POLIVIUS

One of the most eminent historians of the ancient Greek world. He was born in Megalopolis, where he died after an accident. He fell off the horse. He was educated militarily and politically. He brought Philopoimenos in his hometown Megalopolis in 183, and in 181 he was sent as ambassador of the Achaean Commonwealth to the Court of Alexander. In 169 he was elected hipparchus. In 167, after the defeat of Perseus, he was sent with other Achaeans as a hostage to Rome, to be associated there with many prominent Romans. He had become a close friend of Scipio Aemilianus, whom he accompanied on his long tours in Italy, Gaul and Spain.

He returned to Achaia in 150, but the following year he was again summoned to Rome, to accompany Scipio, as an engineer, in the Third Campaign against the Carthaginians. This is how he got to know Northwest Africa and witnessed the destruction of Carthage. When he returned to Greece, he tried, relying on the concept of the Romans, to reduce somewhat the calamities of his country and to peacefully conform the Greek cities to the Roman rule. He wrote a large work "History", consisting of 40 books, where he deals with the history of the Romans and the Greeks of the East from the years 220 - 146 BC. Of this story only the first 5 books survive.

Works

• Histories