-
Skip These Ads
-
Skip These Ads|
|
 |
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PIG-POL |
|
|
POLYBIUS (c. 204122 B.C.) , Greek historian, was a native of Megalopolis in Arcadia, the youngest of Greek cities (Paus. viii. 9), which, however, played an honourable part in the last days of Greek freedom as a stanch member of the Achaean League (q.v.), His father, Lycortas, was the intimate friend of Philopoemen, and on the death of the latter, in 182, succeeded him as leader of the league. The date of Polybius
Ptolemy
Ptolemy
secret leaning towards Macedon. Polybius
commander
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. His intention was to make plain how and why it was that " all the known regions of the civilized world had fallen under the sway of Rome " (iii. 1). This empire of Rome, unprecedented in its extent and still more so in the rapidity with which it had been ac- uired, was the standing
These fifty-three years are those between 22o (the point at which the work of Aratus ended) and 168 n.c., and extend therefore from the outbreak of the Hannibalic War to the defeat of Perseus at Pydna. To this period then the main portion of his history is devoted from the third to the thirtieth book inclusive. But for clearness' sake he prefixes in bks. i. and ii. such a preliminary sketch of the earlier history of Rome, of the First Punic War, and of the contemporary events in Greece and Asia, as will enable his readers more fully to understand what follows. This seems to have been his original plan, but at the opening of bk. iii., written apparently after 146, he explains that he thought it desirable to add some account of the manner in which the Romans exercised the power they had won, of their temperament and policy and of the final catastrophe which destroyed Carthage and for ever broke np the Achaean League (iii. 4, 5). To this appendix, giving the history from 168146, the last ten books are devoted. Whatever fault may be found with Polybius, there can be no question that he had formed a high conception of the task before him. He lays repeated stress on two qualities as distinguishing his history from the ordinary run of historical compositions. The first of these, its synoptic character, was partly necessitated by the nature of the period. The various states fringing the basin of the Mediterranean had become so inextricably interwoven that it was no longer possible to deal with them in isolation. Polybius therefore claims for his history that it will take a comprehensive, view of the whole course of events in the civilized world, within the limits of the period (i. 4). He thus aims at placing before his readers at each stage a complete survey of the field of action from Spain to Syria and Egypt. This synoptic method proceeds from a true appreciation of what is now called the unity of history, and to Polybius must be given the credit of having first firmly grasped and clearly enforced a lesson which the events of his own time were especially well calculated to teach. It is the great merit of his work that it gives such a picture of the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. as no series of special narratives could have supplied. The second quality upon which Polybius insists as distinguishing his history from all others is its " pragmatic " character. It deals, that is, with events and with their causes, and aims at an accurate record and explanation of ascertained facts. This pragmatic method " (ix. 2) makes history intelligible by explaining the how and the why; and, secondly, it is only when so written that history can perform its true function of instructing and guiding those who study it. For the great use of history, according to Polybius, is to contribute to the right conduct of human life (i. 35). But this it can do only if the historian bears in mind the true nature of his task. He must remember that the historian should not write as the dramatist does to charm or excite his audience for the moment (ii. 56). He will aim simply at exhibiting events in their true light, setting forth " the why and the how " in each case, not confusing causes and occasions, or dragging in old wives' fables, prodigies and marvels (ii. i6, iii. 48). He will omit nothing which can help to explain the events, he is dealing with : the genius and temperament of particular peoples, their political and military systems, the characters of the leading men, the geographical features of the country, must all be taken into account. To this conception of history Polybius is on the whole consistently faithful. It is true that his anxiety to instruct leads often to a rather wearisome iteration of his favourite maxims, and that his digressions, such as that on the military art, are occasionally provokingly long and didactic. But his comments and reflections are for the most part sound and instructive (e.g. those on the lessons to be learnt from the revolt of the mercenaries in Africa, i. 65; from the Celtic raids in Italy, ii. 35 ; and on the Roman character), while among his digressions are included such invaluable chapters as those on the Roman constitution (bk. vi), the graphic description of Cisalpine Gaul (bk. ii.) and the account of the rise and constitution of the Achaean League (ii. 38 seq.). To his anxiety again to trace back events to their first causes we owe, not only the careful inquiry (bk. iii.) into the origin of the Second Punic War, but the sketch of early Roman history in bk. i., and of the early treaties between Rome and Carthage in iii. 22 seq. Among the many defects which he censures in previous historians, not the least serious in his eyes are their inattention to the political and geographical surroundings of the history (ii. 16, iii. 36), and their neglect duly to set forth the causes of events (iii. 6). 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. Without a personal knowledge of affairs a writer will inevitably distort the true relations and importance of events (xii. 28). Such experience would have saved accomplished and fluent Greek writers like Timaeus from many of their blunders (xii. 25a), but the shortcomings of Roman soldiers ' and senators like Q. Fabius Pictor show that it is not enough by itself. Equally indispensable is careful painstaking research. All available evidence must be collected, thoroughly sifted, soberly weighed, and, 'lastly, the historian must be animated by a sincere love of truth and a calm impartiality. It is important to consider how far Polybius himself comes up to his standard. In his personal acquaintance with affairs, in the variety of his experience, and in his opportunities for forming a correct judgment on events he is without a rival among ancient historians. A great part of the period of which he treats fell within his own lifetime (iv. 2). He may just have remembered the battle of Cynoscephalae (197), and, as we have seen, he was actively engaged in the military and political affairs of the Achaean League. During his exile in Rome he was able to study the Roman constitution, and the peculiarities of the Roman temperament; he made the acquaintance of Roman senators, and became the intimate friend of the greatest Roman of the day. Lastly, he was able to survey with his own eyes the field on which the great struggle between Rome and Hannibal was fought out. He left Rome only to witness the crowning triumph of Roman arms in Africa, and to gain a practical acquaintance with Roman methods of government by assisting in the settlement of Achaea. When, in 146, his public life closed, he completed his preparation of himself for his great work by laborious investigations of archives and monuments, and by a careful personal examination of historical sites and scenes. To all this we must add that he was deeply read in the learning of his day, above all in the writings of earlier historians.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 ciao e9eirlovers of knowledge, with whom truth is the first consideration. He closely studied the bronze tablets in, Rome on which were in. scribed the early treaties concluded between Romans and Carthaginians. He quotes the actual language of the treaty which ended the First Punic War (i.62), and of that between Hannibal and Philip of Macedon (vii. 9). In xvi. 15 he refers to a document which he had personally inspected in the archives at Rhodes, and in iii. 33 to the monument on the Lacinian promontory, recording the number of Hannibal's forces. According. to Dionysius, i. 17, he got his date forthe foundation of Rome from a tablet in the pontifical archives. As instances of his careful attention to geography and topography we have not only the fact of his widely extended travels, from the African coast and the Pillars of Hercules in the west, to the Euxine and the coasts of Asia Minor in the east, but also the geographical and topographical studies scattered throughout his history. Next to the duty of original research, Polybius ranks that of impartiality. Some amount of bias in favour of one's own country may, he thinks, be pardoned as natural (xvi. 14) ; but it is unpardonable, he says, for the historian to set anything whatever above the truth. And on the whole, Polybius must be allowed here again to have practised what he preached. It is true that his affection for and pride
His interest
In respect of form, Polybius is far the inferior of Livy, partly owing. to his very virtues. His laudable desire to present a picture of the whole political situation at each important moment is fatal to the continuity of his narrative, Thus the thrilling story of the Second Punic War is broken in upon by digressions on the con-temporary affairs in Greece and Asia. More serious, however, than this excessive lover of synchronism is his almost pedantic anxiety to edify. For grace. and elegance of composition, and for the artistic presentation of events, he has a hardly concealed con-tempt. Hence a general and almost studied carelessness of effect, which mars his whole work. On the other hand he is never weary of preaching. His favourite theories of the nature and aims of history, of the distinction between the universal and special histories, of the duties of an historian, sound as most of them are in them-selves, are enforced with wearisome iteration; more than once the effect of a graphic picture is spoilt by obtrusive moralizing. Nor, lastly, is Polybius's style itself such as to compensate for these defects. It is, indeed, often impressive from the evident earnestness of the writer, and from his sense of the gravity of his subject, and is unspoilt by rhetoric or conceit. It has about it the ring of reality; the language is sometimes pithy and vigorous; and now and then, we meet with apt metaphors, such as those 'borrowed from boxing (i. 57), from cock-fighting (i. 58), from draughts (i. 84). 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
him maintained by Quintilian and by Lucian may reasonably be (v. 20), and is accepted as genuine . by Harnacka and Kruger.t taken to imply their agreement with Dionysius as to his merits as a master of style. On the other hand, Cicero (De off. iii. 32) describes him as " bonus auctor in primis "; in the De republics (ii. 14) he praises highly his accuracy in matters of chronology; and Cicero's younger contemporary, Marcus Brutus, was a devoted student of Polybius, and was engaged on the eve of the battle of Pharsalia in compiling an epitome of his histories (Suidas, s.v.; Plutarch, Brut. 4). 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. He has nothing better to say of him than that he is by no means contemptible " (xxx. 45), and " not an untrustworthy author " (xxxiii. 1o). 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). Arrian in the early part of the 2nd and Aelian in the 3rd century both speak of him with respect, though with reference mainly to his excellence as an authority on the art of war. In addition to his Histories Polybius was the author of the following smaller works: a life of Philopoemen (Polyb. x. 24), a history of the Numantine War (Cie. Ad Fam. v. 12), a treatise on tactics (Polyb. ix. 20; Arrian, Tactica; Aelian, Tact. i.). The geographical treatise, referred to by Geminus, is possibly identical with the thirty-fourth book of the Histories (Schweighauser, Praef p. 184. The following are the more important modern editions of Polybius : Ernesti (3 vols., 1763-1764); Schweighauser (8 vols., 1793, and Oxford, 1823) ; Bekker (2 vols., 1844) ; L. Dindorf (4 vols., 1866-1868, 2nd ed., T. Buttner-Wobst, 5 vols., Leipzig
Strachan
Leipzig
Strachan
End of Article: POLYBIUS (c. 204122 B.C.) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/PIG_POL/POLYBIUS_c_204122_BC_.html"> POLYBIUS (c. 204122 B.C.) </a> |
|
|
(Previous) POLYANTHUS |
(Next) POLYCARP (c. 6g-c. 155) |
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present. |
Free & Cheap Cell
Phones |
Cheap Long Distance
Phone Service Carriers |
Talk America Local Phone Service
|
Ztel & MCI - Unlimited Long Distance
Compare
Cell Phone Plans & Companies |
International Calling Cards & Prepaid Phone Cards |
Voice Over IP Broadband Internet Phone
Service | Wireless
Phone Plans & Cheap Cell Phones
|
_____________________________________________________________________________
Online First Aid and CPR Certification . The Online Christ Centered Ministries . The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained . The Inerrancy Discussion Board . Free Email Accounts . Home Equity Loans . JasonGastrich.com . The Missions, Apologetics, and Creation Bible Conference . Young Earth Creation Science . San Diego Music Lessons . 10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings . Gastrich.net . Maximizing the Internet: 12 Keys to Success . Louisiana Baptist University . NKJV Web Hosting and Services . Michael Newdow . San Diego Soccer Training . Christian Guitar Lessons . Jesus Christ Saves Ministries . Eternal Security
