Diodorus Siculus

(c. 90 BC - c. 20 BC)

Diodorus Siculus was born around 90 bc in a small town in Sicily (“Siculus” means Sicilian) and may have been in Egypt as early as 60 bc: he witnessed the hanging of a Roman for the accidental killing of a cat, which occurred prior to Julius Caesar and Pompey accepting a bribe from Ptolemy XII for him to become an ally of Rome in 59 bc. Diodorus claimed to have spent thirty years in his research for his universal history, the Historical Library, which begins with mythological origins and carries through to Caesar’s conquest of Gaul.