans – 5.64-84 (link)

Chronologically arranged books:

a) During Persian ascendancy (sixth to fourth centuries BCE):

• Lydians, Croesus’ consultation of Anacharsis and other sages, and Persian conquest – 9.21-36 (link)       
• Persians’ subsequent expansionism and arrogance – 10.13-15, 19, 25 (link) 
• Medes, Datis, and a legend about an Athenian connection – 10.27 (link)
• Sikelians (Sicilians) again – 11.52, 76, 78, 88-92 (link)
• Celts and the invasion of Italy – 14.114-117 (link)

b) During Greco-Macedonian and then Roman ascendancy (fourth-first centuries BCE):

• Persians and Alexander of Macedon’s decline into eastern ways – 17.77-78 (link)
• Indians and other peoples on the way – 17.76-105 (link)
• Chaldeans again with prediction of Alexander’s death – 17.112 (link)
• Isaurians and noble death in Pisidia – 18.22 (link)
• Chaldeans again with prediction about Antigonos’ death – 19.55 (link)
• Nabateans again – 19.94-100 (link)
• Thracians and the wise king Dromichaites – 21.11-12 (link)
• Celts’ / Galatians’ invasion of Greece – 22.9 (link)
• Thracians and the wise king Kotys – 30.3 (link)
• Lusitanians in Iberia and Viriathus – 33.1 (link)
• Thracians and the cruel king Diegylis  – 33.14 (link)
• Judeans and supposed donkey-worship in the Jerusalem temple – 34/35.1 (link)
• Syrian diasporas, Eunous of Apameia, and the rebellions of the enslaved on Sicily – 34/35.2  and 36.5-6 (link)
• Thracians and the cruel king Zibelmios – 34/35.12 (link)
• Phrygians and the priest Battakes – 36.13 (link)
• Judeans and their origins – 40.1 (link)
• Peoples conquered by Pompey as recorded on a supposed inscription – 40.4 (link)