La géographie de la Sicile dans la Bibliothèque historique de Diodore de Sicile

Abstract

Diodorus’ information on Sicilian geography deals with subjects such as insularity, measures and position, to stress the central role of Sicily within the ancient Mediterranean world from a geographical perspective. In Diodorus’ work the descriptions of landscape are mainly found in the books devoted to mythical tales. Nevertheless, they mirror the view of space in the historian’s lifetime. This means that the scenarios of mythical tales do not depend exclusively on the literary sources used. Diodorus does not pay much attention to topography, or geographical scenarios related to political and military events.