Polybius
Polybius (c, 200 - c. 118 BC) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work The Histories, a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264-146 BC. recording in detail events in Italy, Iberia, Greece, Macedonia, Syria, Egypt and Africa, and documented the Punic Wars and Macedonian Wars among many others.
Polybius's Histories is important not only for being the only Hellenistic historical work to survive in any substantial form, but also for its analysis of constitutional change and the mixed constitution. Polybius’s discussion of the separation of powers in government, of checks and balances to limit power, and his introduction of "the people", all influenced Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws, John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, and the framers of the United States Constitution.
Early life
Polybius was born around 200 BC in Megalopolis, Arcadia, Greece when it was an active member of the Achaean League. The town was revived, along with other Achaean states, a century before he was born.
Polybius's father, Lycortas, was a prominent, land-owning politician and member of the governing class who became strategos (commanding general) of the Achaean League. Consequently. Polybius was able to observe first hand during his first 30 years the political and military affairs of Megalopolis, gaining experience as a statesman. In his early years, he accompanied his father w'hile travelling as ambassador. He developed an interest in horse riding and hunting, diversions that later commended him to his Roman captors.
In 182 BC, he was given the honour of carrying the funeral urn of Philopoemen, one of the most eminent Achaean politicians of his generation. In either 170 BC or 169 BC. Polybius was elected hipparchus (cavalry officer, cavalry are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback.) and was due to assist Rome militarily during the Third Macedonian War, although this never came about. This office was the second highest position of the Achaean League and often presaged election to the annual strategia (chief generalship). Polybius's political career was cut short in 168. however; as a consequence of the final defeat of the Antigonid kingdom in the Third Macedonian War, 1,000 Achaeans (including Polybius) with suspect allegiances were interned in Rome and its surrounding area.
Polybius's father, Lycortas, was a
prominent advocate of neutrality during the Roman war against Perseus of
Macedon in 171-168 BC. Lycortas attracted the suspicion of the Romans, and
Polybius subsequently was one of the 1,000 Achaean nobles who were transported
to Rome as hostages in 167 BC, and was detained there for 17 years. In Rome, by
virtue of his high culture, Polybius was admitted to the most distinguished
houses, in particular to that of Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, the
conqueror in the Third Macedonian War, who entrusted Polybius with the
education of his sons, Fabius and Scipio Aemilianus (who had been adopted by
the eldest son of Scipio Africanus). Polybius remained on cordial terms with
his former pupil Scipio Aemilianus and was among the members of the Scipionic
Circle.
Scipio Aemilianus Friendship with Polybius
The most significant influence on Scipio’s character was his friendship with the Greek historian Polybius, one of the thousand Achaean leaders who had been deported and detained without trial in Italy. Scipio and his brother persuaded the authorities to allow Polybius to remain in Rome, where he became a close friend and mentor of the two young men. No doubt Scipio was oppressed by the thought of the responsibility that he would have on becoming the head of the great house of the Scipios (it is uncertain when his adoptive father, Publius Scipio, died) as well as in representing the Aemilii. Under Polybius’ guidance, he was determined to prove a worthy representative and to pursue the normal aims of a Roman noble: honour, glory, and military success.
Polybius emphasized two aspects of Scipio’s character, his personal morality and his generosity. Of the former, he tells how Scipio sought to excel all his contemporaries in his reputation for temperance at a time when morals were generally declining and young men were becoming increasingly corrupt, partly because they had “caught the dissoluteness of Greek customs” and partly because of the great influx of public and private wealth as a result of the Macedonian War; “in about five years Scipio secured a general recognition of his character for goodness and purity” and generosity. Polybius, however, does not draw attention to an element of cruelty in Scipio’s character that is noticeable in several episodes of his life; it may generally have had a deterrent purpose and not been an unusual trait in the Roman character, but not every Roman general celebrated a victory by throwing deserters to the wild beasts.
From the Book "Justice and Generosity: Studies in Hellenistic Social and Political Philosophy - Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum"
On the conventional interpretation Polybius assumed a succession of seven clearly defined constitutional structures, programmed by nature to follow each other in a predetermined sequence. In outlining the theory Polybius suggests that this natural order is in some sense analogous to the life-cycle of a living organism. Monarchy is said to be ‘formed (or conceived) naturally’ (phusikos sunistanai) and kingship to ‘be born’ (gennatai) from it. Aristocracy and democracy are likewise claimed to ‘develop naturally’ or ‘be born’. From repeated references we can conclude that Polybius worked out an elaborate analogy between constitutional change and the life-cycle of a living creature, which he used not only in his description of individual constitutional changes, but to promote his theory as a device for predicting future constitutional changes, including changes in the Roman constitution.
Polybius’ description raises serious questions about the nature of his theory. He appears to have identified two different patterns of constitutional change, which some critics have thought to be incompatible: (i) a three-station biological cycle of growth, acme, and decline, and (2) a seven-station fixed sequence of constitutions. Charging Polybius with inconsistencies or attempting to reconcile the two schemes has become a minor industry, as has solving the puzzle of how Polybius thought the natural cycle of simple constitutional changes could either give rise to the Roman mixed constitution or facilitate prediction of its destiny.13
Polybius' implied classification thus consists of a two-stage division, the first, a generic division on the basis of the number of rulers (one, few, many), and the second, a subdivision of each generic type on the basis of the nature of the ruler's administration:
First monarchy is formed (sunistatai) naturally, without planned human assistance. Kingship follows it and is born (gennatai) from it by human assistance and improvement. Then kingship changes (metaballouses) into its related bad form, by which I mean tyranny, and from its dissolution (kataluseos), in turn, aristocracy naturally develops (phuetai).
The 'life-cycle' of a constitution is taken to be the series of changes that affect a generic type.
In the detailed explanation of constitutional changes in the monarchic type we can readily recognize Polybius’ five phases of constitutional development: (i) formation of an initial unimproved ‘generic’ type (monarchy,); (2) a process leading to the improved variety (kingship,); (3) an extended period of the perfectly functioning form, viz. the acme; (4) degeneration into its related bad form (tyranny,); and finally (5) a phase in which the generic type (monarchy) is| dissolved, while another constitutional type (oligarchy/aristocracy) simultaneously takes its start.22 What is noteworthy is that even though Polybius appears to have defined these phases of development by analogy with the biological life-cycle, the biological analogy plays no role in their explanation.
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