697 



DIODATI, JEAN. 



DIOGENES. 



693 



Libanius, Vopiscus, Eusebius, Julian in his ' Cjesars,' and the contem- 

 porary panegyrists, Eumenes and Mamertiuus. His laws or edicts are 

 in the ' Code.' Among other useful reforms, he abolished the fru- 

 mentarii, or licensed informers, who were stationed in every province 

 to report any attempt at mutiny or rebellion, and who basely enriched 

 themselves by working on the fears of the inhabitants. He also 

 reformed and reduced the number of the insolent Prsetorians, who 

 were afterwards totally disbanded by Constantino. 



DIODA'TI, JEAN, was born in Geneva in 1576, of a family 

 originally from Lucca. His progress in learning was so rapid that 

 Beza procured him to be appointed professor of Hebrew in the Uni- 

 yersity of Geneva when he was but twenty-one years of age. In 1608 

 he was made pastor, or parish minister, and in the following year 

 professor of theology. While travelling in Italy about 1608, he 

 became acquainted at Venice with the celebrated Sarpi and his friend 

 Father Fulgenzio, both antagonists of the Court of Rome, and there 

 appears to have been some talk and correspondence between them 

 about attempting a religious reform in Italy, but Sarpi's caution and 

 maturer judgment checked the fervour of the other two. Diodati 

 afterwards translated into French and published at Geneva Sarpi's 

 ' History of the Council of Trent.' In consideration of his theological 

 learning he was sent by the clergy of Geneva on several missions, first 

 to the reformed churches in France, and afterwards to those of Hol- 

 land, where he attended the Synod of Dort (1618-19), and although a 

 foreigner, he was one of the divines appointed to draw up the acts of 

 that assembly. He fully concurred in the condemnation of the 

 Arminians, or Remonstrants as they were called. Diodati was also 

 distinguished as a preacher ; in hi) sermons he spoke with conscien- 

 tious frankness, without any regard to worldly considerations. He 

 published an Italian translation of the Bible in 1607, and afterwards a 

 French translation, which was not completed till 1644, haviug met 

 with considerable opposition from the clergy of Geneva. Diodati died 

 at Geneva in 1649. He wrote also ' Annotationes in Biblia,' folio, 

 Geneva 1607, which were translated into English, and published in 

 London in 1648, and numerous theological and controversial works, 

 among others, ' De Fictitio Pontificioruin Purgatorio,' 1619 ; ' De justa 

 Secessione Reformatorum ab Ecclesia Romana,' 1 628 ; ' De Ecclesia ; ' 

 ' De Antichriato,' &c. Senebier, in his ' Histoire Litteraire de Geneve,' 

 gives a catalogue of Diodati' B works. He also wrote an answer to the 

 ecclesiastical assembly in London, in reply to letters addressed to him 

 by some members of that assembly, and which was published in 

 Newcastle in 1647. Diodati translated into French Edwin Sandy's 

 ' Account of the State of Religion in the West,' Geneva, 1626. 



DIODO'RUS, a Greek historian, was born at Agyrium in Sicily. 

 (' Bibliotb. Hist.,' lib. i. c. 5.) Our principal data for the chronology 

 of his life are derived from his own work. It appears that he was in 

 Egypt about the 180th olympiad, B.C. 60 ('Biblioth. Hist,' i. c. 41, 

 comp. L c. 83); that his history was written after the death of Julius 

 Csesar ; that it gnded with the Gallic war of that general ; and that 

 he fcpent thirty years in writing it. (' Bibliotb. Hist.,' L c. 4, comp. v. 

 c. 21 and 25.) In addition to this, Suidas mentions that he lived in 

 the time of Augustus, and he is named under the year B.C. 49 by 

 Jerome in the ' Chronicle of Eusebius.' The title of the great work 

 of Diodorus is the ' Historical Library,' or ' The Library of Histories ;' 

 and it would therefore seem to have been intended by the author as 

 a compilation from all the different historical works existing in his 

 time. It was divided by him into forty books, and comprehended a 

 period of 1138 years, besides the time preceding the Trojan war. 

 (' Biblioth. Hist.,' i. c. 5.) The first six books were devoted to the 

 fabulous history anterior to this event, and of these the three former 

 to the antiquities of barbarian states, the three latter to the archeology 

 of the Greeks. But the historian, though treating of the fabulous 

 history of the barbarians in the first three books, enters into an account 

 of their manners and usages, and carries down the history of these 

 people to a point of time posterior to the Trojan war ; thus in the first 

 book he gives a sketch of Egyptian history from the reign of Menes 

 to Amasis. In the eleven following books he detailed the different 

 events which happened between the Trojan war and the death of 

 Alexander the Great ; and the remaining twenty-three books contained 

 the history of the world down to the Gallic war and the conquest of 

 Britain. (' Biblioth. Hist.,' i. c. 4.) Diodorus asserts that he bestowed 

 the greatest possible pains on his history, and had travelled over a 

 considerable part of Europe and Asia in order to prosecute his investi- 

 gations with the greatest advantage. He resided some time at Rome, 

 and having made himself familiar with the Latin language, was enabled 

 to consult the Roman historians in the originals. He objects to the 

 custom so common among Greek and Roman writers of interlarding 

 their narratives with fictitious speeches, to which he says (' Biblioth. 

 .lit., 1 lib. xx. init.) they made the whole history a mere appendix, 

 although he seems to have fallen into this fault in his twenty-first 

 book (Niebuhr, ' Hist. Rom.,' iil, note 848); but, on tho other hand, 

 he thought it the duty of an historian never to omit a suitable oppor- 

 tunity of pronouncing merited praise or blame. (' Biblioth. Hist.,' lib. 

 xi.) Of the forty books of Diodorus's ' History ' we possess only fifteen, 

 namely, books i. to v., and books xi. to xx. ; but we have many frag- 

 ments of the twenty-five others, to which important additions were a 

 few years back made from manuscripts in the Vatican library. 



With regard to the historical value of the ' Bibliotheca,' and the 



merits of the author, the most discrepant opinions have been enter- 

 tained by modern writers. The Spanish scholar Vives called him a 

 mere trifler, and Jean Bodin accused him in no sparing terms of 

 ignorance and carelessness; while, on the other baud, he has been 

 defended and extolled by many eminent critics as an accurate and able 

 writer. The principal fault of Diodorus seems to have been the too 

 great extent of his work. It was not possible for any man living in 

 the time of Augustus to write an unexceptionable universal history ; 

 and it is not therefore a matter of surprise that Diodorus, who does 

 not appear to have been a man of superior abilities, should have fallen 

 into a number of particular errors, and should have placed too much 

 reliance on authorities sometimes far from trustworthy. Wherever 

 he speaks from his own observations he may perhaps generally be 

 relied on, but when he is compiling from the writings of others he 

 has shown little judgment in his selection, and has in many cases 

 proved himself incapable of discriminating between the fabulous and 

 the true. In some instances, as in his account of Egypt (see ' Descrip- 

 tion of the Tomb of Osymandyas '), it is impossible to say whether 

 he is speaking as an eye-witness or upon the report of others. Although 

 he professes to have paid great attention to chronology, his dates are 

 frequently and obviously incorrect. (See Dod well's ' Annal. Thucydid.' 

 and Clinton's ' Fasti Hellenic!,' ii., p. 259 and elsewhere ; Niebuhr, 

 'Hist. Home,' ii., and note 1281.) However, we are indebted to him 

 for many particulars which but for him we should never have known ; 

 and we must regret that we have lost the last and probably most 

 valuable portion of his works, as even by the fragments of them which 

 remain we are enabled in many places to correct the errors of Livy. 

 The style of Diodorus, though not very pure or elegant, is sufficiently 

 perspicuous, and presents few difficulties, except where the manuscripts 

 are defective, as is frequently the case. (Niebuhr, ' Hist. Rome,' vol. 

 iii., note 297, and elsewhere.) 



The best editions of Diodorus are Wesseling's, Amstel., 1745, 2 vols. 

 fol. ; that printed at Deux-Pouts, 1793-1801 ; and Dindorf's, Lips., 

 1829-33, 6 vols. 8vo, which contains the Vatican Excerpta. There is 

 also a smaller edition by Dindorf in 4 vols. 12mo, Lips., 1826. Dio- 

 dorus has been translated into French by Terrasson, and a few years 

 ago a new translation by Miot appeared at Paris. A German trans- 

 lation of Diodorus was begun by F. And. Stroth (1782 85), and finished 

 by T. F. Sal. Kaltwasser (1786-87). Amyot translated into French 

 books xi. to xvii. of Diodorus's ' History." 



DIO'GENES, the Cynic philosopher, was the son of Hicesius, a 

 money-changer of Sinope. His father and himself were expelled 

 from their native place on a charge of adulterating the coinage, or, 

 according to another account, Hicesius was thrown into prison and 

 died there, while Diogenes escaped to Athens. On his arrival at that 

 city, he betook himself to Antisthenes, the Cynic, who repulsed him 

 rudely according to his custom, and even on one occasion threatened 

 to strike him. " Strike me," said the Sinopian, " for you will never 

 get so hard a stick as to keep me from you while you speak what I 

 think worth hearing." The philosopher was so pleased with this reply 

 that he at once admitted him among his scholars. Diogenes was 

 soon distinguished for his extraordinary neglect of personal con- 

 veniences, and by a sarcastic and sneering petulance in all that be 

 said. He was dressed in a coarse double robe, which served him as 

 a cloak by day and a coverlet by night, and carried a wallet to receive 

 alms of food. His abode was a cask in the temple of Cybele. In 

 the summer he rolled himself in the burning sand, and in the winter 

 clung to the images in the street covered with snow, in order that ho 

 might accustom himself to endure all varieties of weather. A great 

 number of his witty and biting apophthegms are detailed by his 

 namesake and biographer (Diog. Laiirt., vi., c. 2.) He became acquainted 

 with Alexander the Great, who bade him ask for whatever he wanted. 

 " Do not throw your shadow upon me," was the Cynic's only request. 

 It is reported that Alexander was so struck with his originality that 

 he exclaimed, " Were I not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes." 

 Being taken by a piratical captain named Scirpalus, while sailing from 

 Athens to yEgina, he was carried to Crete, and there sold to Xeuiades, 

 of Corinth, who took him home to educate his children. He dis- 

 charged the duties of this situation so faithfully and so successfully, 

 that Xeniades went about saying that a good genius had come into 

 hia house; and he was so well treated by his master that he refused 

 an offer on the part of his friends to ransom him from slavery. He 

 spent his time principally in the Cranium, a gymnasium near Corinth, 

 where he died in the same year, and, according to one account, on 

 the same day, with Alexander the Great (B.C. 323), at the advanced 

 age of ninety yeare. A number of works attributed to him are 

 mentioned by Diogenes Laertius, but none of them are extant. 

 Generally he adhered to the doctrines of the Cynics, to which sect ho 

 belonged. The following are a few of the particular opinions ascribed 

 to him by his biographer. He thought exercise (&trtcriffis) was indis- 

 pensable, and able to effect anything ; that there were two kinds of 

 exercise, one of tho mind and the other of the body, and that one of 

 these was of no value without the other. By the cultivation of tho 

 mind ho did not mean the prosecution of any science or the acquire- 

 ment of any mental accomplishment ; all such things he considered 

 as useless ; but he intended such a cultivation of the mind as might 

 serve to bring it into a healthy and virtuous state, and produce upon 

 it an effect analogous to that which exercise produces upon the body. 



