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I was curious about this particular story from history.
I picked one so-called reputable source called Diodorus Siculus from 1st C BC. I was originally looking at the Seven Ancient wonders and wondering why The Sphinx wasn't there... and this geezer came up at Ministry of Truth aka Wiki:
"The first reference to a list of seven such monuments was given by Diodorus Siculus.[5][6] "
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - Wikipedia
OK, I said, who's he? He's not Herodotus nor Thucydides: They're the big guys I've heard of. [I’ve looked at them too]
Diodorus Siculus - Wikipedia
" He is known for writing the monumental universal history Bibliotheca historica, in forty books, fifteen of which survive intact,[1] between 60 and 30 BC. The history is arranged in three parts. The first covers mythic history up to the destruction of Troy, arranged geographically, describing regions around the world from Egypt, India and Arabia to Europe. The second covers the time from the Trojan War to the death of Alexander the Great. The third covers the period to about 60 BC. Bibliotheca, meaning 'library', acknowledges that he was drawing on the work of many other authors. "
So Alex The Main Man came up. He's also mentioned in the Seven Wonders' article enabling the Hellenisation of the (known) world:
" Alexander the Great's conquest of much of the western world in the 4th century BC gave Hellenistic travellers access to the civilizations of the Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians.[1] Impressed and captivated by the landmarks and marvels of the various lands, these travellers began to list what they saw to remember them.[2][3]" Guys like D Siculus of course.
I looked for articles from 'Academia' where dudes make their careers from investigating sources.
Scholars do to enlighten the rest of us? Of course.
Diodorus Siculus, Book 1
Based on a doctoral thesis from by Ann Burton which became a book pub. in 1972
" To produce a commentary on any part of the Bibliotheke historike of Diodorus is a much harder task today than it was in the eighteenth century, when Peter Wesseling published the only existing commentary on the whole work. [1]
[1 ] Diodori Siculi "Bibliothecae historicae" libri qui supersunt (Amsterdam, 1746).
Why is this the FIRST reference to this work, the surviving 15 books out of 40 written? In 1746?
"It is hardly reasonable to assume that Diodorus used, or indeed could have used, the same approach in writing Book I, covering as it does the entire range of Egyptian civilization, as in writing one of the later books dealing with a limited period or subject. Once he had reached the historical period Diodorus would undoubtedly have had a wealth of material from earlier annalists and historians upon which to draw. But although it is known that several of Diodorus' predecessors other than Herodotus wrote on Egypt, our knowledge of the nature of these works is generally so limited and the evidence so fragmentary, that it is impossible to tell whether any of them took the same form as Diodorus' account.
And so in the case of Book I, the evidence from which Diodorus' source or sources may be deduced remains unsatisfactory and inconclusive.
OK I tried another avenue.
https://www.semanticscholar.org/pap...untz/52f33db7b713fdb29d63a506bdcd0628af9314fa
"It is a paradox of ancient history that one of the most important sources for reconstructing the events of the ancient world has also been one of the least understood by modern scholars.
"The present article is a first step in this process, a re-evaluation of the evidence for the sources for the first book of Diodorus, which scholars have traditionally held was derived from the Aegyptiaca of Hecataeus of Abdera (FGrH 264). It is my contention that scholars have been far too sanguine about how extensively Diodorus used Hecataeus, and that the actual evidence for this usage is in fact exceedingly thin.
"As is so often the case with ancient writers, little is known about Hecataeus. He was from either Teos or Abdera and was evidently already prominent during the reign of Alexander the Great. Afterwards, he was associated with Ptolemy I (T7 = Josephus, Contra Apionem 1.183). He seems to have visited Sparta (T5 =Plutarch, Lycurgus 20.3), and travelled through Egypt to research a major work that was probably called On the Egyptians. He also wrote a work On the Hyperboreans and works on Homer and Hesiod (T1 = Suda, s.v. Ἑκαταῖος). None of these works survive."
I picked one so-called reputable source called Diodorus Siculus from 1st C BC. I was originally looking at the Seven Ancient wonders and wondering why The Sphinx wasn't there... and this geezer came up at Ministry of Truth aka Wiki:
"The first reference to a list of seven such monuments was given by Diodorus Siculus.[5][6] "
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - Wikipedia
OK, I said, who's he? He's not Herodotus nor Thucydides: They're the big guys I've heard of. [I’ve looked at them too]
Diodorus Siculus - Wikipedia
" He is known for writing the monumental universal history Bibliotheca historica, in forty books, fifteen of which survive intact,[1] between 60 and 30 BC. The history is arranged in three parts. The first covers mythic history up to the destruction of Troy, arranged geographically, describing regions around the world from Egypt, India and Arabia to Europe. The second covers the time from the Trojan War to the death of Alexander the Great. The third covers the period to about 60 BC. Bibliotheca, meaning 'library', acknowledges that he was drawing on the work of many other authors. "
So Alex The Main Man came up. He's also mentioned in the Seven Wonders' article enabling the Hellenisation of the (known) world:
" Alexander the Great's conquest of much of the western world in the 4th century BC gave Hellenistic travellers access to the civilizations of the Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians.[1] Impressed and captivated by the landmarks and marvels of the various lands, these travellers began to list what they saw to remember them.[2][3]" Guys like D Siculus of course.
I looked for articles from 'Academia' where dudes make their careers from investigating sources.
Scholars do to enlighten the rest of us? Of course.
Diodorus Siculus, Book 1
Based on a doctoral thesis from by Ann Burton which became a book pub. in 1972
" To produce a commentary on any part of the Bibliotheke historike of Diodorus is a much harder task today than it was in the eighteenth century, when Peter Wesseling published the only existing commentary on the whole work. [1]
[1 ] Diodori Siculi "Bibliothecae historicae" libri qui supersunt (Amsterdam, 1746).
Why is this the FIRST reference to this work, the surviving 15 books out of 40 written? In 1746?
"It is hardly reasonable to assume that Diodorus used, or indeed could have used, the same approach in writing Book I, covering as it does the entire range of Egyptian civilization, as in writing one of the later books dealing with a limited period or subject. Once he had reached the historical period Diodorus would undoubtedly have had a wealth of material from earlier annalists and historians upon which to draw. But although it is known that several of Diodorus' predecessors other than Herodotus wrote on Egypt, our knowledge of the nature of these works is generally so limited and the evidence so fragmentary, that it is impossible to tell whether any of them took the same form as Diodorus' account.
And so in the case of Book I, the evidence from which Diodorus' source or sources may be deduced remains unsatisfactory and inconclusive.
OK I tried another avenue.
https://www.semanticscholar.org/pap...untz/52f33db7b713fdb29d63a506bdcd0628af9314fa
"It is a paradox of ancient history that one of the most important sources for reconstructing the events of the ancient world has also been one of the least understood by modern scholars.
"The present article is a first step in this process, a re-evaluation of the evidence for the sources for the first book of Diodorus, which scholars have traditionally held was derived from the Aegyptiaca of Hecataeus of Abdera (FGrH 264). It is my contention that scholars have been far too sanguine about how extensively Diodorus used Hecataeus, and that the actual evidence for this usage is in fact exceedingly thin.
"As is so often the case with ancient writers, little is known about Hecataeus. He was from either Teos or Abdera and was evidently already prominent during the reign of Alexander the Great. Afterwards, he was associated with Ptolemy I (T7 = Josephus, Contra Apionem 1.183). He seems to have visited Sparta (T5 =Plutarch, Lycurgus 20.3), and travelled through Egypt to research a major work that was probably called On the Egyptians. He also wrote a work On the Hyperboreans and works on Homer and Hesiod (T1 = Suda, s.v. Ἑκαταῖος). None of these works survive."
