Polybios a jeho svět – Oliva Pavel (2013)

Polybius (c. 200-118 BC) is one of the most significant figures in ancient literature. Along with Thucydides and Herodotus, he forms a triumvirate of ancient Greek historiography. He came from the Arcadian Megalopolis, from a wealthy family; his father held a high rank as a strategist of the Achaean League. This allowed him to receive a good education, which facilitated his political and military career. In 166, he arrived in Rome as one of a thousand hostages after the Roman army's victory at Pydna, after which the Romans became the decisive power in the entire known world. Polybius spent 17 years in Rome and befriended the most prominent patrician families. In 150, he gained personal freedom and traveled to Africa, where he devoted himself to the study of history and traveled. He was personally present at the finale of the Third Punic War and the subsequent destruction of Carthage in 146. Afterward, at the behest of the Roman Senate, he went to Greece to help organize the political situation there. Since his youth, he had engaged in literary activity, but only his work 'Histories' has survived, consisting of 40 books, with the first five books intact and the rest in fragments or quotes. In them, Polybius captured events in the world dominated by Rome during the 3rd-2nd centuries BC and is key to this period...