Polybius (c.200–c.118 BCE) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is renowned for The Histories, which described the rise of the Roman Republic to the status of dominance in the ancient Mediterranean world.
Born in Megalopolis, Arcadia, Polybius belonged to an influential political family in Greece that opposed the rising influence of Rome in the early second century. He had an initial political career in Greece—a leader in the Achaean Confederation, Polybius was expelled as an honored hostage to Rome in 168 BCE. He became a friend of the politician Scipio Africanus Minor and accompanied him to Spain and Africa. Polybius was present at the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE and later acted as an intermediary between Rome and the Achaeans.
Polybius’s The Histories, 40 books of Universal History, only partially extant, chronicle the rise of the Roman Empire to the imperial status from 220 BCE (the year of the 140th Olympiad) to 146 BCE, when the Romans settled in Greece and ended the kingdom of Macedonia.
Based on documentary research, eyewitness accounts, and geographic and political knowledge, Polybius was the first to explain causation and processes in writing history.
Polybius’s assessment of the separation of powers in government was influential on Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws and the framers of the United States Constitution.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Polybius
We can profit only by our own misfortunes and those of others. The former, though they may be the more beneficial, are also the more painful; let us turn, then, to the latter.
—Polybius
Topics: Misfortune
Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories.
—Polybius
Topics: Winning, Victory, Winners
Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.
—Polybius
Topics: Goals, Persistence, Victory, Endurance, Resolve, Goal, Perseverance
When the ancients said a work well begun was half done, they meant to impress the importance of always endeavoring to make a good beginning.
—Polybius
Topics: Beginnings
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