Polybius(1)

Extract

Greek historian of Rome's rise to Mediterranean dominion and of the world in which that happened. His father, *Lycortas of Megalopolis, was a leading figure of the *Achaean Confederacy in the 180s and, along with *Philopoemen, one of the architects of the doomed Achaean attempt to treat with Rome on a basis of equality during those years. Polybius bore Philopoemen's ashes to burial in 182, was appointed in 180 as envoy to Alexandria, and in 170/69 served as Hipparch of the Confederation. After Rome's victory over *Perseus (2) of Macedon at *Pydna, he was denounced as insufficiently friendly to the Romans by *Callicrates (2) and became one of the thousand prominent Achaeans deported to Rome and subsequently detained without trial in various towns of Italy. Polybius became friend and mentor to P. *Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, was allowed to remain in Rome during his captivity, and formed part of the ‘*Scipionic Circle’.