This article offers a study of Thomas Hobbes’s reading of Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historiographer of the 1st century bc whom Hobbes called “the greatest antiquary perhaps that ever was.” After offering a comparison of the works of Thucydides (often regarded as Hobbes’s greatest classical model) and Diodorus, the article traces the reception of Diodorus’ work in early modern England and examines Diodorus’ strong influence on two principal works, De Homine and Behemoth. Early human histories in the first books of Diodorus’ Bibliotheke Historike (‘Historical Library), including anthropological and cosmological narratives, are a recurrent feature of Hobbes’s focus, and a certain subversiveness animates Hobbes’s use of Diodorus and underpins his critique of contemporary theological and political structures. One result of this research is to suggest a greater place for Diodorus in Hobbes’s intellectual world than previously realised, alongside a strong appreciation for Diodorus across multiple learned discourses in the pre-modern period.

本文提供了西西里的狄奥多罗斯，1世纪的希腊史学家托马斯·霍布斯的阅读的研究BC谁霍布斯称为“最大的古董商也许曾经有过。” 在比较了修昔底德（通常被认为是霍布斯最伟大的古典模型）和狄奥多鲁斯的作品之后，这篇文章追溯了狄奥多罗斯在近代早期英国作品的接受情况，并考察了狄奥多罗斯对两个主要作品De Homine和Behemoth的强大影响。狄奥多鲁斯的《Bibliotheke Historike》第一卷中的早期人类历史（“历史图书馆”），包括人类学和宇宙学叙事，是霍布斯关注的反复出现的特征，某种颠覆性激发了霍布斯对狄奥多罗斯的使用，并支持他对当代神学和政治结构的批判。这项研究的一个结果是表明狄奥多罗斯在霍布斯的知识世界中比以前意识到的更重要，同时在前现代时期的多种学术话语中对狄奥多罗斯的强烈赞赏。