The author claims to have consulted all the best authorities, the most important of which was a lost treatise on the subject by Polybius.

Livy mentions that other sources claim 32, 000 Macedonians were killed and even one writer who due to " boundless exaggeration " claims 40, 000 but concludes that Polybius is the trustworthy source on this matter.

Polybius claims that, " as their outer ranks were continually cut down, and the survivors forced to pull back and huddle together, they were finally all killed where they stood.

Polybius ( 13. 6-7 ) claims that he would frequently exile the leading citizens of conquered communities and marry their wives to the brigands and freed slaves under his command.

Most of these are purely geographical claims, but he does mention that Eratosthenes ' sources say that some of the Greek kings conquered further than Alexander ; Strabo does not believe them on this, but modern historians do ; nor does he believe that Menander and Demetrius son of Euthydemus conquered more tribes than Alexander There is half a story about Menander in one of the books of Polybius which has not come down to us intact.

( Polybius, the surviving ancient account closest in time to Hannibal's campaign, reports that the route was already debated.

According to Polybius, Hannibal's cavalry boldly rode up to the edge of the Roman encampment, causing havoc and thoroughly disrupting the supply of water to the Roman camp.

Polybius ' brief notice of the story uses Horatius as an example of the men who have " devoted themselves to inevitable death ... to save the lives of other citizens.

Philip spent the winter of 217 – 216 BC building a fleet of 100 warships and training men to row them, and according to Polybius, it was a practice that " hardly any Macedonian king had ever done before ".

He was a man of culture and refinement ; he gathered round him such men as the Greek historian Polybius, the Stoic philosopher Panaetius, and the poets Lucilius and Terence — a group that came to be known as the Scipionic circle.

Polybius remarks: “ Greek statesmen, if entrusted with a single talent, though protected by ten checking-clerks, as many seals and twice as many witnesses, yet cannot be induced to keep faith ; whereas among the Romans, in their magistracies and embassies, men have the handling of a great amount of money, and yet from pure respect for their oath keep their faith intact .” ³

# Those most wise men, Thallus, Castor F 11, and Polybius F 4 ... and among others, Herodotus ... and the wise Theophilus, all recorded the chronology of the reign of Croesus.

Gesco and 700 of his men had their arms and legs broken, their hands cut off, were castrated, and were thrown into a pit to die, according to Polybius.

According to Polybius, the Syrians suffered a little under 10, 000 foot dead, about 300 horse and 5 elephants, 4, 000 men were taken prisoner.

According to Polybius the scutum gave Roman soldiers an edge over their Carthaginian enemies during the Punic Wars: " Their arms also give the men both protection and confidence owing to the size of the shield.

Polybius says that they had begun the Alpine venture with 38, 000 men and 8, 000 cavalry.

Livy, on the other hand, although repeating Polybius ' numbers, states that after the battle Scipio quietly marched his army into Placentia ( Piacenza ) and went on to Cremona so that there would not be two armies wintering in Placentia ( Piacenza ).

He had noticed, says Polybius, a “ place between the two camps, flat indeed and treeless, but well adapted for an ambuscade, as it was traversed by a water-course with steep banks, densely overgrown with brambles and other thorny plants, and here he proposed to lay a stratagem to surprise the enemy ”.

There was a fourth bureau for miscellaneous issues, which was put under Polybius until his execution for treason.

According to the historian Polybius, considerable debate took place in Rome on the question of whether to accept the Mamertines ' appeal for help, and thus likely enter into a war with Carthage.

Polybius states that the Carthaginians had 130 ships, but does not give an exact figure for the Romans.

Polybius is also credited for being the first historian to write a History of the World, and to offer argued explanations and interpretations of history facts, and not only a record of them.

If Polybius is correct in his figure for the number of troops he commanded after the crossing of the Rhone, this would suggest that he had lost almost half of his force.

As Polybius recounts, " he calculated that, if he passed the camp and made a descent into the district beyond, Flaminius ( partly for fear of popular reproach and partly of personal irritation ) would be unable to endure watching passively the devastation of the country but would spontaneously follow him.

As Polybius notes, " How much more serious was the defeat of Cannae, than those that preceded it can be seen by the behavior of Rome ’ s allies ; before that fateful day, their loyalty remained unshaken, now it began to waver for the simple reason that they despaired of Roman Power.

Polybius describes the system for the distribution of watchwords in the Roman military as follows:

Polybius (; 200 – 118 BC ), Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220 – 146 BC in detail.

Polybius is also renowned for his ideas concerning the separation of powers in government, later used in Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws and in the drafting of the United States Constitution.

Lycortas attracted the suspicion of the Romans, and Polybius subsequently was one of the 1, 000 Achaean nobles who were transported to Rome as hostages in 167 BC, and was detained there for 17 years.

While Polybius was not the first to promote this ideal ; it was his account that provided the most vivid, cogent illustration of this ideal for later political theorists.

Peter Green suggests it would be well to remember Polybius was chronicling Rome's history for a Greek audience with the aim of convincing them of the necessity of accepting Roman rule – which he believed was inevitable.

The British author Adrian Goldsworthy also constantly mentions Polybius ' connections with Scipio when calling upon Polybius as a source for the latter's time as a general.

Polybius was responsible for a useful tool in telegraphy that allowed letters to be easily signaled using a numerical system ( mentioned in Hist.

However, Greek-influenced Roman authors, such as Polybius and Cicero, sometimes also used the term as a translation for the Greek politeia which could mean regime generally, but could also be applied to certain specific types of regime which did not exactly correspond to that of the Roman Republic.

* 203 BC – Polybius, Greek historian, famous for his book called " The Histories " or " The Rise of the Roman Empire ", covering in detail the period between 220 and 146 BC ( d. 120 BC )

* At Polybius ' request, Scipio Aemilianus manages to gain the support of the Roman statesman Cato the Elder ( whose son has married Scipio's sister Aemilia ) for a proposal to release ( and return to Greece ) the 300 Achaean internees who are still being held without trial after being deported to Rome in 167 BC.

* Polybius, Greek historian, famous for his book called " The Histories " or " The Rise of the Roman Empire ", covering in detail the period between 220 and 146 BC ( d. 120 BC )

* With the aid of the Greek statesman and historian Polybius, the son of the former Seleucid king Seleucus IV Philopator, Demetrius escapes from Rome, where he has been held as a hostage for many years, and returns to Syria to claim the throne from his nephew Antiochus V. In the resulting dispute, Antiochus V and his regent, Lysias, are overthrown and put to death.

), and for later writers, Polybius, Josephus, the Chronicon Paschale, George Syncellus, George Hamartolus, and so on.

Polybius assumes a union of troops would have been effected and Sempronius would be commanding four legions ( he uses conditional language and not declarative statements ).

At this same period he used to rise at four o ' clock in the morning to read the classics and military writers, and he translated many chapters of Polybius.