HKB

← back

The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 2 (of 2)

Polybius · 2nd century BCE (composition of the Histories); this volume contains Books X–XXXIX primary

passage 387 of 440 · Chapter 59 in Book VI.: > BOOK XXXIX (23/76)

[57] Some words are lost from the text.

[58] παρενέβαλλε, which Schweig. translates castra locavit: but though the word does sometimes bear that meaning, I cannot think that it does so here. Scipio seems to have retained his camp on the hill, only two and a half miles’ distant, and to have come down into the plain to offer battle each of the three days. Hence the imperfect.

[59] The war with Antiochus, B.C. 218-217. See 5, 40, 58-71, 79-87.

[60] A civil war, apparently in a rebellion caused by his own feeble and vicious character. It seems to be that referred to in 5, 107.

[61] Homer, Iliad, 4, 437.

[62] Homer, Iliad, 4, 300.

[63] A line of which the author is unknown; perhaps it was Theognis.

[64] See Livy, 31, 31; Strabo, 12, c. 4. Philip handed over Cius to Prusias.

[65] That is, from Rhodes and other states.

[66] That is the treaty between Philip and Antiochus.

[67] The word βίαχα in the text is unknown, and certainly corrupt. The most obvious remedy is ὑπόβρυχα or ὑποβρύχια. But we cannot be sure.

[68] Jam cum Rhodiis et Attalo navalibus certaminibus, neutro feliciter, vires expertus. Livy, 31, 14.

[69] An inscription found at Iassus [C.I.G. 2683] has confirmed this name which is found in one MS. instead of Hestias. Whether the meaning of the title is Artemis of the City, or some local designation, is uncertain.

[70] Called Panion or Paneion. See Josephus B. Jud. 3, 10, 7, Ἰορδάνου πήγη τὸ Πάνειον. The town near it was called Paneas, and afterwards Paneas Caesarea, and later still Caesarea Philippi. Scopas, the Aetolian, was now serving Ptolemy Epiphanes; see 13, 2; 18, 53.

[71] See on 4, 77; 13, 1.

[72] See 15, 25.

[73] Ptolemy Philopator had made Gaza his chief depôt of war material; see 5, 68. Antiochus destroyed it in B.C. 198 for its loyalty to the King of Egypt.

[74] Syria was conquered by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pilezer about B.C. 747, and was afterwards a part of the Babylonian and Persian empires. It does not seem certain to what invasion Polybius is here referring.

[75] That is from the wars undertaken by them against Philip. Livy, 31, 14, 24.

[76] For the Phocians see Pausan. 10, 1, 6. For the Acarnanians see supra, 9, 40.

[77] According to Hultsch no fragments or extracts of book 17 are preserved. In it would have been contained the campaign of B.C. 199, in the war between Rome and Philip, for which see Livy, 31, 34-43. And the operations of Flamininus in the season of B.C. 198, Livy, 32, 9-18. The first seventeen chapters of this book are generally classed in book 17.

[78] The reading ἐναύσασθαι, which I attempt to represent, is doubtful. Schweig. suggests ἐγγεύσασθαι “to taste.”

[79] Demosthenes, de Corona, §§ 43, 48, 295.

[80] B.C. 338 after the battle of Chaeronea. See Thirlwall, 6, 77; Grote, 11, 315 (ch. 90); Kennedy’s translation of the de Corona, Appendix vi. The argument of Polybius is of course an ex post facto one. It is open still to maintain that, had the advice of Demosthenes been followed, these states might have been freed from the tyranny of Sparta without becoming subject to another master in the king of Macedonia.

[81] Attalus spent the winter of B.C. 198-197 at Aegina, in the course of which he seems to have visited Sicyon.

[82] That is of Cynoscephalae. Supergressi tumulos qui Cynoscephalae vocantur, relicta ibi statione firma peditum equitumque, posuerunt castra. Livy, 33, 7.

← previous passage read in the full work → next passage →
The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 2 (of 2) · Polybius · 160–146 BCE