SOURCE: "Polybius," in The Ancient Historians, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970, pp. 144-64.

A highly respected British classical scholar, Grant has published numerous books on ancient history for the general public as well as many scholarly works. In the following excerpt, he traces Polybius's role in political and military events of his time and briefly reviews the strengths and weaknesses of his political thought.

Polybius of Megalopolis in Arcadia (c. 200-118 BC) wrote a Universal History in his native Greek. We are told of the stages by which Rome had gained its dominion over the whole civilised world, achieving supremacy first over the western and then the eastern Mediterranean during the fifty-three years 220-168 BC. Polybius then goes on to describe the aftermath of those events, down to 144. The work is divided, by himself, into forty books. Of these, five have been preserved in their entirely. From the rest, we...