ABSTRACT

Polybius of Megalopolis wrote a history of the Mediterranean world in forty books, covering the period 264-145 BC. The first two, which he characterizes as a “preparatory introduction” (prokataskeuê, 1.3), sketch events from the point where Timaeus’ history had stopped, the outbreak of Rome’s first war with Carthage in 264, to the beginning of the 140th Olympiad in 220 BC, shortly before the start of the second war with Carthage, which Rome fought against Hannibal. The main period covered in the history begins with Book 3. Its chief theme was Rome’s expansion eastward and westward; Spain and parts of North Africa fell under her sway, while all the Hellenistic kingdoms were either annexed or controlled by those who ruled on Rome’s sufferance.