1 Vita Nicolai V. a Dominico Georgio, Rome, 1742, p. 206.
2 Casaubon mentions in his preface several partial editions and translations which had appeared by Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, and Belgians. But he says all such translations were founded on the faulty Latin translation of Perotti; and none were of any value. The only fairly good one was a German translation.
3 Unless the avoidance of the hiatus be counted one, which has been pointed out by Hultsch. I cannot forbear from quoting here the admirable words of Casaubon on the style of Polybius:—Non deest sed non eminet in Polybio facundia. Nihil vero est iniquius illis, qui nullam putant esse eloquentiam, nisi uti nihil est praeter eloquentiam. Semper mihi apprime placuit Diodori Siculi sententia, vehementius in historico eloquentiae studium improbantis. Verborum enim curam nimiam veri fere par sequitur incuria. Oratio vultus animi est: ut hic fuerit gravis aut solutus, ita etiam illa vel severa erit vel mollis. The nearest Greek to that of Polybius is II. Maccabees.
1526, 3. Callicrates at the same time secured a party in his favour, during his year of office B.C.179, by restoring the Spartan and Messenian exiles; in return for which the former set up his statue at Olympia, the base of which is preserved. Hicks’s Greek Inscriptions, p. 330.
20 The decree was brought into the Peloponnese by C. Popilius and Cn. Octavius in B.C.171. See Livy, 43, 17, ne quis ullam rem in bellum magistratibus Romanis conferret prÆter quam quod Senatus censuisset. Cp. Polyb. 28, 3.
25 Thus Appius Claudius Cento would be hostile from the rejection of his illegal demand for 5000 men. One of the common grounds of offence had long been the refusal of Philopoemen and other Strategi to summon an assembly to meet a Roman officer unless he came duly authorised with a definite communication from the Senate. On this ground Quintus Caecilius was refused in B.C.185 (Polyb. 23, 19) and also Titus Flamininus in B.C.183 (Polyb. 24, 5). See Freeman’s Federal Government, pp. 652-655. And no doubt other cases of a similar nature would occur, generally leading to an unfavourable report at Rome.
32 Thus he seems to have searched the Archives of the Pontifices. Dionys. Halicarn. 1, 73. And he observed and criticised all Roman customs, as, for instance, the provision for boys’ education at Rome. Cic. de Rep. 4, 3.
47 Livy says the battle was at Thermopylae. This was near enough for a general statement, but Scarpheia is some miles to the south. Livy, Ep. 52, Pausan. 7. 15.
49 This has been much disputed. See Thirlwall’s note, vol. viii. p. 455. If the fragment, 29, 13 (40, 7) is given correctly by Strabo, it seems certain that he must have arrived either before or immediately after the fall of Corinth.
54 Thus in B.C.44 Brutus going out as propraetor to take the province of Macedonia, goes first to Athens, and there, as well as in the rest of Greece, collects troops and money. See the note in Mommsen’s History of Rome, vol. III. p. 50 (book IV. c. 1.)
61 Cicero, Ep. ad Fam. 5, 12. For the Numantine war (B.C.134-132) the authorities are Appian, Hisp. 48-98; Eutrop. 4, 17; Cicero de Off. 1, 11, Strabo, 3, p. 162.
6434. It is clear that such passages, as for instance the beginning of 2, 42, must have been written before B.C.146, and perhaps published, and therefore not altered. Cp. the answer of Zeno of Rhodes to corrections sent by Polybius, that he could not make alterations, as his work was already published (16, 20).
87 I append a list of all writers referred to by Polybius, the index will show the places where they are mentioned. Aeneas Tacticus, Alcaeus a grammarian, Antiphanes of Berga, Antisthenes of Rhodes, Aratus of Sicyon, Archedicus, Aristotle, Callisthenes, Demetrius of Phalerum, Demosthenes, Dicaearchus, Echecrates, Ephorus of Cumae, Epicharmus of Cos, Eratosthenes, Eudoxus, Euemerus, Euripides, Fabius Pictor, Hesiod, Homer, Philinus, Phylarchus, Pindar, Plato, Pytheas, Simonides of Ceos, Stasinus, Strabo, Theophrastus of Lesbos, Theopompus of Chios, Thucydides, Timaeus, Xenophon, Zaleucus, Zeno of Rhodes.
93 In the reference to the Seven Magi (5, 43), and to the story of Cleobis and Bito (22, 20).
94 Cornelius Nepos, Alcib. 11. Plutarch, Lys. 30. Lucian, Quomodo hist. conscr. § 59.
95 The History of the Achaean league is given with unrivalled learning, clearness, and impartiality by Bishop Thirlwall in the eighth volume of his History of Greece. Its constitution has been discussed with great fulness by Professor E. A. Freeman in his History of Federal Government. Recently Mr. Capes has published an edition of the parts of Polybius referring to it which will be found useful; and Mr. Strachan-Davidson has an able essay upon it in his edition of Extracts from Polybius. Still some brief statement of the main features of this remarkable attempt to construct a durable Hellenic Federation could not be altogether omitted here.
96 Take for instance the oath of the Pylagorae (Aeschin. de Fal. L. 121): “We will destroy no city of the Amphictyony, nor cut off its streams in peace or war; if any shall do so, we will march against him and destroy his cities; should any pillage the property of the god, or be privy to or plan anything against what is in his temple, we will take vengeance on him with hand and foot and voice and all our might.” This is indeed the language rather of a Militant Church than a state; but it is easily conceivable that, had these principles been carried out (which they were not), something nearer a central and sovereign parliament might have arisen.
101 Herod. 9, 88; Polyb. 9, 39. Equally abortive proved another attempt at combination in B.C.377, when the ???ed??? from the islands met for a time at Athens. Grote, vol. ix. p. 319.
103 Polybius (12, 26c.) says that in his time the schools were generally in disrepute. But is not this generally the verdict of “practical” men on universities? The excitement at Rome at the visit of the philosophers (B.C. 155) seems to show that they still enjoyed a world-wide reputation.
112 Herod. 1, 145. Instead of Rhypes and Aegae, the first of which seems to have been burnt, and the other to have for some reason been deserted, Polybius (2, 41) mentions Leontium and Caryneia.
119 Though this law was several times broken, certainly in the case of Philopoemen, and probably in that of Aratus also. It is very difficult to arrive at a satisfactory arrangement of Aratus’s seventeen generalships if the strict alternation is preserved. See Freeman’s Federal Government, p. 601.
122 Plutarch, Cleom. 3. Messenia had been free from the Spartans since the battle of Leuctra (B.C.371). Epaminondas had meant by the foundation of Megalopolis and Messene (B.C.371-370) to form a united Messenian and Arcadian state as a counterpoise to Sparta. The Messenians had drifted away from this arrangement, but were now members of the Achaean league. Polyb. 4, 32.
134 The title of Achaean Strategus seems to have been revived under the Empire. C. I. G. 1124. The principal authorities for the history of the last hundred years of Greek Independence, including that of the Achaean league, are Polybius, beginning with book 2, and in its turn going on throughout the rest of his work which remains; scattered notices in Livy from 27, 29 to the end of his extant work, and the epitomes of the last books, mostly translated directly from Polybius; Plutarch’s Lives of Agis, Cleomenes, Aratus, Philopoemen, Flamininus, Aemilius; Pausanias, 7, 6-16; parts of Diodorus; Justinus (epitome of Trogus); and some fragments of Greek historians collected by MÜller.
135 I speak of course of the restored league after the election of one Strategus began, B.C.255.
136 For the change of time of the election see note on 5, 1.
137 We hear nothing of a secretary under the new league after the abolition of the dual presidency. But he probably still existed (2, 43).
140 This is certainly the meaning of the words of Polybius. But he has confused matters. The two new Consuls designated at the comitia of 249 were C. Aurelius Cotta II and P. Servilius Geminus II, whereas Lucius Junius Pullus was the existing Consul with the disgraced P. Claudius Pulcher. What really happened is made clear by Livy, Ep. 19. The Senate sent Junius with these supplies, recalled Claudius, and forced him to name a Dictator. Claudius retaliated by naming an obscure person, who was compelled to abdicate, and then Atilius Calatinus was nominated.
141 The dangerous nature of the S. Coast of Sicily was well known to the pilots. See above, ch. 37.
142 About £500,000. For the value of the talent, taking the Euboic and Attic talent as the same, see note on Book 34, 8.
143 ?st???sa?ta?. There seems no need to give this word the unusual sense of narratum legere here, as some do.
144 Sicca Venerea, so called from a temple of Venus, was notorious for its licentiousness. Valer. Max. 2, 6, 15.
145 A line of the text appears to have been lost, probably containing an allusion to Hiero.
146 The southernmost point of Italy is Leucopetra (Capo dell’ Armi). Cocinthus (Punta di Stilo) is much too far to the north; yet it may have been regarded as the conventional point of separation between the two seas, Sicilian and Ionian, which have no natural line of demarcation.
147 Really 3/16; for 16 ases = 6 obols (one drachma or denarius) see 34, 8. The Sicilian medimnus is about a bushel and a half; the metretes 8-1/2 gallons.
148 Livy, 5, 17, 33-49; Plutarch, Camillus, 16; Mommsen, History of Rome, vol. i. p. 338 (Eng. tr.)
149 Compare the description of the Gauls given by Caesar, B.G. 6, 11-20. They had apparently made considerable progress in civilisation by that time, principally perhaps from the influence of Druidism. But the last characteristic mentioned by Polybius is also observed by Caesar (15), omnes in bello versantur atque eorum ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus, ita plurimos circum se ambactos clienteeque habet. Hanc unam gratiam potentiamque habent. Even in the time of Cato they were at least beginning to add something to their warlike propensities. Or, 2, 2 (Jordan) Pleraque Gallia duas res industrissime persequitur, rem militare et argute loqui. Cf. Diod. 5, 27 sq.
151 For a more complete list of Gallic invasions in this period, see Mommsen, H.R. i. p. 344. The scantiness of continuous Roman history from B.C.390, and its total loss from 293 to the first Punic war renders it difficult to determine exactly which of the many movements Polybius has selected.
153 This clause is bracketed by Hultsch, Mommsen, and Strachan-Davidson. See the essay of the last named in his Polybius, p. 22. Livy, Ep. 20, gives the number of Romans and Latins as 300,000.
154 Others read Ananes and Marseilles [?????? ... ?assa??a?]; but it seems impossible that the Roman march should have extended so far.
155 That is, each city struck its own coin, but on a common standard of weight and value. See P. Gardner’s Introduction to Catalogue of Greek Coins (Peloponnesus) in the British Museum, p. xxiv.
156 The Pythagorean clubs, beginning in combinations for the cultivation of mystic philosophy and ascetic life, had grown to be political,— a combination of the upper or cultivated classes to secure political power. Thus Archytas was for many years ruler in Tarentum (Strabo, 1, 3, 4). The earliest was at Croton, but they were also established in many cities of Magna Graecia. Sometime in the fourth century B.C.a general democratic rising took place against them, and their members were driven into exile. Strabo, 8, 7, 1; Justin, 20, 4; Iamblichus vit. Pythag., 240-262.
157 The MS. vary between ?????? and ??????. The latter form seems to mean “god of a common frontier.” But an inscription found at Orchomenus gives the form ??????, which has been connected with ???a “day.”
158 There was still an under-strategus (?p?st?at????), see 5, 94; 23, 16; 30, 11. But he was entirely subordinate, and did not even succeed to power on the death of a strategus during the year of office, as the vice-president in America does.
159 Alexander II. of Epirus, son of Pyrrhus, whom he succeeded B.C.272. The partition of Acarnania took place in B.C.266.
160 Near Bellina, a town on the north-west frontier of Laconia, which had long been a subject of dispute between Sparta and the Achaeans. Plutarch Arat. 4; Pausan. 8, 35, 4.
162 The treaty, besides securing the surrender of the Acrocorinthus, provided that no embassy should be sent to any other king without the consent of Antigonus, and that the Achaeans should supply food and pay for the Macedonian army of relief. Solemn sacrifices and games were also established in his honour, and kept up long after his death at Sicyon, see 28, 19; 30, 23. Plutarch, Arat. 45. The conduct of Aratus in thus bringing the Macedonians into the Peloponnese has been always attacked (see Plut. Cleom. 16). It is enough here to say that our judgment as to it must depend greatly on our view of the designs and character of Cleomenes.
163 Phylarchus, said by some to be a native of Athens, by others of Naucratis, and by others again of Sicyon, wrote, among other things, a history in twenty-eight books from the expedition of Pyrrhus into the Peloponnese (B.C. 272) to the death of Cleomenes. He was a fervent admirer of Cleomenes, and therefore probably wrote in a partisan spirit; yet in the matter of the outrage upon Mantinea, Polybius himself is not free from the same charge. See Mueller’s Histor. Graec. fr. lxxvii.-lxxxi. Plutarch, though admitting Phylarchus’s tendency to exaggeration (Arat. 38), yet uses his authority both in his life of Aratus and of Cleomenes; and in the case of Aristomachus says that he was both racked and drowned (Arat. 44).
164 ??e??a ?a? st?at????. It is not quite clear whether this is merely a description of the ordinary office of Strategus, or whether any special office is meant, such as that conferred on Antigonus. In 4, 11 ??e??e? includes the Strategus and other officers. See Freeman, Federal Government, p. 299.
165 Of Chaereas nothing seems known; a few fragments of an historian of his name are given in MÜller, vol. iii. Of Sosilus, Diodorus (26, fr. 6) says that he was of Ilium and wrote a history of Hannibal in seven books. Nepos (Hann. 13) calls him a Lacedaemonian, and says that he lived in Hannibal’s camp and taught him Greek.
169 Saguntum of course is south of the Iber, but the attack on it by Hannibal was a breach of the former of the two treaties. Livy (21, 2) seems to assert that it was specially exempted from attack in the treaty with Hasdrubal.
171 as??e??. The two Suffetes represented the original Kings of Carthage (6, 51). The title apparently remained for sacrificial purposes, like the ????? as??e??, and the rex sacrificulus. Polybius, like other Greek writers, calls them as??e??. Infra, 42. Herod. 7, 165. Aristot. Pol. 2, 8.
173 This division of the world into three parts was an advance upon the ancient geographers, who divided it into two, combining Egypt with Asia, and Africa with Europe. See Sall. Jug. 17; Lucan, Phars. 9, 411; Varro de L. L. 5, § 31. And note on 12, 25.
174 The arae Philaenorum were apparently set up as boundary stones to mark the territory of the Pentapolis or Cyrene from Egypt: and the place retained the name long after the disappearance of the altars (Strabo, 3, 5, 5-6).
175 For Polybius’s calculation as to the length of the stade, see note on 34, 12.
176 Livy, 21, 25, calls it Tannetum, and describes it only as vicus Pado propinquus. It was a few miles from Parma.
177Pluribus enim divisus amnis in mare decurrit (Livy, 21, 26).
179 This statement has done much to ruin Polybius’s credit as a geographer. It indicates indeed a strangely defective conception of distance; as his idea, of the Rhone flowing always west, does of the general lie of the country.
180 I have no intention of rediscussing the famous question of the pass by which Hannibal crossed the Alps. The reader will find an admirably clear statement of the various views entertained, and the latest arguments advanced in favour of each, in the notes to Mr. W. T. Arnold’s edition of Dr. Arnold’s History of the Second Punic War, pp. 362-373.
181 pe?? t? ?e???pet???, which, however, perhaps only means “bare rock,” cf. 10, 30. But see Law’s Alps of Hannibal, vol. i. p. 201 sq.
182 His life according to one story, was saved by his son, the famous Scipio Africanus (10, 3); according to another, by a Ligurian slave (Livy, 21, 46).
183 Livy says “to Mago,” Hannibal’s younger brother (21, 47). This Hasdrubal is called in ch. 93 “captain of pioneers.”
184 That is, four legions and their regular contingent of socii. See 6, 19sqq.
185 “He crossed the Apennines, not by the ordinary road to Lucca, descending the valley of the Macra, but, as it appears, by a straighter line down the valley of the Auser or Serchio.”—Arnold.
186 The marshes between the Arno and the Apennines south of Florence.
187 ?pe?????t? Schw. translates simply dormiebant. But the compound means more than that; it conveys the idea of an interval of sleep snatched from other employments. See Herod. 8, 76; Aristoph. Vesp. 211.
188 Livy, 22, 4-6. For a discussion of the modern views as to the scene of the battle, see W. T. Arnold’s edition of Dr. Arnold’s History of the Second Punic War, pp. 384-393. The radical difference between the account of Livy and that of Polybius seems to be that the former conceives the fighting to have been on the north shore of the lake between Tucro and Passignano; Polybius conceives the rear to have been caught in the defile of Passignano, the main fighting to have been more to the east, where the road turns up at right angles to the lake by La Torricella. Mr. Capes, however in his note on the passage of Livy, seems to think that both accounts agree in representing the fighting on the vanguard as being opposite Tucro.
189 This treatment of non-combatants was contrary to the usages of civilised warfare even in those days, and seems to have been the true ground for the charge of crudelitas always attributed to Hannibal by Roman writers, as opposed to the behaviour of such an enemy as Pyrrhus (Cic. de Am. 28). It may be compared to the order of the Convention to give no quarter to English soldiers, which the French officers nobly refused to execute.
190 Polybius expresses the fact accurately, for, in the absence of a Consul to nominate a Dictator, Fabius was created by a plebiscitum; but the scruples of the lawyers were quieted by his having the title of prodictator only (Livy, 22, 8).
191 Ramsay (Roman Antiquities, p. 148) denies this exception, quoting Livy, 6, 16. But Polybius could hardly have been mistaken on such a point; and there are indications (Plutarch, Anton. 9) that the Tribunes did not occupy the same position as the other magistrates towards the Dictator.
192 The ager Praetutianus was the southern district of Picenum (Livy, 22, 9; 27, 43). The chief town was Interamna.
193 On the Appian Way between Equus Tuticus and Herdonia, mod. Troja.
194 Holsten for the ?a????? of the old text; others suggest Calatia.
195 Added by conjecture of Schw. One MS. has de?t??a ? ?p? t?? ???a???.
199 ?? ?sp?d?? ?p?pa?e??a????. The ordinary word for “forming line” or “taking dressing” is pa?e???e??. In the other two passages where ?p?pa?e???e?? is used, ?p? has a distinct (though different) force. I think here it must mean “against,” “so as to attack.” And this seems to be Casaubon’s interpretation.
200 There is nothing here absolutely to contradict the picturesque story of the death of Paulus given by Livy (22, 49), but the words certainly suggest that Polybius had never heard it.
201 A town on the lake of Trichonis, in Aetolia, but its exact situation is uncertain. Strabo (10, 2, 3) says that it was on a fertile plain, which answers best to a situation north of the lake.
204 The Achaean Strategus was elected in the middle of May, the Aetolian in the autumn. Aratus would be elected May 12, B.C.220, and come into office some time before midsummer; Ariston’s Aetolian office would terminate in September B.C.220. See v. 1.
205 The capture of Sicyon and expulsion of the tyrant Nicocles was the earliest exploit of Aratus, B.C. 251. Plutarch, Arat. 4-9. The taking of the Acrocorinthus from the Macedonian garrison was in B.C.243, ib. ch. 19-24. For the affair at Pellene see ib. 31. The capture of Mantinea was immediately after a defeat by Cleomenes. See Plutarch, Cleom. 5.
206 The city of Pheia was on the isthmus connecting the promontory Ichthys (Cape KatÁkolo) with the mainland: opposite its harbour is a small island which Polybius here calls Pheias, i.e. the island belonging to Pheia.
207 Caphyae was on a small plain, which was subject to inundations from the lake of Orchomenus; the ditches here mentioned appear to be those dug to drain this district. They were in the time of Pausanias superseded by a high dyke, from the inner side of which ran the River Tragus (Tara). Pausan. 8, 23, 2.
208 The Olympiads being counted from the summer solstice, these events occurring before midsummer of B.C.220 belong to the 139th Olympiad. The 140th begins with midsummer B.C.220.
209 But outside the natural borders of Arcadia. Mod. KalÁvryta.
210 By the diolcos which had been formed for the purpose. Strabo, 8, 2. Ships had been dragged across the Isthmus on various occasions from early times. See Thucyd. 3, 15.
218 The hero of the second Messenian war, B.C.685-668 (Pausan. 4, 14-24). The story told by Pausanias, who also quotes these verses, is that Aristocrates, king of the Arcadians, twice played the traitor to Aristomenes, the Messenian champion: once at the battle of the Great Trench, and again when Aristomenes renewed the war after his escape from the Pits at Sparta; and that on the second occasion his own people stoned him to death, and set up this pillar in the sacred enclosure of Zeus on Mount Lycaeus.
219 But Pausanias represents the pillar as put up by the Arcadians, not the Messenians (4, 22, 7).
222 However cogent may be the reasons for his prophecy adduced by Polybius, there are no signs of its being fulfilled. Indeed, the bank at the mouth of the Danube, which he mentions, has long disappeared. The fact seems to be that he failed to take into calculation the constant rush of water out of the Euxine, which is sufficient to carry off any amount of alluvial deposit.
227 That this was the name of a yearly officer at Byzantium appears from a decree in Demosthenes (de Cor. § 90), and Byzantine coins, Eckhel, ii. p. 31. The title seems to have been brought from the mother-city Megara; as at Chalcedon, another colony of Megara, the same existed (C. I. G. 3794). It was connected with the worship of Apollo brought from Megara, MÜller’s Dorians, i. p. 250. It seems that this use of the name (generally employed of the deputies to the Amphictyonic council) was peculiarly Dorian. See Boeckh. C. I., vol. i. p. 610.
230 Which had a harbour formed by a projecting headland called Lisses. Steph. Byz., who quotes Homer, Odyss. 3, 293:
?st? d? t?? ??ss?? a?pe?? te e?? ??a p?t??.
231 As a measure of weight a talent = about 57 lbs. avoirdupois. The prepared hair was for making ropes and bowstrings apparently.
232 Gortyna or Gortys is an emendation of Reiske for Gorgus, which is not known. Gortys is mentioned by Pausanias, 5, 7, 1; 8, 27, 4; 8, 28, 1; it was on the river Bouphagus, and in the time of Pausanias was a mere village.
233 See 2, 41. We have no hint, as far as I know, of the circumstances under which such recovery would take place. We may conjecture from this passage that it would be on showing that losses had been sustained by reason of a failure of the league to give protection.
234 Stephanos describes Ambracus as a p???????? close to Ambracia.
235 Though it was in the territory of Acarnania (Steph. Byz.)
237 The position of Dodona, long a subject of doubt, was settled by the discovery of the numerous inscriptions found about seven miles from Jannina, and published by Constantine Caraponos in 1878, Dodon et ses Ruines. See also Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. i. p. 228.
239 Reading ???a?. See Muller’s Dorians, vol. II, p. 88.
240 The local name of Tarentine, though doubtless originating in fact, had come to indicate a species of mercenary cavalry armed in a particular way. Arrian, Tact. 4, distinguishes two sorts of light cavalry for skirmishing Tarentines armed with javelins (d??at?a), and horse archers (?pp?t???ta?). Cp, 11, 12. Livy 35, 29; 37, 40.
241 Pausanias (8, 26, 7) calls him Hypatodorus; and mentions another work of his at Delphi (10, 10, 3). He flourished about B.C.370. He was a native of Thebes. Sostratos was a Chian, and father of another statuary named Pantias. Paus. 6, 9, 3.
242 That is the office of the Polemarch, as in Athens the Strategium (st?at?????) is the office of the Strategi. Plutarch, Nicias, 5.
243 Yet the avowed project of Cleomenes was the restoration of the ancient constitution. Plutarch, Cleom. c. 10.
245 From 4, 6, it appears that the election took place at the rising of the Pleiades (13th May) and that the new Strategus did not enter upon his office until some time afterwards, towards the middle of June or even midsummer. But the custom apparently varied, and the use of t?te seems to indicate a change.
246 Later on the assemblies were held at the different cities in turn. See 23, 17; 24, 10, etc.
247 ?e????te?, cf. cc. 65, 79. Livy (37, 40) transcribes the word Neocretes. It is uncertain what the exact meaning of the word is. It seems most reasonable to suppose that, like Tarentini, it had ceased to be an ethnical term, and meant mercenary soldiers (????) armed like Cretans, that is, as archers.
248 The narrow channel between Leucas and the mainland, which had been artificially enlarged. Dionys Halic. 1, 50.
252 The pun disappears in translation. The line is
???? t? d??? ?? ???? d??ptat?.
253 Games in his honour were celebrated at Sicyon. See Plutarch, Arat. 45. Cleomenes, 16. Supra, p. 147 n. Infra, 28, 19; 30, 23.
254 A memorial, apparently, of the fruitless expedition of Pyrrhus into Laconia in B.C.272.
255 The Guard. The word agema properly means the leading corps in an army; but it obtained this technical meaning in the Macedonian army (see Arrian, 1, 1, 11), whence it was used in other armies also founded on the Macedonian model, as for instance in Alexandria (see infra, ch. 65).
256 Hypaspists, originally a bodyguard to the king, had been extended in number and formed one or more distinct corps of light infantry (Grote, ch. 92).
257 Here again, as in 5, 1, the outgoing Strategus appears to go out of office at the time of the election of his successor (see note on ch. 1, and cp. 4, 6). There seems to have been some variety of practice. Perhaps the interval was left somewhat to mutual arrangement, the summer solstice being the outside limit.
259 Archidamus was the brother of Agis, the king of the other line, who had been assassinated in B.C.240. Plutarch, Cleom. 5, probably on the authority of Phylarchus, represents the murder of Archidamus as not the work of Cleomenes, but of the same party that had murdered Agis and feared the vengeance of his brother. (See Thirlwall, 8, p. 158, who agrees with Plutarch.)
262 Hence the sacred breed of Nisaean horses, used for the Persian king’s chariot (Herod 7, 40; 9, 20). The Nisaean plain was one of those in Media containing the best pasture, and is identified by Rawlinson with that of Khawar and Alistan near Behistun.
263 ?ta???? are cavalry; the pe??ta???? of the Macedonian army are represented in Polybius by the Hypaspists. See supra, ch. 27, cp. 16, 18.
265 See Professor Mahaffy, Greek Life and Thought, p. 405, who points out that this refers to the Egyptian troops especially, whose old military castes (see Herod. 2, 164-6) though not extinct had forgotten their old skill. In a sense, however, it applies to both kinds of troops; for they had to be trained to act together, as is shown in the next chapter.
267 Two different towns of this name have already been mentioned (ch. 48, 52). This Dura appears to be in Phoenicia; but nothing is known of it.
268 Seleucus I., B.C.306-280. Antigonus, the One-eyed, in B.C.318, occupied Coele-Syria and Phoenicia after a victory over Perdiccas. Diodor. Sic. 18, 43.
285 According to Suidas, these were light vessels used by pirates: but whether the name arose from their construction, capacity, or the number of their oars, seems uncertain. According to Hesychius they had two banks of oars (d????t?? ?a??? p????? ?????).
287 This language is so vague that we might suppose from it that the Achaeans elected Timoxenus in the summer of B.C.217 to come into office in the following spring. But there is nowhere else any indication of such an interval at this period, and we must suppose Polybius to be speaking in general terms of the result of the peace during the next ten months. Agelaus was elected Aetolian Strategus in the autumn of B.C.217.
289 Some disconnected fragments which are usually placed at the end of the first chapter, and form the second chapter of this book, I have placed among the minor fragments at the end of these volumes.
290 Aristotle’s classification is kingship, aristocracy, p???te?a, democracy, oligarchy, tyranny (Pol. 4, 2). This was derived from Plato (Pol. 302, c.) who arranges the six (besides the ideal polity) in pairs, kingship, tyranny,—aristocracy, oligarchy,—democracy, good and bad. Plato has no distinct name except d????at?a pa??????, for the bad democracy which Polybius calls ??????at?a, “mob-rule.” Polybius’s arrangement is this—
Kingship (arising from a natural despotism or monarchy)
degeneratesintoTyranny.
Aristocracy
degen”eratesintoOligarchy.
Democracy
degen”eratesintoMob-rule.
291 e????a?. Polybius uses a word well known at Athens and other Greek states, but the audit of a Consul seems to have been one of money accounts only. At the expiration, however, of his office he took an oath in public that he had obeyed the laws, and if any prosecution were brought against him it would be tried before the people. See the case of Publius Claudius, 1, 52.
292 This refers primarily to the consilium of the quaesitor in any special quaestio, which up to the time of the lex judiciaria of Gracchus, B.C.122, was invariably composed of Senators. The same would apply to the Quaestiones perpetuae, only one of which existed in the time of Polybius, i.e., de repetundis, established in 149 B.C.by the lex Calpurnia. Other single judices in civil suits, though nominated by the Praetor, were, Polybius intimates, almost necessarily Senators in cases of importance.
293 Casaubon altered this to “two hundred.” In 3, 107, Polybius certainly states that the ordinary number of cavalry was 200, raised in cases of emergency to 300, and Livy, 22, 36, gives an instance. But both authors in many other passages mention 300 as the usual number, and any alteration of this passage would be unsafe.
294Praefectus sociis and quaestor. But this quaestor must be distinguished from the Roman quaestors.
296 Polybius does not mention the subdivision of maniples into centuries, for which the word ordines is sometimes used. Livy, 8, 8; 42, 34.
297 The plethrum = 10,000 square feet. The side of the square of the Praetorium, therefore, is 200 feet.
298 That is the via separating it from the next block, or from the vallum.
299 That is, one between the two legions, and two between the blocks in each.
300 That is to say—without the extraordinarii (1/5)—there are 2400 to get into 10 spaces instead of 3000 into 30.
301 That is, who have been selected from the pedites sociorum to serve on the praetoria cohors.
302 Polybius always calls this the ???a? or ?a????a. But the Romans had two words, agger the embankment, and vallum the palisading on the top of it. Either word, however, is often used to represent the whole structure.
303 That is, whether in first, second, or other watch in the night.
304 See the story of Cato’s son, Plutarch, Cato Maj. 20.
305 In seeking a constitution to compare with that of Rome, that of Athens is rejected (1) as not being a mixed one, (2) as not having been successful: successful, that is, in gaining or keeping an empire. He is speaking somewhat loosely. The power of Athens, of which Themistocles laid the foundation, was mainly consolidated by Pericles; so that Polybius includes much of the period of her rise with that of her decline.
306 For what remains of the account of Ephorus see Strabo, 10, 4, 8-9. The reference to Plato is to the “Laws,” especially Book I. See also Aristotle, Pol. 2, 10, who points out the likeness and unlikeness between the Cretan and Lacedaemonian constitutions.
307 This equality of land had gradually disappeared by the time of King Agis IV. (B.C.243-239): so that, according to Plutarch [Agis 5], the number of landowners was reduced to 100. This process had been accelerated by the Rhetra of Epitadeus, allowing free bequest of land, Plutarch, ib. See Thirlwall, vol. viii. p. 132.
308 The meaning of ?e?e??????, which I here represent by “acquired a recognised position,” is at least doubtful. Casaubon translates it qui in album non fuerint recepti, referring to Sueton. Nero, 21. But nothing is elsewhere known of such an album for registering the names of recognised athletes. The passage is important as helping to explain how the number of those entering for the contests in the greater games was practically limited, and therefore how it happened that, for instance, the five contests of the Pentathlum did not often fall to different athletes so as to leave the victory uncertain.
309 The Carthaginian Suffetes are always called as??e?? by the Greek writers: see 3, 33, note; Herod. 7, 165; Diod. Sic. 14, 53. Aristotle [Pol. 2, 11], in contrasting the Spartan and Carthaginian constitutions, mentions with approval that, unlike the Spartan kings, those at Carthage were elected, and were not confined to a particular family.
310 See Bosworth Smith, Carthage and the Carthaginians, p. 26 ff.
311 This seems to be the only authority for assigning to the censors the toga purpurea instead of the toga praetexta: and, indeed, Athenaeus speaks of them as wearing the toga praetexta (pe??p??f????), 14, 69. In Livy, 40, 45, they occupy sellae curules.
312 Livy (2, 10) makes Cocles succeed in reaching the bank alive.
313 But Polybius afterwards admits that a falling off in this respect had begun. See 18, 35; 32, 11.
317 a?a????a?. The a?a????a was a straight piece of wood with upright pins corresponding with those that fall into the bolt (the ??a???), and which are pushed up by it. It was thus used as a key which could be taken out and kept by the Commandant, as in Herod. 3, 155; Thucyd. 2, 4. But Polybius here seems to use it as equivalent to ??a???. See Aeneas, Tact. 18-20, who recommends that the ????? should be sheeted with iron to prevent this very operation. Cp. 4, 57. What he means by ????a on the outside (here translated “fastenings”) is also somewhat doubtful. From Hesychius, s.v. ?p??e??t??, it might be conjectured that chains of some kind were intended. Casaubon supposed it to be a cross bar similar to the ????? inside, and Schw. to represent the posts and the lintel connecting them.
318 See 5, 37. According to Phylarchus the murder of Archidamus was against the wish of Cleomenes. Plut. Cleom. 5.
319 To which proceedings may be referred a sentence of Polybius preserved by Suidas, s.v. d?es?e?as????—“They send out certain Cretans, as though on a raid, giving them a sham despatch to carry.” See Livy, 24, 30-31.
321 s???p?d?a, mentioned among a number of similar engines in 1 Macc. 6, 51. Plutarch calls them s???p???, and explains that they only carried a short distance, but, being concealed, gave wounds at close quarters; hence, doubtless, their name.
322 See also Athenaeus, 4, 166-167. Theopompus of Chius was a contemporary of Philip II. and Alexander, having been born about B.C.376-372.
323 The accusation of administering slow poisons is a very common one, as readers of mediÆval history know. But the ignorance of the conditions of health was too great to allow us to accept them without question. It is doubtful whether drugs, acting in this particular way, were known to the ancients; and certainly spitting blood would be no conclusive evidence of the presence of poison. See Creighton’s History of the Papacy, vol. iv. Append.
324 This fragment is supposed, by comparison with Livy, 25, 36, to belong to the account of the fall of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio in Spain, B.C.212.
325 Or “legion,” according to others. But as both Consuls are engaged in the business, it seems reasonable to refer it to the two consular armies of two legions each.
326 That is “blaming Fortune or Providence.” Schw. quotes Xenophon Hellen. 7, 5, 12, ??est? ?? t? ?e??? a?t??s?a?.
327 s?p??a?, a difficult word. See Strachan-Davidson’s note. It seems to me to be opposed to f??e?? or some such idea. Hannibal was not in flight, but kept the enemy with him, as it were, in a kind of procession, until the moment for striking.
328 There is some word wanting in the text here which has been variously supplied. I have ventured to conjecture t? ??? d?????ta pa?????? ?.t.?., and to translate accordingly: for it is the boldness and apparent rashness of Hannibal’s movement that Polybius seems to wish to commend.
331 See 3, 86, note. Cp. Cicero de Am. § 8, cum duobus ducibus de imperio in Italia decertatum est, Pyrrho et Annibale. Ab altero propter probitatem ejus non nimis alien os animos habemus; alterum propter crudelitatem semper haec civitas oderit.
332 The paragraph “For the Aetolians ... in Greece,” follows “the Messenians” in ch. 30, in the Greek texts. But it is evidently out of place there, and falls naturally into this position.
335 On the margin of one MS. is written “For such is the characteristic always maintained by the Athenian State.” But its relevancy is not very apparent; and at any rate it seems more likely to be a comment of the Epitomator, than a sentence from Polybius.
336 Scopas (B.C.211-210) must have gone out of office, i.e. it was after autumn of 210 B.C.
337 That is, 10s. 3-3/4d. for about a bushel and a half. See on 2, 15.
