Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/457

Rh POLYBIUS. impossible to determine. He tells us (iii. 59) that he undertook long and dangerous joumies into Africa, Spain, Gaul, and even as far as the Atlantic, on account of the ignorance which pre- vailed respecting those parts. Some of these countries he visited -while serving under Scipio, who afforded him every facility for the prosecution of his design. Thus we learn from Pliny (//. N. V. 1 ), that Scipio, during the third Punic war, placed a fleet at the disposal of his friend, in order that he might explore the African coast. At a later period of his life he visited Egypt likewise ; and this journey must have been taken after the fall of Corinth, since he was in that country in the reign of Ptolemy Physcon, who did not ascend the throne till B.C. 146 (Strab. xvii. p. 797). It has been conjectured that Polybius accompanied Scipio to Spain in B. c. 1 34, and was present at the fall of Nuraantia in the following year, since Cicero states (ad Fam. v. 12) that Polybius wrote a history of the Numantine war. The year of his death is uncertain. We have only the testimony of Lucian {Macrob. 23), that he died at the age of 82, in consequence of a fall from his horse, as he was returning from the country. If we are correct in placing his birth in B. c. 204, his death would fallinB.c. 122 The history of Polybms consisted of forty books. It began B.C. 220, where the history of Aratus left off, and ended at B. c. 146, in which year Corinth was destroyed, and the independence of Greece perished. It consisted of two distinct parts, which were probably published at different times and afterwards united into one work. The first part comprised a period of fifty-three years, beginning with the second Punic war, the Social War in Greece, and the war between Antiochus and Ptolemy Philopator in Asia, and ending with the conquest of Perseus and the downfal of the Macedonian kingdom, in B. c. 168. This was in fact the main portion of his work, and its great object was to show how the Romans had in this brief period of fifty-three years conquered the greater part of the world ; but since the Greeks were ignorant for the most part of the early history of Rome, he gives a survey of Roman history from the taking of the city by the Gauls to the com- mencement of the second Punic war, in the first two books, which thus form an introduction to the body of the work. With the fall of the Macedonian kingdom the supremacy of the Roman dominion was decided, and nothing more remained for the other nations of the world than to receive laws from the republic, and to yield submission to its sway. But, says Polybius (iii. 4), " the view only of the manner in which wars are terminated can never lead us into a complete and perfect knowledge, either of the conquerors or the conquered nations, since, in many instances, the most eminent and signal victories, through an injudicious use and application of them, have proved fatal and per- nicious ; as, on the other hand, the heaviest ills of fortune, when supported with constancy and courage, are frequently converted into great advan- tage. On this account it will be useful, likewise, to review the policy which the Romans afterwards observed, in governing the countries that were subdued, and to consider also, what were the sentiments of the conquered states with respect to the conduct of their masters : at the same time describing the vaiious characters and inclinations POLYBIUS. 446 of particular men, and laying open their tempera and designs, as well in private life as in the affairs of government To render, therefore, this history complete and perfect, it will be necessary to lay open and explain the circumstances and con- dition of each several people, from the time that the contest was decided which gave to the Romans the sovereignty of the world, to the rise of new commotions and disorders. And as these too were of great importance, and attended with many uncom- mon incidents, and as I was myself engaged in the execution of some of them, in the conduct and con- trivance of others, and was an eye-witness of almost all, I shall undertake the task of relating them at large, and begin, as it were, a new history.'* This second part, which formed a kind of sup- plement, comprised the period from the conquest of Perseus in B. c. 1 68, to the fall of Corinth in B. c. 146. The history of the conquest of Greece seems to have been completed in the Ihirty-ninth book ; and the fortieth book probably contained a chronological summary of the whole work. (Comp. Clinton, F. H. ad ann. 146.) The subjects contained in each of these parts are related circumstantially by Polybius in the following passage, which will give the reader the best idea of the contents of the work. " Having first explained the causes of the war between the Carthaginians and the Romans, which is most frequently called the war of Hannibal, we shall show in what manner this general entered Italy, and gave so great a shock to the empire of the Romans, that they began to fear that they should soon be dispossessed even of their proper country and se'at of government : while their enemies, elate with a success which had exceeded all their hopes, were persuaded that Rome itself must fall, as soon as they should once appear before it. We shall then speak of the alliance that was made by Philip with the Carthaginians as soon as he had ended his war with the Aetolians, and settled the affairs of Greece, Next will follow the disputes between Antiochus and Ptolemy Philopator, and the war that ensued between them for the sovereignty of Coele-Syria ; together with the war which Prusias and the Rhodians made upon the people of Byzantium ; with design to force them to desist from exacting certain duties, which they were accustomed to demand from all vessels that sailed into the Pontus. In this place we shall pause awhile, to take a view of the form and constitution of the Roman govern- ment ; and, in the course of our inquiry, shall en- deavour to demonstrate, that the peculiar tempera- ment and spirit of their republic supplied the chief and most effectual means by which this people were enabled, not only to acquire the sovereignty of Italy and Sicily, and to reduce the Gauls and Spaniards to their yoke, but to subdue the Car- thaginians also, and when they had completed this great conquest, to form the project of obtaining universal empire. We shall add, likewise, a short digression concerning the fate of Hiero's kingdom in Sicily ; and afterwards go on to speak of those commotions that were raised in Egypt, after the death of Ptolemy, by Philip and Antiochus : the wicked arts by which those princes attempted to share between themselves the dominions of the infant king ; and the mannei in which the former of them invaded Egypt, Saraos, and Caria ; and the latter Coele-Syiia and Phoenicia. We thgn shall make a general recapitulation of all that was transacted