248 The narrow channel between Leucas and the mainland, which had been artificially enlarged. Dionys Halic. 1, 50.
252 The pun disappears in translation. The line is
ὁρᾷς τὸ δῖον οὗ βέλος διέπτατο.
253 Games in his honour were celebrated at Sicyon. See Plutarch, Arat. 45. Cleomenes, 16. Supra, p. 147 n. Infra, 28, 19; 30, 23.
254 A memorial, apparently, of the fruitless expedition of Pyrrhus into Laconia in B.C. 272.
255 The Guard. The word agema properly means the leading corps in an army; but it obtained this technical meaning in the Macedonian army (see Arrian, 1, 1, 11), whence it was used in other armies also founded on the Macedonian model, as for instance in Alexandria (see infra, ch. 65).
256 Hypaspists, originally a bodyguard to the king, had been extended in number and formed one or more distinct corps of light infantry (Grote, ch. 92).
257 Here again, as in 5, 1, the outgoing Strategus appears to go out of office at the time of the election of his successor (see note on ch. 1, and cp. 4, 6). There seems to have been some variety of practice. Perhaps the interval was left somewhat to mutual arrangement, the summer solstice being the outside limit.
259 Archidamus was the brother of Agis, the king of the other line, who had been assassinated in B.C. 240. Plutarch, Cleom. 5, probably on the authority of Phylarchus, represents the murder of Archidamus as not the work of Cleomenes, but of the same party that had murdered Agis and feared the vengeance of his brother. (See Thirlwall, 8, p. 158, who agrees with Plutarch.)
260 Homer, Il., 22, 304.
261 The false Smerdis (Herod. 3, 61-82).
262 Hence the sacred breed of Nisaean horses, used for the Persian king’s chariot (Herod 7, 40; 9, 20). The Nisaean plain was one of those in Media containing the best pasture, and is identified by Rawlinson with that of Khawar and Alistan near Behistun.
263 ἕταιροι are cavalry; the πεζέταιροι of the Macedonian army are represented in Polybius by the Hypaspists. See supra, ch. 27, cp. 16, 18.
264 That is, Demetrius II. and Antigonus Doson.
265 See Professor Mahaffy, Greek Life and Thought, p. 405, who points out that this refers to the Egyptian troops especially, whose old military castes (see Herod. 2, 164-6) though not extinct had forgotten their old skill. In a sense, however, it applies to both kinds of troops; for they had to be trained to act together, as is shown in the next chapter.
266 See above, ch. 5 note.
267 Two different towns of this name have already been mentioned (ch. 48, 52). This Dura appears to be in Phoenicia; but nothing is known of it.
268 Seleucus I., B.C. 306-280. Antigonus, the One-eyed, in B.C. 318, occupied Coele-Syria and Phoenicia after a victory over Perdiccas. Diodor. Sic. 18, 43.
269 Battle of Ipsus, B.C. 301.
271 Antiochus Hierax, son of Antiochus II.
272 Laodice was the sister of the wife of Antiochus (5, 43) and a daughter of King Mithridates (8, 22-23).
273 Selge was said to be a colony of the Lacedaemonians. Strabo 13, 7, 3.
274 Called Barathra. See Strabo, 17, 1, 21.
276 Sarissae, the long Macedonian spears.
277 Polybius therefore reckons the value of the λέβητες and ὑδρίαι as five talents.
279 ἀρτάβη, an Egyptian measure = the Attic medimnus.
280 Callinicus, ob. B.C. 226. This must refer to another case.
281 See ante, ch. 30. Agetas had been elected Aetolian Strategus in the autumn of 218 B.C., Aratus Achaean Strategus in the early summer of B.C. 217.
284 See supra, ch. 24.
285 According to Suidas, these were light vessels used by pirates: but whether
the name arose from their construction, capacity, or the number of their oars,
seems uncertain. According to Hesychius they had two banks of oars
(δίκροτος ναῦς· πλοῖον μικρόν).
286 See ch. 95.
287 This language is so vague that we might suppose from it that the Achaeans elected Timoxenus in the summer of B.C. 217 to come into office in the following spring. But there is nowhere else any indication of such an interval at this period, and we must suppose Polybius to be speaking in general terms of the result of the peace during the next ten months. Agelaus was elected Aetolian Strategus in the autumn of B.C. 217.
288 Euripides, fr. 529. Ed. Nauck.
289 Some disconnected fragments which are usually placed at the end of the first chapter, and form the second chapter of this book, I have placed among the minor fragments at the end of these volumes.
290 Aristotle’s classification is kingship, aristocracy, πολιτεία, democracy, oligarchy, tyranny (Pol. 4, 2). This was derived from Plato (Pol. 302, c.) who arranges the six (besides the ideal polity) in pairs, kingship, tyranny,—aristocracy, oligarchy,—democracy, good and bad. Plato has no distinct name except δημοκρατία παράνομος, for the bad democracy which Polybius calls ὀχλοκρατία, “mob-rule.” Polybius’s arrangement is this—
Kingship (arising from a natural despotism or monarchy) | degenerates into Tyranny. |
| Aristocracy | degen”erates intoOligarchy. |
| Democracy | degen”erates intoMob-rule. |
291 εὐθύνας. Polybius uses a word well known at Athens and other Greek states, but the audit of a Consul seems to have been one of money accounts only. At the expiration, however, of his office he took an oath in public that he had obeyed the laws, and if any prosecution were brought against him it would be tried before the people. See the case of Publius Claudius, 1, 52.
292 This refers primarily to the consilium of the quaesitor in any special quaestio, which up to the time of the lex judiciaria of Gracchus, B.C. 122, was invariably composed of Senators. The same would apply to the Quaestiones perpetuae, only one of which existed in the time of Polybius, i.e., de repetundis, established in 149 B.C. by the lex Calpurnia. Other single judices in civil suits, though nominated by the Praetor, were, Polybius intimates, almost necessarily Senators in cases of importance.
293 Casaubon altered this to “two hundred.” In 3, 107, Polybius certainly states that the ordinary number of cavalry was 200, raised in cases of emergency to 300, and Livy, 22, 36, gives an instance. But both authors in many other passages mention 300 as the usual number, and any alteration of this passage would be unsafe.
294 Praefectus sociis and quaestor. But this quaestor must be distinguished from the Roman quaestors.
295 For the Spanish sword see Fr. xxii.
296 Polybius does not mention the subdivision of maniples into centuries, for which the word ordines is sometimes used. Livy, 8, 8; 42, 34.
297 The plethrum = 10,000 square feet. The side of the square of the Praetorium, therefore, is 200 feet.
298 That is the via separating it from the next block, or from the vallum.
299 That is, one between the two legions, and two between the blocks in each.
300 That is to say—without the extraordinarii (1/5)—there are 2400 to get into 10 spaces instead of 3000 into 30.
301 That is, who have been selected from the pedites sociorum to serve on the praetoria cohors.
302 Polybius always calls this the χάραξ or χαράκωμα. But the Romans had two words, agger the embankment, and vallum the palisading on the top of it. Either word, however, is often used to represent the whole structure.
303 That is, whether in first, second, or other watch in the night.
304 See the story of Cato’s son, Plutarch, Cato Maj. 20.
305 In seeking a constitution to compare with that of Rome, that of Athens is rejected (1) as not being a mixed one, (2) as not having been successful: successful, that is, in gaining or keeping an empire. He is speaking somewhat loosely. The power of Athens, of which Themistocles laid the foundation, was mainly consolidated by Pericles; so that Polybius includes much of the period of her rise with that of her decline.
306 For what remains of the account of Ephorus see Strabo, 10, 4, 8-9. The reference to Plato is to the “Laws,” especially Book I. See also Aristotle, Pol. 2, 10, who points out the likeness and unlikeness between the Cretan and Lacedaemonian constitutions.
307 This equality of land had gradually disappeared by the time of King Agis IV. (B.C. 243-239): so that, according to Plutarch [Agis 5], the number of landowners was reduced to 100. This process had been accelerated by the Rhetra of Epitadeus, allowing free bequest of land, Plutarch, ib. See Thirlwall, vol. viii. p. 132.
308 The meaning of νενεμημένους, which I here represent by “acquired a recognised position,” is at least doubtful. Casaubon translates it qui in album non fuerint recepti, referring to Sueton. Nero, 21. But nothing is elsewhere known of such an album for registering the names of recognised athletes. The passage is important as helping to explain how the number of those entering for the contests in the greater games was practically limited, and therefore how it happened that, for instance, the five contests of the Pentathlum did not often fall to different athletes so as to leave the victory uncertain.
309 The Carthaginian Suffetes are always called βασιλεῖς by the Greek writers: see 3, 33, note; Herod. 7, 165; Diod. Sic. 14, 53. Aristotle [Pol. 2, 11], in contrasting the Spartan and Carthaginian constitutions, mentions with approval that, unlike the Spartan kings, those at Carthage were elected, and were not confined to a particular family.
310 See Bosworth Smith, Carthage and the Carthaginians, p. 26 ff.
311 This seems to be the only authority for assigning to the censors the toga purpurea instead of the toga praetexta: and, indeed, Athenaeus speaks of them as wearing the toga praetexta (περιπόρφυρος), 14, 69. In Livy, 40, 45, they occupy sellae curules.
312 Livy (2, 10) makes Cocles succeed in reaching the bank alive.
313 But Polybius afterwards admits that a falling off in this respect had begun. See 18, 35; 32, 11.
314 Livy, 22, 58-61.
315 κακοὶ κακῶς, a phrase at once insulting and vulgar.
316 Plutarch, Aratus, ch. 48.
317 βαλανάγρας. The βαλανάγρα was a straight piece of wood with upright pins corresponding with those that fall into the bolt (the βάλανοι), and which are pushed up by it. It was thus used as a key which could be taken out and kept by the Commandant, as in Herod. 3, 155; Thucyd. 2, 4. But Polybius here seems to use it as equivalent to βάλανος. See Aeneas, Tact. 18-20, who recommends that the μόχλος should be sheeted with iron to prevent this very operation. Cp. 4, 57. What he means by ζύγωμα on the outside (here translated “fastenings”) is also somewhat doubtful. From Hesychius, s.v. ἐπιξευκτήρ, it might be conjectured that chains of some kind were intended. Casaubon supposed it to be a cross bar similar to the μόχλος inside, and Schw. to represent the posts and the lintel connecting them.
318 See 5, 37. According to Phylarchus the murder of Archidamus was against the wish of Cleomenes. Plut. Cleom. 5.
319 To which proceedings may be referred a sentence of Polybius preserved by Suidas, s.v. διεσκευασμένην—“They send out certain Cretans, as though on a raid, giving them a sham despatch to carry.” See Livy, 24, 30-31.
321 σκορπίδια, mentioned among a number of similar engines in 1 Macc. 6, 51. Plutarch calls them σκορπίοι, and explains that they only carried a short distance, but, being concealed, gave wounds at close quarters; hence, doubtless, their name.
322 See also Athenaeus, 4, 166-167. Theopompus of Chius was a contemporary of Philip II. and Alexander, having been born about B.C. 376-372.
323 The accusation of administering slow poisons is a very common one, as readers of mediæval history know. But the ignorance of the conditions of health was too great to allow us to accept them without question. It is doubtful whether drugs, acting in this particular way, were known to the ancients; and certainly spitting blood would be no conclusive evidence of the presence of poison. See Creighton’s History of the Papacy, vol. iv. Append.
324 This fragment is supposed, by comparison with Livy, 25, 36, to belong to the account of the fall of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio in Spain, B.C. 212.
325 Or “legion,” according to others. But as both Consuls are engaged in the business, it seems reasonable to refer it to the two consular armies of two legions each.
326 That is “blaming Fortune or Providence.” Schw. quotes Xenophon Hellen. 7, 5, 12, ἔξεστι μὲν τὸ θεῖον αἰτιᾶσθαι.
327 συμπέμψαι, a difficult word. See Strachan-Davidson’s note. It seems to me to be opposed to φυγεῖν or some such idea. Hannibal was not in flight, but kept the enemy with him, as it were, in a kind of procession, until the moment for striking.
328 There is some word wanting in the text here which has been variously supplied. I have ventured to conjecture τὰ γὰρ δοκοῦντα παράβολον κ.τ.λ., and to translate accordingly: for it is the boldness and apparent rashness of Hannibal’s movement that Polybius seems to wish to commend.
329 Cp. Homer, Odyss. 19, 471.
330 Livy, 25, 40, calls him Mutines.
331 See 3, 86, note. Cp. Cicero de Am. § 8, cum duobus ducibus de imperio in Italia decertatum est, Pyrrho et Annibale. Ab altero propter probitatem ejus non nimis alien os animos habemus; alterum propter crudelitatem semper haec civitas oderit.
332 The paragraph “For the Aetolians ... in Greece,” follows “the Messenians” in ch. 30, in the Greek texts. But it is evidently out of place there, and falls naturally into this position.
333 Antigonus Doson.
334 B.C. 211. See Livy, 26, 24-26.
335 On the margin of one MS. is written “For such is the characteristic always maintained by the Athenian State.” But its relevancy is not very apparent; and at any rate it seems more likely to be a comment of the Epitomator, than a sentence from Polybius.
336 Scopas (B.C. 211-210) must have gone out of office, i.e. it was after autumn of 210 B.C.
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