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 ”.

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

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

If one follows Polybius, the course of events was the following: Despite the Carthaginian pre-war naval advantage, the Roman landing was virtually unopposed.

According to Polybius, this army was partly composed of Ligurians, Celts and Iberians.

Carthage attempted to intervene with a fleet of 350 ships ( according to Polybius ), but was defeated in the Battle of Cape Ecnomus.

Polybius commented that the war was, at the time, the most destructive in terms of casualties in the history of warfare, including the battles of Alexander the Great.

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

Polybius claims Hannibal's men marched for four days and three nights, “ through a land that was under water ”, suffering terribly from fatigue and enforced want of sleep.

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.

According to Pausanias and the Greek historian Polybius, an inscribed pillar ( stele ) was erected near the altar of Zeus on Mt.

While interest in Plato was increasing in Florence during Machiavelli's lifetime he also does not show particular interest in him, but was indirectly influenced by his readings of authors such as Polybius, Plutarch and Cicero.

The last link is supplied by Strabo, who says that an emporium on the island of Corbulo in the mouth of the Loire was associated with the Britain of Pytheas by Polybius.

Strabo, citing Polybius, accuses Pytheas of promulgating a fictitious journey he could never have funded, as he was a private individual ( idiōtēs ) and a poor man ( penēs ).

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 was born in Arcadia around 200 BC.

Polybius was then deported to Rome, where Lucius Aemilius Paulus employed him to tutor his two sons.

Polybius held that historians should only chronicle events whose participants the historian was able to interview, and was among the first to champion the notion of having factual integrity in historical writing, while avoiding bias.

Polybius was born around 200 BC in Megalopolis, Arcadia, at which time was an active member of the Achaean League.

Consequently, Polybius was able to observe first hand the political and military affairs of Megalopolis.

However, if they showed treasonous inclinations, the Emperor did punish them with just force, as in the case of Polybius and Pallas ' brother, Felix.

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 respects that limit but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, with the Atlantic side having no name.

During the height of the Roman Empire, famous historians such as Polybius, Livy and Plutarch documented the rise of the Roman Republic, and the organization and histories of other nations, while statesmen like Julius Caesar, Cicero and others provided us with examples of the politics of the republic and Rome's empire and wars.

In Rome, by virtue of his high culture, Polybius was admitted to the most distinguished houses, in particular to that of Aemilius Paulus, the conqueror in the Third Macedonian War, who entrusted Polybius with the education of his sons, Fabius and Scipio Aemilianus ( who had been adopted by the eldest son of Scipio Africanus ).

As the former tutor of Scipio Aemilianus, Polybius remained on cordial terms with his former pupil and remained a counselor to vanquisher of the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War.

When the Achaean hostages were released in 150 BC, Polybius was granted leave to return home, but the next year he went on campaign with Scipio Aemilianus to Africa, and was present at the capture of Carthage, which he later described.

In the succeeding years, Polybius resided in Rome, completing his historical work while occasionally undertaking long journeys through the Mediterranean countries in the furtherance of his history, in particular with the aim of obtaining firsthand knowledge of historical sites.

In Polybius ' time, the profession of a historian required political experience ( which aided in differentiating between fact and fiction ) and familiarity with the geography surrounding one's subject matter to supply an accurate version of events.

Modern historians are especially impressed with the manner in which Polybius used his sources, and in particular documents, his citation and quotation of his sources.

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.

In fact, observations made by Polybius, in conjunction with passages from Strabo and Scylax, allowed the discovery of the location of the lost city of Kydonia on Crete.

Perhaps the earliest of these, Polybius ( 2nd century BC ), uses Pados ( in Greek ) and says that it was to be identified with the Eridanos of the poets.

Polybius, a Greek historian, came up with a more complex system of alphabetical smoke signals around 150 BC.

In Rome, the vast, patriotic history of Rome by Livy ( 59 BC-17 AD ) approximated Herodotean inclusiveness ; Polybius ( c. 200-c. 118 BC ) aspired to combine the logical rigor of Thucydides with the scope of Herodotus.

Though the decline of the Roman Empire was the main subject which Zosimus selected, it was perhaps his ambition to imitate Polybius which led him to introduce various matters connected with Persian, Grecian, and Macedonian history, which are not very intimately connected with his main design.

As Polybius had narrated the events by which the Roman Empire had reached its greatness, so Zosimus undertook the task of developing the events and causes which led to its decline ( i. 57 ).

According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people ( and thus the assemblies ) who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital punishment, the declaration of war and peace, and the creation ( or dissolution ) of alliances.

Polybius makes it clear that there were two bridges, one from the right to the left bank of the Po at Piacenza and one from the left to the right bank of the Ticinus, location unknown, but the best crossing is at Pavia, which was founded by Roman colonists as Ticinum, perhaps at the site of the fortifications Publius threw up to protect his new bridge.

Probably by c. 300 BC, the centuriate organisation of the Roman citizen-body for political purposes achieved the evolved form described by Polybius and Livy ( see table below ).

According to Polybius ' elaboration of the theory, the state begins in a form of primitive monarchy.