209 The battle, in which Prusias is here said to have conquered Attalus, was a treacherous attack upon Attalus who was waiting, in accordance with an arrangement made by Roman envoys Hortensius and Arunculeius, to meet Prusias on his frontier, accompanied by only one thousand cavalry. The Roman envoys even had to fly for their lives. Appian, Mithridates, 3.

210 Hultsch places an extract from Aulus Gellius (6, 14, 8) relating to the mission of the three philosophers as ch. 2 of this book. The substance is given in the note on p. 466. It is more in place there, as Polybius expressly said that he would give the whole story together (32, 25).

211 This war appears to have arisen from a treacherous attack of the Cretans upon the island of Siphnos. Exc. de Virt. et Vit. p. 588.

212 See 32, 27, note.

213 Ligurian tribes between Nice and Marseilles. Pliny, N. H. 3, § 47.

214 Surnamed Philometor. He succeeded his uncle Attalus Philadelphus in B.C. 138, and at his death in B.C. 133 left his dominions to Rome.

215 Alexander Balas was an impostor of low origin set up by Heracleides as a son of Antiochus Epiphanes. He entered Syria in B.C. 152, defeated and killed Demetrius in B.C. 150, and was himself defeated in B.C. 146 by Ptolemy Philometor (who also fell) in favour of a son of Demetrius, and was shortly afterwards murdered. Livy, Ep. 52. Appian, Syr. 67; Joseph. Antiq. 13, 2, 4.

216 Odyss. 12, 95.

217 Odyss. 12, 105.

218 Odyss. 9, 82.

219 Panchaia or Panchēa, the fabulous island or country in the Red Sea or Arabian gulf, in which Euhemerus asserted that he had discovered the inscriptions which proved the reputed gods to have been famous generals or kings. Plutarch, Is. et Osir. 23, Diodor. fr. 6, 1. The Roman poets used the word as equivalent to “Arabian.” See Verg. Georg. 2, 139.

220 That is “as great a liar as Antiphanes of Berga.” See below. Strabo classes Antiphanes with Pytheas and Euhemerus more than once (see 2, 3, 5). Hence came the verb βεργαΐζειν, “to tell travellers’ tales” (Steph. Byz.). But there is considerable doubt as to the identification of the traveller Antiphanes, some confounding him with a comic poet of the same name, and others with the author of an essay περὶ ἑταιρῶν. Berga was in the valley of the Strymon.

221 Strabo here protests against Dicaearchus being treated as a standard of geographical truth. For Pytheas see Appendix.

222 Polybius proves his point by the demonstration of the proposition “The square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled-triangle is equal to the squares of the sides containing the right angle.”

Polybius' Proof

By applying this principle AD = 7745.9... and DC = 11019.9..., and the whole AC = 18765.8; whereas AB + BC (i.e. the coasting voyage) = 19200 stades (a difference of 434.2 stades, not 500). Add to this the 3000 from the Peloponnese to the Straits, the total coast voyage is 22,200 stades, as against Dicaearchus’s 10,000.]

223 Strabo quotes this reckoning of the distance from the Peloponnese to the head of the Adriatic to prove that Polybius, on his own showing, is wrong in admitting that this distance (8250 stades) is greater than that from the Peloponnese to the Pillars, which Dicaearchus said was 10,000 stades, and which Polybius showed to be 18,765 stades by the shortest route.

224 To enable the reader to follow this list of prices, a short table is here sub-joined of Greek weights and money,—though he must be warned that values varied at different times and places,—with approximate values in English weights and money.

1 obol = 1/40 oz. = 1/8 shilling.  
6 obols = 1 drachma = 3/20 oz. 9d.
100 drachmae = 1 mina = 15-1/2 oz. £3 : 18 : 6.
60 minae = 1 talent = 57 lbs. £235.
A medimnus = 11 gals. 4 pts. (dry measure).
A metreta = 8 gals. 5 pts. (liquid measure).

225 Which member of the Cornelian gens this was is unknown. He appears to have been at Marseilles in the 4th century B.C. inquiring as to centres of trade open to Rome in rivalry with Carthage.

226 Varro (Serv. ad Æn. 10, 13) adds a fifth by the Graian Alps, i.e. Little St. Bernard.

227 Strabo corrects this, saving that the distance is 3000 stades.

228 The islands were called also Vulcaniae and Aeoliae.

229 Strabo reckons 8 stades to a mile, thus making the number of stades 4280. The exact calculation by Polybius’s reckoning is 4458-1/3 stades. The miles are Roman miles of 5000 feet; therefore, by Strabo’s calculation, the stade is 625 feet, by Polybius’s 600 feet.

230 Strabo, however, supports the measurement of Artemidorus—6500, explaining that Polybius is taking some practical measurement of a voyage, not the shortest.

231 Homer, Odyss. 4, 485.

232 Probably in February, the month usually devoted by the Senate to legationes.

233 Since B.C. 195 up to B.C. 154 the two divisions of Spain had been entrusted to Praetors.

234 Livy, Ep. 48. Provocatorem barbarum tribunus militum occidit.

235 τῶν ἐκ συγκλήτου καὶ τῆς γερουσίας. The same distinction occurs in 10, 18, and seems to refer to the two bodies known as the Hundred and the Gerusia. See Bosworth Smith’s Carthage and the Carthaginians, p. 27.

236 The envoys first report to the Gerusia. Appian, Pun. 91.

237 Phameas was afterwards persuaded by Massanissa to join the Romans. Livy, Ep. 50.

238 The incident referred to is narrated in Appian. Punica, 103. Scipio relieved this body of men, who were beleaguered on the top of a hill, by a rapid and bold movement of his cavalry.

239 Odyssey, 20, 495. Cato had always been opposed to the Scipios, but Livy seems to attribute his former criticisms of the younger Africanus to his general habit of caustic disparagement (vir promptioris ad vituperandum linguae), and we know that his elder son had married a daughter of Paulus, sister to the younger Africanus.

240 Livy, Ep. 49.

241 He seems to have forgotten his namesake mentioned in 11, 15.

242 For Callicrates, the author of the Romanising policy, see 26, 1-3. One of the statues raised to him by the Spartan exiles was at Olympia, the base of which has been discovered. See Hicks’s Greek Inscriptions, p. 330. To what the fragment refers is not clear, but evidently to something connected with the popular movement against Sparta, and a recurrence to the policy of Philopoemen as represented by Lycortas, which eventually brought down the vengeance of Rome.

243 Prusias was killed at Pergamum by his son Nicomedes with the connivance of Attalus (Livy, Ep. 50).

244 A considerable passage is here lost, with the exception of a few words, insufficient to ground a conjectural translation upon.

245 Demetrius II., son of Antigonus Gonatas.

246 Pseudophilippus, after cutting to pieces a Roman legion under the praetor Juventius, was conquered and captured by Q. Caecilius Metellus in B.C. 148 (Livy, Ep. 50; Eutrop. 4, 6).

247 Massanissa, feeling himself to be dying, had asked Scipio to come to him. He left his sons strict injunctions to submit the arrangements of the succession and division of his kingdom to Scipio. Appian, Punica, 105; Livy, Ep. 50. Livy has adopted the statement of Polybius as to the age of Massanissa at his death; and Cicero (de Sen. § 34) has made Cato take the same reckoning, perhaps from Polybius also. But it does not agree with another statement of Livy himself, who (24, 49) speaks of him as being seventeen in B.C. 213, in which case he would be in his eighty-second year in B.C. 148. It is, however, proposed to read xxvii. for xvii. in this passage of Livy.

248 Livy (Ep. 48) in speaking of this victory says that Massanissa was ninety-two, and ate and enjoyed his bread without anything to flavour it (sine pulpamine).

249 The task of subduing the country in B.C. 147 was entrusted to the proconsul Calpurnius Piso, while Scipio was engaged in completing the investment of Carthage. Appian, Pun. 113-126.

250 After the capture of Megara, the suburban district of Carthage, by Scipio, Hasdrubal withdrew into the Byrsa, got made commander-in-chief, and bringing all Roman prisoners to the battlements, put them to death with the most ghastly tortures. Appian, Pun. 118.

251 τὰ χώματα, that is, apparently, the mole of huge stones constructed by the Romans to block up the mouth of the harbour.

252 μετὰ τῶν ἰδίων ἐνδυμάτων. The German translator Kraz gives up these words in despair. Kampe translated them in ihrer gewöhnlicher Tracht. Mr. Strachan-Davidson says, “προσειληφυῖα, etc., ‘folding them in her own robe with her hands,’” which seems straining the meaning of προσειληφυῖα. The French translator says, deux enfans suspendus à ses vêtemens.

253 According to Livy (Ep. 51) she had tried to induce her husband to accept the offer described in 38, 2.

254 Homer, Il. 6, 448.

255 4000 under Alcamenes, Pausan. 7, 15, 8.

256 In the battle with Metellus at Scarphea.

257 Pausanias on the contrary says that Pytheas was caught in Boeotia and condemned by Metellus (7, 15, 10).

258 The pit is the place dug out (σκάμμα) and prepared in the gymnasium for leapers. To be in the pit is to be on the very ground of the struggle, without possibility of escaping it.

259 See note on 30, 17.

260 For this proverb see Plutarch, Themist. 29; de Alex. Virt. 5; de Exil. 7.

261 Plutarch reports the same anecdote much more briefly in Cato Maj. 12, as do others. Professor Freeman (History of Federal Government, p. 142) seems to regard it as a serious indication that the Amphictyonic council had become a body exercising some literary authority, in default of any other. I think that Cato had no such meaning. He mentioned any body of men, however unlikely to exercise such an influence, which at any rate was Greek.

262 Seems to mean “he lost before he began,” before he got even at the threshold of his enterprise. There is nothing to show to what the fragment refers.

263 The base of a statue of Polybius has been discovered at Olympia with the inscription ἡ πόλις ἡ τῶν Ἡλείων Πολύβιον Δυκόρτα Μεγαλοπολείτην. But the statue mentioned in the text seems to be one set up by the Achaeans. For the statues of Polybius, see Introduction, pp. xxxi. xxxii.

264 Thebae quoque et Chalcis, quae auxilio fuerant, dirutae. Ipse L. Mummius abstinentissimum virum egit; nec quidquam ex iis opibus ornamentisque, quae praedives Corinthus habuit, in domum ejus pervenit. Livy, Ep. 52.

265 Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, is called, by way of distinction, “King of Syria,” because that title was bestowed on him by the people of Antioch during his last expedition in Syria. This was undertaken in support of Alexander Balas, who repaid him by conniving at an attempt upon his life. Whereupon Ptolemy joined Demetrius, the son of Demetrius Soter, and supported his claim against Alexander Balas. Joseph. Ant. 13, 3; 1 Maccabees 11, 1-13.

266: Dionysius Hal. (1, 74) quotes this statement of Polybius with the remark that it is founded on a single tablet in the custody of the Pontifices. Various calculations as to the date were:—

Eratosthenes
  followed by
|
 Olymp. 7, 1 B.C. 752.
Apollodorus
Nepos
Dionysius
Lutatius
Q. Fabius Pictor   Olymp. 8, 1 B.C. 748.
Timaeus   38th year before Olymp. 1 B.C. 813.
L. Cincius Alimantus   Olymp. 12, 4 B.C. 729.
M. Porcius Cato   432 years after the Trojan war. B.C. 752.
Varro
|
 Olymp. 6, 2 B.C. 755.
Velleius Paterculus
Pomponius Atticus   Olymp. 6, 3 B.C. 754.

But even granting a definite act of foundation (on which see Mommsen, H. of R. vol. i. p. 4), the Olympic register before 672 B.C. is a very uncertain foundation on which to build. See Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. ii. p. 164 sq.

267 From Eusebius. It may be noted that this statement of Polybius is an earlier evidence than any other for the existence of an Olympian register prior to B.C. 600. Pausanias also dates the register from the year of Coroebus’s victory (5, 8, 6).

268 I have translated this passage as it stands in the various editions of Polybius. But I feel convinced that none of it belongs to him except the first sentence. It comes from Athenaeus, 440 E.

269 See Livy, i, 34. Dionys. Halic. 3, 46.

270 Hesiod, Works and Days, 40, νήπιοι· οὐδὲ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντός.

271 Polybius is perhaps referring to the Acrocorinthus especially. But we must remember that many of the citadels in the third century B.C. were in the hands of Macedonian garrisons.

272 This has been referred by some to the account of Scipio Aemilianus’s single combat with the Spaniard. See 35, 5.

273 Perhaps L. Postumius, Livy, 23, 24 (Hultsch).

274 B.C. 272. Plutarch, Pyrrh. 31-34.

275 See Pausan. i. 9, 6. His disaster compelled him to give up his dominions beyond the Danube. Another and more successful war in Thrace seems referred to in Diod. Sic. 18, 14.

276 Livy, however, records more than one success of Marcellus against Hannibal, see 23, 16, 46; 27, 14. Scipio’s victory of course is at Zama.

277 From Zosimus, 5, 20, 7. See 1, 26.

278 Some refer this to a circumstance narrated in Livy, 41, 2. But Hultsch points out that Livy is not using Polybius in that period.

279 From Constantine Porphyrogenneta de thematibus, p. 18, ed. Bonnensis (Hultsch). He says that there are two Cappadocias, great and little. Great Cappadocia extending from Caesarea (Neo-Caesarea), and Mount Taurus to the Pontus, bounded on the south-west by the Halys and on the east by Melitene.

280 See 6, 23. The excellence of Spanish steel has never perhaps been surpassed even to our day.

281 See 35, 2-4.

282 Plutarch, Pelop. 17, who says that other authorities reckoned it at 500 and 700 men. There were originally six morae in the Spartan army. See Xenophon, Rep. Lac. 11, 4; Hell. 6, 4, 12-17.

283 See 6, 25.

284 This is referred by Nissen to the account of the origin of the third Punic war. See 36, 3-5.

285 This moderation in the number of slaves was perhaps imitated from Cato. See Cato, Orationum frgm. 3. Ed. Jordan.

The references are to Books and Chapters, except where the volume and page of this translation are indicated by vol. — p. —; Fr. indicates the minor fragments at the end of vol. ii.

INDEX.