Polybius Sentence Examples

The northern portion of it consists of a lofty ridge with two summits, the westernmost of which is occupied by the modern town (985 ft.), while the easternmost, which is slightly higher, bears the name of Rock of Athena, owing to its identification in modern days with the acropolis of Acragas as described by Polybius, who places upon it the temple of Zeus Atabyrius (the erection of which was attributed to the half mythical Phalaris) and that of Athena.'

Polybius accuses Cleomenes of the murder, but Plutarch is probably right in saying that it was the work of those who had caused the death of Agis, and feared his brother's vengeance.

Thus we already find Polybius repeatedly applying it in this wider signification to the whole country, as far as the fOot of the Alps; and it is evident from many passages in the Latin writers that this was the familiar use of the term in the days of Cicero and Caesar.

The latter weapon in the interval between Alexander and the time of Polybius had been increased to a length of 21 ft.

It is first mentioned in the year 220 by Polybius v.

Among historians who looked upon geography as an important aid in their work are numbered Polybius (c. 210-120 B.C.), Diodorus Siculus (c. 30 B.C.) and Agathachidus of Cnidus (c. 120 B.C.) to whom we are indebted for a valuable account of the Erythrean Sea and the adjoining parts of Arabia and Ethiopia.

For the Gallic retreat, see Polybius ii.

For the later period he uses the Greek Esther, with its additions, I Maccabees, Polybius, Strabo and Nicolaus of Damascus.

In the circle of Scipio he doubtless met the historian Polybius, who was brought to Italy in 167.

The influence of Panaetius and Polybius was more adapted to their maturity, when they led the state in war, statesmanship and oratory, and when the humaner teaching of Stoicism began to enlarge the sympathies of Roman jurists.

He never mentions his authorities, but amongst authors still extant he used Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Diodorus, Plutarch, Frontinus and Suetonius; amongst authors of whom only fragments now remain he drew upon Ctesias, Ephorus, Timaeus, Phylarchus and Nicolaus Damascenus.

The best-known names are those of Timaeus and Polybius.

The latest name in the above list is that of Polybius, who died about 123 B.C. Apollonius Rhodius, Aratus and Theocritus were subsequently added to the " epic " poets.

According to Suidas, the continuation of Polybius was in forty-three books.

But in this he relied on Polybius, whom he might justly consider as having from his position at Rome far better means of gaining accurate information.

Strabo chiefly employed Greek authorities (the Alexandrian geographers Polybius, Posidonius and Theophanes of Mytilene, the companion of Pompey) and made comparatively little use of Roman authorities.

History comes nearer to philosophy; and Aristotle's Constitutions were known to his enemy Timaeus, who attacked him for disparaging the descent of the Locrians of Italy, according to Polybius (xii.), who defended Aristotle.

Her models are Thucydides, Polybius and Xenophon, and her style exhibits the striving after Atticism characteristic of the period, with the result that the language is highly artificial.

The work was based upon the writings of Greek historians, such as Theopompus (also the author of a Philippica), Ephorus, Timaeus, Polybius.

The other features noted in the epistle, their turbulence, drunkenness and greed, all happen to be verified in the pages of ancient writers like Polybius.

Polybius (ii.-viii.) follows the Memoirs which Aratus wrote to justify his statesmanship, - Plutarch (Aratus and Cleomenes) used this same source and the hostile account of Phylarchus; Paus.

This story made Regulus to the later Romans the type of heroic endurance; but most historians regard it as insufficiently attested, Polybius being silent.

See Polybius i.

Polybius and the authors who copy him regard the Bastarnae as Galatae; Strabo, having learned of the Romans to distinguish Celts and Germans, first allows a German element; Tacitus expressly declares their German origin but says that the race was degraded by intermarriage with Sarmatians.

In the middle of the 2nd century Roman Hellenism centred in the circle of Scipio Aemilianus, which included men like Polybius and the philosopher Panaetius.

Some modern writers have supposed Pytheas to have been sent out, at public expense, in command of an expedition organized by the republic of Massilia; but there is no ancient authority for this, and Polybius, who had unquestionably seen the original work, expressly states that he had undertaken the voyage in a private capacity and with limited means.

This last sentence has led some modern writers to suppose that he made two different voyages; but this is improbable; the expressions of Polybius imply that his explorations in both directions, first towards the north and afterwards towards the east, formed part of the same voyage.

The statement that he proceeded along the coasts of Europe "from Gades to the Tanais" is evidently based upon the supposition that this would be a simple and direct course along the northern shores of Germany and Scythia - Polybius himself, in common with the other Greek geographers till a much later period, being ignorant of the projection of the Danish or Cimbric peninsula, and the circumnavigation that it involved - of all which no trace is found in the extant notices of Pytheas.

The freedman Narcissus, warned by the fate of another freedman Polybius, who had been put to death by Messallina, informed Claudius of what had taken place, and persuaded him to consent to the removal of his wife.

Although Polybius and Dionysius of Halicarnassus frequently find fault with him, the first uses him as his chief authority for the Second Punic War.

It has been recently established that Polybius the historian was a Stoic, and it is clear that he was greatly influenced by the form of the system which he learned to know, in the society of Scipio and his friends, from Panaetius.'

Polybius's rejection of divination is decisive.

See Polybius ii.

He does not, therefore, write, as Polybius wrote, for students of history.

With Polybius the greatness of Rome is a phenomenon to be critically studied and scientifically explained; the rise of Rome forms an important chapter in universal history, and must be dealt with, not as an isolated fact, but in connexion with the general march of events in the civilized world.

Of the past history and the internal condition of the more distant nations she encountered he tells us little or nothing, even when he found such details carefully given by Polybius.

This fault of partiality was, according to Polybius, a conspicuous blot in Fabius's account of his own times, which was, we are told, full and in the main accurate, and, like the earlier portions, consisted of official annalistic notices, supplemented, however, not from tradition, but from his own experience and from contemporary sources.

No better proof of this can be given than a comparison of the annalist's version of history with that of Polybius.

Passing to the third decade, we find ourselves at once confronted by a question which has been long and fully discussed - the relation between Livy and Polybius.

It is urged that Livy, who in the fourth and fifth decades shows himself so sensible of the great merits of Polybius, is not likely to have ignored him in the third, and that his more limited use of him in the latter case is fully accounted for by the closer connexion of the history with Rome and Roman affairs, and the comparative excellence of the available Roman authorities, and, lastly, that the points of agreement with Polybius, not only in matter but in expression, can only be explained on the theory that Livy is directly following the great Greek historian.

It is argued that Livy's mode of using his authorities is tolerably uniform, and that his mode of using Polybius in particular is known with certainty from the later decades.

Consequently the theory that he used Polybius in the third decade requires us to assume that in this one instance he departed widely, and without sufficient reason, from his usual course of procedure.

Moreover, even in the passages where the agreement with Polybius is most apparent, there are so many discrepancies and divergencies in detail, and so many unaccountable omissions and additions, as to render it inconceivable that he had the text of Polybius before him.

But all these are made intelligible if we suppose Livy to have been here following directly or indirectly the same original sources that were used by Polybius.

In the portions of the history which deal with Greece and the East, Livy follows Polybius, and these portions are easily distinguishable from the rest by their superior clearness, accuracy and fulness.

Thus he vacillates between the Catonian and Varronian reckoning of the years of the city, and between the chronologies of Polybius and the Roman annalists.

In other cases his desire to give a vividness and point to what he doubtless considered the rather bald and dry style of Polybius leads him into absurdities and inaccuracies.

Finally, Livy cannot be altogether acquitted on the charge of having here and there modified Polybius in the interests of Rome.

But in spite of all this we are forced to acknowledge that, as a master of what we may perhaps call "narrative history," he has no superior in antiquity; for, inferior as he is to Thucydides, to Polybius, and even to Tacitus in philosophic power and breadth of view, he is at least their equal in the skill with which he tells his story.

More important historically was a branch of the above (called EEvwves, Senones, by Polybius), who about 400 B.C. made their way over the Alps and, having driven out the Umbrians, settled on the east coast of Italy from Ariminum to Ancona, in the so-called ages Gallicus, and founded the town of Sena Gallica (Sinigaglia), which became their capital.

From the sublimity of Thucydides, and Xenophon's straightforward story, history passed with Theopompus and Ephorus into the field of rhetoric. A revival of the scientific instinct of investigation is discernable in Timaeus the Sicilian, at the end of the 4th century, but his attack upon his predecessors was the text of a more crushing attack upon himself by Polybius, who declares him lacking in critical insight and biased by passion.

Polybius' comments upon Timaeus reach the dignity of a treatise upon history.

Unfortunately Polybius, like most modern scientific historians, was no artist.

Cicero, although he said that the duty of the historian is to conceal nothing true, to say nothing false, would in practice have written the kind of history that Polybius denounced.

Universal history was begun by Ephorus, the rhetorician, and formed the theme of Polybius and Deodorus.

Another peninsula with one side to the open sea, meeting as it were the main city at right angles, formed in Polybius's time the Neapolis, or new town, in Saracen times Khalesa, a name which still survives in that of Calsa.

According to Polybius, his inability to resist the pressure of those around him was responsible for it.

It is in this sense that the name Numidia is used by Polybius and all historians down to the close of the Roman republic. The Numidians, as thus defined, were divided into two great tribes, - the lvlassyli on the east, and the Massaesyli on the west - the limit between the two being the river Ampsaga, which enters the sea to the west of the promontory called Tretum, now known as the Seven Capes.

It was not long afterwards that the dual kingship ceased and Sparta fell under the sway of a series of cruel and rapacious tyrants - Lycurgus, Machanidas, who was killed by Philopoemen, and Nabis, who, if we may trust the accounts given by Polybius and Livy, was little better than a bandit chieftain, holding Sparta by means of extreme cruelty and oppression, and using mercenary troops to a large extent in his wars.

The date of Polybius's birth is doubtful.

Polybius therefore declared for an open alliance with Rome, and his views were adopted.

It was decided to send an Achaean force to cooperate with the Roman general, and Polybius was selected to command the cavalry.

The Roman consul declined the proffered assistance, but Polybius accompanied him throughout the campaign, and thus gained his first insight into the military system of Rome.

Polybius was arrested with 1000 of the principal Achaeans, but, while his companions were condemned to a tedious incarceration in the country towns of Italy, he obtained permission to reside in Rome.

Polybius was received into Aemilius's house, and became the instructor of his sons.

But the stay of Polybius in Achaea was brief.

But when, in 147, Scipio himself took the command in Africa, Polybius hastened to join him, and was an eye-witness of the siege and destruction of Carthage.

Of the forty books which made up the history of Polybius, the first five alone have come down to us in a complete form; of the rest we have only more or less copious fragments.

But the general plan and scope of the work are explained by Polybius himself.

Whatever fault may be found with Polybius, there can be no question that he had formed a high conception of the task before him.

The second quality upon which Polybius insists as distinguishing his history from all others is its "pragmatic" character.

To this conception of history Polybius is on the whole consistently faithful.

Polybius is equally explicit as regards the personal qualifications necessary for a good historian, and in this respect too his practice is in close agreement with his theory.

It is important to consider how far Polybius himself comes up to his standard.

Of Polybius's anxiety to get at the truth no better proof can be given than his conscientious investigation of original documents and monuments, and his careful study of geography and topography - both of them points in which his predecessors, as well as his successor Livy, conspicuously failed.

Polybius is careful constantly to remind us that he writes for those who are CALXoµaO€is lovers of knowledge, with whom truth is the first consideration.

Next to the duty of original research, Polybius ranks that of impartiality.

And on the whole, Polybius must be allowed here again to have practised what he preached.

In respect of form, Polybius is far the inferior of Livy, partly, owing to his very virtues.

Nor, lastly, is Polybius's style itself such as to compensate for these defects.

But, in spite of these redeeming features, the prevailing baldness of Polybius's style excludes him from the first rank among classical writers; and it is impossible to quarrel with the verdict pronounced by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who places him among those authors of later times who neglected the graces of style, and who paid for their neglect by leaving behind them works "which no one was patient enough to read through to the end."

It is to the value and variety of his matter, to his critical insight, breadth of view and wide research, and not least to the surpassing importance and interest of the period with which he deals, that Polybius owes his place among the writers of history.

Posidonius and Strabo, both of them Stoics like Polybius himself, are said to have written continuations of his history (Suidas, s.v.; Strabo p. 515).

For a full account of these and of later editions, as well as of the extant MSS., see Schweighauser's Preface to his edition of Polybius.

This has been discredited because it is not mentioned by Polybius, Livy or Plutarch; but it is probable that Archimedes had constructed some such burning instrument, though the connexion of it with the destruction of the Roman fleet is more than doubtful.

At the same time they were so far from enjoying tranquillity on this account that the few notices we find of them in history always represent them as engaged in local wars among one another; and Polybius tells us that the history of Crete was one continued series of civil wars, which were carried on with a bitter animosity exceeding all that was known in the rest of Greece.

Antiochus contrived to get possession of the person of Achaeus (see Polybius), but the citadel held out till 213 under Achaeus's widow and then surrendered.

The testimony of Livy (xxi., xxii.) and Polybius (ii., iii.) - no friendly critics - shows that Flaminius was a man of ability, energy and probity.

Eratosthenes, indeed (276-196 B.C.), attached great value to his authority as to Britain and Spain, though doubting some of his statements; but Polybius (c. 204-122 B.C.) considered the whole work of Pytheas a tissue of fables, like that of Euhemerus concerning Panchaea; and even Strabo, in whose time the western regions of Europe were comparatively well known, adopted to a great extent the view of Polybius.

A " personal treaty," having reference to dynastic interests, is contrasted with a " real treaty," which binds the nation irrespectively 1 For the celebrated treaty of 509 B.C. between Rome and Carthage, see Polybius iii.

The Romans now dissolved the league (in effect, if not in name), and took measures to isolate the communities (see Polybius).

In the case of Polybius, for instance, he allows himself great freedom in omitting what strikes him as irrelevant, or tedious, or uninteresting to his Roman readers, a process in which much valuable matter disappears.

Livy, however, notwithstanding the extent to which he used his writings (see LivY), speaks of him in such qualified terms as to suggest the idea that his strong artistic sensibilities had been wounded by Polybius's literary defects.