He was a native of or associated with the city of Nicaea in Bithynia (northwestern Anatolia).
Diophanes dedicated his work to king Deiotarus of Celtic Galatia in central Anatolia, southeast of his homeland.
[2] Diophanes' work in turn must therefore have contained extensive extracts reflecting Punic agricultural practice.
Diophanes' abridgement was more popular in ancient times than Cassius Dionysius' original, but both works are now lost.
Diophanes is quoted once by the Latin agricultural writer Varro, and several times in the Byzantine Greek compilation Geoponica.