La géographie de la Sicile dans la Bibliothéque Historique de Diodore de Sicile

Diodorus’ information on Sicilian geography are few, and they occur in Books 4-5, devoted to local myths. The historian deals especially with subjects such as insularity, site, dimensions of the Island, with the aim to stress the central role played by Sicily within the ancient Mediterranean world, also from a geographical point of view. In Diodorus’ Sicilian “Archaeology” the coeval data about geography mingle with mythical information, often approximative and unreal, which the historian found in previous literary traditions. Yet mythical heroes left traces of their presence on the Island, and these are considered by Diodorus as still visible in his times, and a proof of their passage. Central to Diodorus’ discussion are the important religious sanctuaries of Agyrion, Eryx, Henna, Engyon. These testify that, still in Roman times, an extraordinary popular devotion, not only by locals but also by other Mediterranean populations, was addressed to heroic figures who had showed goodwill toward Sicily and its inhabitants from the beginning. Therefore, geographical descriptions found in the Sicilian “Archaeology” are not so much artificial, or derived from literary traditions; for example, there are descriptions of ancient natural phenomena whose consequences were still perceived in Diodorus’ own times. Diodorus’ treatment of the Sicilian achievements in historical times (the so-called Sikelikai praxeis) is pretty different. There is little room for topography, and descriptions of the geographical scenarios of political-military events.