Product Description

The Greek statesman Polybius (c.200–118 BC) wrote his account of the relentless growth of the Roman Empire in order to help his fellow countrymen understand how their world came to be dominated by Rome. Opening with the Punic War in 264 BC, he vividly records the critical stages of Roman expansion: its campaigns throughout the Mediterranean, the temporary setbacks inflicted by Hannibal and the final destruction of Carthage. An active participant of the politics of his time as well as a friend of many prominent Roman citizens, Polybius drew on many eyewitness accounts in writing this cornerstone work of history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45916 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Book Information
Rome conquered the Mediterranean with a combination of manpower, military skill, might, intimidating toughness in adversity and moral scrupulousness.

Polybius, himself a Greek and an active contemporary participant in political relations with Rome, wrote the 40 books of his Universal History primarily to chronicle and account for the Roman conquest of Greece between 200 and 167 BC. He saw that Mediterranean history, under Rome's influence, was becoming an organic whole, so he starts his work in 264 BC with the beginning of Rome's clash with African Carthage, the rival imperialist power, and ends with the final destruction of Carthage in 146 BC.

Far more than a chronicle of military affairs, the Histories are superb political and social history. The clarity of his account is admirably preserved in this substantial selection from the surviving books.

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About the Author
Polybius lived from 200-118 BC and was a Greek statesman and historian. F.W. Walbank has published numerous works on ancient Greece. Ian Scott-Kilvert has also translated Plutarch's works for Penguin Classics.

Customer Reviews

A Polybius Reader: What's the problem?
I feel that the majority of previous reviews for this volume were written by people who are either very unreasonable or somewhat ignorant of the historical background to Polybius and his corpus. Polybius wrote a rather daunting forty books on the ascent of the Roman Republic, only six of which have survived in complete form. These six books in their entirety are in themselves a weighty read. They are currently available -together with fragments of the `lost' books -in six volumes published by Loeb with each volume weighing in at around 540 pages. Penguin's `Rise of the Roman Empire' is therefore tantamount to a `Polybius Reader' and is obviously aimed at a readership which has neither the necessity nor the inclination to wade through the surviving books of the `Histories' in all their glory.

That being understood, what exactly is supposed to be the problem with this volume? The work is not chronologically ordered -you'll have to take that up with Polybius; he elected to write an analytical rather than a narrative history of the Roman Republic. It omits huge sections of the six books -um hello, that's because it's a SELECTION; do you also have issues with triangles because they are one angle short of being a square? The editor's inclusions and exclusions do not coincide with your own views on what are the important sections of Polybius-I don't usually subscribe to arguments from authority, but look at it this way: Frank Walbank is also the author of the most comprehensive available commentary on `Histories' and for fifty years has been recognised as the foremost expert on Polybius; the guy who posted the critique which talked about elephants in a very disparaging manner is Joe Blow `somewhere off the coast of Tierra del Fuego'. Guess whose opinion I'm backing? Incidentally, do you think the weighting given to the account of the Second Punic War may be something to do with the fact that Polybius was a hostage and client of Scipio Aemilianus, adopted grandson of Scipio Africanus, and is therefore deemed to have a bit of inside knowledge on a conflict pivotal to the history of the Republic?

Bottom line: if you are doing some serious study of the Republic and need the whole nine yards of Polybius, then you're going to have to buy the Loeb editions and sport the £14.99 per volume. If you have an earnest interest in the Republic which extends to a desire to have a nodding acquaintance with the primary sources, then this is a perfectly adequate sample of the `Histories' -it doesn't pretend to be anything more.

The contents
No need to wade into an already rich reviewers' debate on the quality of this abstract from Polybius. What this selection does contain:

· The account of the First Punic War, in full.
· Roman expansion in Illyria and Cisalpine Gaul between the first two Punic Wars.
· The Hannibalic campaign of the Second Punic War.
· Scipio's campaign in Africa marking the end of the Second Punic War.
· Polybius' famous piece on the Roman constitution.
· Selected background on the Greek leagues and Greek strife leading to the Second Macedonian War.
· The supposed treaty between Hannibal and Philip V of Macedon.
· Extracts on the diplomacy leading to the Second Macedonian War.
· Considerations on the chronicler Timaeus.
· Various short extracts on the 200-146BC period of Roman expansion.

What this does not include:

· The story of the mercenary revolt at Carthage.
· Most of the (admittedly repetitive) Greek background of warfare and diplomacy between the leagues and with Macedon.
· Most of the Roman campaign in Spain of the Second Punic War.
· The harangues by Hannibal and the Roman generals before Cannae.
· The context in the Greek East and the triangular fight between the Hellenistic monarchs Philip V, Antiochus and Ptolemy.
· Polybius' explanation of his historical method.
· The end of Second Macedonian War and the key battle of Cynoscephalae.
· The account of the wars with Perseus of Macedon and with Antiochus, by which Rome came to dominate the Greek East.
· The account of the Third Punic War and the fall of Carthage.
· The account of the taking of Corinth (note that Polybius was supposedly present at both these last two events).

Altogether, this is a rather incomplete abstract, then, of Polybius' account of Rome's rise to supremacy in the Mediterranean world. Polybius is widely regarded as one of the most rigorous, well informed, and credible ancient historians of the period.

Ultimately too selective
I realise this is advertised as a selection, but if you're interested in Hellenistic history as much as Roman, it is pretty disappointing what's been left out. However, there is a 2-vol. 1889 translation by Shuckburgh of all the surviving text that you can pick up for around £30 on Amazon marketplace. I do think Penguin or maybe Oxford World's classics should bring out a complete translation, though - 120 years since the last one is a little shaming.