Description: In his history, Polybius (ca. 200-118 BC) is centrally concerned with how and why Roman power spread. The main part of the work, a vital achievement despite the incomplete state in which all but the first five books of an original forty survive, describes the rise of Rome, its destruction of Carthage, and its eventual domination of the Greek world.
Brief description: William Roger Paton (1857-1921) was an independent scholar educated at Oxford and based in Samos.
Review Quotes: Polybius found a brilliant subject for his history in the Roman drive to supremacy in the Mediterranean. As an experienced Greek politician who lived as a hostage among the elite in Rome from 167 to 159 BC, he was ideally positioned to write it. He had formidable organizational powers, and he really did know what he was talking about. Without him, our understanding of the whole period and of the dynamics of Roman imperialism would be inconceivably impoverished.--Denis Feeney "Times Literary Supplement" (10/1/2010 12:00:00 AM)