SOURCE: "Polybius and Poseidonius," in The Ancient Greek Historians, 1909. Reprint by Dover Publications, 1958, pp. 191-223.

In the following excerpt, Bury provides an overview of Polybius's philosophy of history, emphasizing his views on the purpose of historical study, the role of Fortune, and the significance of the individual.

The life of Polybius covered about the first eighty years of the second century B.C. (c. 198-117 B.C.)—the period of the great political process which linked together the destinies of Greece and Rome. He was born in the Hellenistic world, a noble representative of its civilisation, to become the herald of the new Graeco-Roman world into which he witnessed the Hellenistic system passing. You will remember that having played a public part in the politics of the Achaean League of which his father Lycortas was then the leading statesman, and having served as a commander of cavalry, he...