Histories by Polybius of Megalopolis

Contents

1. Αʹ Book I

   Polybius opens with his question: how almost the whole inhabited world came under Roman rule in less than fifty-three years. As background he narrates Rome's first crossing to Sicily, the First Punic War with Rome's new fleets and the long siege of Lilybaeum, then the Mercenary War that nearly destroyed Carthage. It ends with Carthage giving up Sardinia and paying Rome a further 1,200 talents.

2. Βʹ Book II

   Hamilcar takes the nine-year-old Hannibal to Spain, where Hasdrubal later succeeds him. Rome's war with the Illyrian queen Teuta follows, then the Gauls of the Po valley, their invasions and their defeat at Telamon. The second half turns to Greece: the growth of the Achaean League, the war with Cleomenes of Sparta ending at Sellasia, and Polybius's attack on Phylarchus, before the narrative halts on the eve of the Hannibalic War.

3. Γʹ Book III

   The war with Hannibal begins. Polybius restates the plan of the whole work, examines the causes of the war, the treaties between Rome and Carthage and the attack on Saguntum, and follows Hannibal across the Rhône and the Alps. Before the Ticinus he has captive Gauls fight to the death as a lesson to his army; the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae follow, and the close promises an account of the constitution that let Rome recover.

4. Δʹ Book IV

   The narrative returns to Greece for the same Olympiad. After a review of the Achaean League, it follows the outbreak of the Social War, in which Philip V of Macedon and the Achaeans under Aratus fought the Aetolians. A long digression describes Byzantium and the Black Sea, arguing that river silt must in time make it shallow like Lake Maeotis. The book ends with Apelles plotting against Aratus and Philip wintering at Argos.

5. Εʹ Book V

   In Greece Philip V turns back to Aratus, breaks the conspiracy of Apelles and Leontius, and campaigns by land and sea until the peace of Naupactus. In Asia, Antiochus III puts down the revolt of Molon, rids himself of his minister Hermeias and fights Ptolemy IV for Coele-Syria, losing at Raphia. The book closes with Prusias of Bithynia destroying the Gauls who had crossed into Asia.

6. Ϛʹ Book VI

   After Cannae the narrative pauses for the Roman constitution. Polybius sets out the cycle in which kingship, aristocracy and democracy each decline into a corrupt form and give way to the next, shows how consuls, Senate and people check each other, and describes the levy, the arms and the layout of a Roman camp, with comparisons to Sparta, Carthage and Crete. It ends with the Senate refusing to ransom the prisoners taken at Cannae.

7. Ζʹ Book VII

   Capua's luxury and its defection to Hannibal are set against Petelia, which held out for eleven months, in the opening fragments. At Syracuse the young king Hieronymus turns to Carthage, and Hannibal's treaty with Philip V is quoted. Polybius marks the start of Philip's change for the worse, and the book ends with Antiochus III storming Sardis, held by the rebel Achaeus.

8. Ηʹ Book VIII

   Rome and Carthage fighting at once in Italy, Spain, Sicily and Greece open the book. Its main narrative is the Roman siege of Syracuse, where Archimedes' engines hold off Marcellus by land and sea until the city falls by surprise from Epipolae. It also tells how Bolis the Cretan betrayed Achaeus to Antiochus III at Sardis, judges Theopompus's portrait of Philip II, and narrates Hannibal's capture of Tarentum.

9. Θʹ Book IX

   The book opens with a defence of history confined to political and military action, written for statesmen rather than for readers of genealogies and foundation stories. The fragments cover Hannibal's march on Rome to relieve Capua, and rival speeches at Sparta by Chlaeneas of Aetolia and Lyciscus of Acarnania. Polybius sets out what a general must know, astronomy and geometry included, and asks how far Hannibal's cruelty and greed were forced on him by friends and circumstance.

10. Ιʹ Book X

    Tarentum's harbours and the coast of southern Italy come first. The centre of what survives is Scipio in Spain: his character, the capture of New Carthage and his treatment of the Spanish hostages. Polybius also writes on signalling by fire, Philip V's abuses at Argos after the Nemean games, and Antiochus III's eastern campaign, ending with the cavalry battle against Euthydemus of Bactria in which the king lost his horse and some teeth.

11. ΙΑʹ Book XI

    A preview of events set before each Olympiad, Polybius explains, serves better than headings. The fragments then cover Hasdrubal's defeat at the Metaurus, speeches urging the Aetolians to make peace with Philip, Philopoemen's victory over Machanidas at Mantinea, a tribute to Hannibal's command, Scipio's victory at Ilipa and the mutiny he put down, and the end of Antiochus III's march to Bactria and India.

12. ΙΒʹ Book XII

    This is Polybius's polemic on how history should be written. After notes on North Africa, including his own description of the lotus tree, he attacks Timaeus at length for errors about Africa, Corsica and Locri and for learning without experience, and faults Callisthenes's account of Alexander's battle at Issus. The surviving text ends by insisting that only someone versed in war and politics can question witnesses well.

13. ΙΓʹ Book XIII

    The indebted Aetolians appoint Dorimachus and Scopas to write new laws over the objections of Alexander the Aetolian, and Scopas leaves for Alexandria. Nabis builds his tyranny at Sparta by murder, exile and confiscation, Heracleides of Tarentum serves Philip V, and Antiochus III deals with the Gerrhaeans. Place names cited from the book by Stephanus of Byzantium close these short fragments.

14. ΙΔʹ Book XIV

    This Olympiad is given a book for each year, since in it the wars in Italy and Africa came to an end. Scipio, wintering near Utica, burns the camps of Syphax and the Carthaginians by night, then defeats them again on the Great Plains. The book closes by treating the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator all at once: his dissolute life and an Egyptian war notable only for its cruelty.

15. ΙΕʹ Book XV

    Carthage breaks the truce by seizing Roman supply ships, and Scipio's envoys are attacked. Scipio and Hannibal meet and speak before Zama, fight the battle that ends the war, and peace terms follow. The rest concerns Philip V's destruction of Cius, ruined by its demagogue Molpagoras, the killing of the regent Agathocles at Alexandria, told with a warning against tragic excess, and the decline of Antiochus III.

16. ΙϚʹ Book XVI

    Philip V wrecks the temples round Pergamum, fights Attalus and the Rhodians off Chios and wins off Lade. Polybius corrects the Rhodian historians Zeno and Antisthenes, and tells of his letter to Zeno about his mistakes on Laconia. Other fragments describe the siege of Abydos and the citizens' resolve to die, Rome's ultimatum to Philip, and Antiochus III's defeat of Scopas at Panion, after which the Jews of Jerusalem came over to him.

17. ΙΗʹ Book XVIII

    Philip V meets Flamininus and the Greek allies at Nicaea on the Malian Gulf, refusing to come ashore. The war is decided at Cynoscephalae, after which Polybius compares the Macedonian phalanx with the Roman legion. The Isthmian proclamation of Greek freedom and Rome's talks with Antiochus III at Lysimachia follow, and the book closes on courtiers of the young Ptolemy V who sank into licence in old age.

18. ΙΘʹ Book XIX

    Only one sentence is set under this book: Plutarch's report, in his life of Cato the Elder, that according to Polybius Cato had the walls of the cities on the near side of the Baetis pulled down in a single day, although they were many and full of fighting men.

19. Κʹ Book XX

    The war with Antiochus III reaches Greece. The Aetolians choose thirty councillors to sit with the king; Antiochus winters at Chalcis, hears envoys from Epirus and Elis, and marries a Chalcidian girl whom he renames Euboea. Polybius explains Boeotia's long decline, describes the Aetolians' talks with Manius Acilius after the fall of Heraclea, and ends with Philopoemen refusing a gift from Sparta.

20. ΚΑʹ Book XXI

    With its naval victory won, Rome offers the Aetolians terms they cannot accept and frees Philip V's son Demetrius. News of Antiochus III's defeat in Asia sends the Aetolians to seek mediators at Athens and Rhodes while Marcus Fulvius besieges Ambracia. Manlius Vulso campaigns against the Galatians, and the settlement of Apamea gives Phrygia, Lydia, Ephesus and other lands to Eumenes.

21. ΚΒʹ Book XXII

    A summary of contents for the 148th Olympiad heads the fragments. Philip V's disputes with the Thessalians and with Eumenes are heard by Caecilius at Tempe and Thessalonica, Philip massacres the people of Maroneia, and Polybius traces the roots of the war with Perseus. In the Peloponnese the Achaeans weigh alliance with Ptolemy and gifts from kings and resist Roman pressure over Sparta; portraits of the Galatian Ortiagon and the eunuch Aristonicus close it.

22. ΚΓʹ Book XXIII

    Embassies from all Philip V's neighbours crowd into Rome to accuse him, and his son Demetrius answers them before the Senate. Messene revolts from the Achaean League, the Senate refuses help, and Philopoemen dies in the war, while Philip's own misfortunes in Macedonia begin. The book ends with Sparta enrolled again in the League and rival embassies sent to Rome.

23. ΚΔʹ Book XXIV

    The Senate hears the Spartans, their exiles, the Achaeans and envoys of Eumenes, Ariarathes and Pharnaces. At the centre is the embassy of Callicrates, whose advice to back Rome's partisans in every city Polybius marks as the point from which the Senate gained flatterers and lost true friends. It ends with peace talks at Pergamum failing through Pharnaces, and Eumenes preparing for war and turning to Lycia.

24. ΚΕʹ Book XXV

    Strabo's report that Polybius credited Tiberius Gracchus with destroying three hundred Celtiberian cities, a figure Posidonius mocked as towers counted as cities, opens the fragments. The terms of the peace that ended the war of Eumenes, Prusias and Ariarathes with Pharnaces are given in full. Philip V's character is weighed again, and the Senate hears the Lycians against Rhodes and Dardanian warnings about the Bastarnae and Perseus.

25. ΚϚʹ Book XXVI

    A single character sketch survives, in two overlapping quotations: Antiochus IV, whom Polybius said was called Epimanes rather than Epiphanes for his conduct. The king slips away from his court to the silversmiths' and goldsmiths' shops, drinks with strangers, canvasses in a toga for Roman offices, hands out gifts at random, outdoes all kings in honours to the gods, and soaks a crowded bathhouse in costly perfume.

26. ΚΖʹ Book XXVII

    Perseus's war with Rome begins. Marcius and his fellow envoys break up the Boeotian League city by city as Thebes turns against Perseus's partisans. Perseus then offers terms to the consul Licinius and receives a harsh answer, which Polybius calls the Roman habit: proudest in defeat, most modest in success. Antiochus IV sends Meleager to Rome as the war over Coele-Syria approaches.

27. ΚΗʹ Book XXVIII

    Antiochus IV and Ptolemy VI send rival embassies to Rome as the war for Coele-Syria begins. In Greece the Achaeans vote under Archon to join Rome in full force against Perseus, and Polybius himself goes as their envoy to the consul in Thessaly. The book ends with Rhodian envoys in Antiochus's camp in Egypt, told that the kingdom belongs to the elder Ptolemy.

28. ΚΘʹ Book XXIX

    Aemilius Paullus rebukes the armchair generals of Rome before leaving for Macedonia, and the Senate sends Gaius Popilius to end Antiochus IV's war in Egypt. Perseus bargains with Genthius of Illyria; fragments of the Pydna campaign tell of Nasica's march over the passes and the eclipse of the moon. Popilius forces Antiochus out of Egypt and Cyprus, an outcome Polybius ties to Perseus's quick defeat.

29. Λʹ Book XXX

    After the fall of Perseus, Eumenes' brother Attalus comes to Rome and is nearly drawn into seeking a kingdom of his own. Aemilius Paullus stages games and destroys seventy towns of Epirus, enslaving 150,000 people; the Egyptian kings send thanks, and Cotys of Thrace asks for his son. The book ends with the Senate refusing to send home the Achaeans held in Italy, to the despair of Greece and the joy of Callicrates and Charops.

30. ΛΑʹ Book XXXI

    Attalus and Athenaeus clear Eumenes of the charges brought by Prusias, and Roman commissioners go east to watch him and Antiochus IV. Demetrius son of Seleucus, a hostage in Rome, escapes with Polybius's help and wins recognition as king through Tiberius Gracchus. The book also covers Ptolemy VIII's war with Cyrene and Polybius's friendship with the young Scipio Aemilianus.

31. ΛΒʹ Book XXXII

    Embassies crowd the Roman senate: Ariarathes sends a crown and receives a sceptre and ivory chair, and Attalus is cleared of charges brought by Prusias's Galatians. Demetrius of Syria sends a crown with Leptines, killer of the envoy Gnaeus Octavius, and the grammarian Isocrates, who had praised the deed, but the senate refuses the two men. Polybius sums up Eumenes of Pergamum and records Issa's complaints against the Dalmatians, and the book ends with the senate sending envoys to look into Attalus's defeat by Prusias.

32. ΛΓʹ Book XXXIII

    In the war between Prusias of Bithynia and Attalus of Pergamum, the senate sends envoys to restrain Prusias, and when he refuses most of their terms Rome renounces his friendship and alliance. Between these, an Achaean plea for the detainees in Italy is defeated by the praetor Aulus Postumius's handling of the vote, and the younger Ptolemy is given commissioners to restore him to Cyprus. Demetrius of Syria's drinking and a remark on refuting open falsehood close the book.

33. ΛΔʹ Book XXXIV

    Geography fills Book XXXIV of Polybius's Histories, which survives only through later writers who quote and dispute it, Strabo chief among them. The fragments argue that the land under the equator is habitable and milder than the edges of the torrid zone, correct Eratosthenes on the promontories of Europe, report acorns growing in the sea off Lusitania that fatten the tunny, and describe the three peoples of Alexandria as Polybius found them under Ptolemy Physcon.

34. ΛΕʹ Book XXXV

    The 'fiery war' between Rome and the Celtiberians, fought in battles that only night and winter could interrupt, is the subject here. Envoys of the Belli, Titthi and Arevaci are heard in Rome, Marcus Claudius Marcellus winters at Corduba, and fear of Spanish service leaves the levy short of officers and volunteers. The book ends in Rome, where Cato mocks the debate over the Achaean exiles and compares Polybius to Odysseus going back to the Cyclops's cave.

35. ΛϚʹ Book XXXVI

    Rome's decision for the Third Punic War opens Book XXXVI, after Polybius explains why he gives speakers only what was actually said. The Greek debate over whether Rome wronged Carthage follows, weighing impiety, breach of treaty and injustice, and then the rise of a pretender claiming to be Philip, son of Perseus, whom Macedonians followed to victory over a Roman army. The closing fragment is damaged and partly illegible.

36. ΛΖʹ Book XXXVII

    Nothing of Book XXXVII survives as narrative. Its only remnant is a single entry in a geographical lexicon naming Mouseion, a place near Olympus in Macedonia, and citing Polybius's thirty-seventh book for it.

37. ΛΗʹ Book XXXVIII

    The ruin of the Achaean League and of Greece in 146 BCE is the book's subject, introduced by Polybius's argument that the Greeks' misfortune was more pitiable than that of Carthage because it was self-inflicted. Roman envoys under Sextus try to settle the quarrel with Sparta at Tegea, and Critolaus refuses every proposal. The book closes at the fall of Carthage, where Scipio weeps over the burning city and quotes Homer on the fall of Ilios to Polybius.

38. ΛΘʹ Book XXXIX

    The last surviving book of the Histories opens with Aulus Postumius, who wrote history in Greek and apologised for his style, and Cato's retort. The ten commissioners settle Achaea, leave Polybius to explain the new laws city by city, and he is honoured for it; the Roman general repairs the Isthmus and adorns Olympia and Delphi. It closes with Polybius restating the span and purpose of his history; its dates and the number of its books remain to be set out.