A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

12. The SICILIAN, usually called DIODORUS SICULUS, was a contemporary of Caesar and Augustus. (Suid. s. v. Διόδωρος; Euseb. Chron. 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 (1.4). 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.