Terminology on political collaboration and opposition in Diodorus 11-20

This paper aims at discussing Diodoros’ terminology (books XI-XX) of political collaboration and opposition. Diodoros often employs a relatively late terminology; his vocabulary seems to depend on Hellenistic Greek rather than on the language of his sources. Furthermore, while some of the considered words show an exclusive military significance or express a ‘military’ perception of collaboration and opposition in the context of violent political ‘battles’, the words referring to the specific language of internal political collaboration and opposition are relatively rare. Both facts seem to reflect the culture of an age in which direct political participation was no longer present. Finally, it is worth noting that, when Diodoros refers to internal politics, terminology of ‘practical’ significance prevails over ‘ideological’ vocabulary. It can be concluded that Diodoros’ vocabulary, in this particular field, seems to be partially original in comparison with that of his sources.