Polybius's Histories

Wikipedia:

Polybius (c. 200 – c. 118 BC) was an ancient Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his Histories, a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covers the period 264–146, recording in detail events in Italy, Iberia, Greece, Macedonia, Syria, Egypt and Africa, and documents the Punic Wars and Macedonian Wars among many others.

Polybius’s Histories is important not only for being the only Hellenistic historical work to survive in any substantial form, but also for its analysis of constitutional change and the mixed constitution. Polybius’s discussion of the separation of powers in government, of checks and balances to limit power, and his introduction of “the people”, all influenced Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws, John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, and the framers of the United States Constitution.

Polybius was a close friend and mentor to the Roman politician and general Scipio Aemilianus (also called Scipio Africanus the Younger), and had a lasting influence on his decision-making and life.

 . . .Polybius was considered a poor stylist by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, writing of Polybius’s history that “no one has the endurance to reach [its] end”. Nevertheless, clearly he was widely read by Romans and Greeks alike. He is quoted extensively by Strabo writing in the 1st century BC and Athenaeus in the 3rd century AD.

His emphasis on explaining causes of events, rather than just recounting events, influenced the historian Sempronius Asellio. Polybius is mentioned by Cicero and mined for information by Diodorus Siculus, Livy, Plutarch and Arrian. Much of the text that survives today from the later books of The Histories was preserved in Byzantine anthologies.

His works reappeared in the Western world first in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. Polybius gained a following in Italy, and although poor Latin translations hampered proper scholarship on his works, they contributed to the city’s historical and political discourse. Niccolò Machiavelli in his Discourses on Livy evinces familiarity with Polybius. Vernacular translations in French, German, Italian and English first appeared during the 16th century. Consequently, in the late 16th century, Polybius’s works found a greater reading audience among the learned public. Study of the correspondence of such men as Isaac Casaubon, Jacques Auguste de Thou, William Camden and Paolo Sarpi reveals a growing interest in Polybius’s works and thought during the period. Despite the existence of both printed editions in the vernacular and increased scholarly interest, however, Polybius remained a “historian’s historian”, not much read by the public at large.

Polybius’s political analysis has influenced republican thinkers from Cicero to Montesquieu to the Founding Fathers of the United States. John Adams, for example, considered him one of the most important teachers of constitutional theory. Since the Age of Enlightenment, Polybius has in general held appeal to those interested in Hellenistic Greece and early Republican Rome, while his political and military writings have lost influence in academia. More recently, thorough work on the Greek text of Polybius, and his historical technique, has increased the academic understanding and appreciation of him as a historian.

Video Title: Brian McGing introduces Polybius: The Histories. Source: Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press). Date Published: March 29, 2012. Description:

In this short film, Brian McGing of Trinity College, Dublin, introduces the work of the ancient Greek historian, Polybius. His edition of Polybius’s Histories, translated by Robin Waterfield, is available as an Oxford World’s Classic.