5/2/2023 0 Comments Polybius rom![]() ![]() Philopoemen’s policy towards Rome is noted by Polybius as being noble and just-he was speedy in fulfilling treaty obligations, yet insisted that the Achaean League be treated as an equal by the much more powerful Rome. He is famous for the final subjugation of Sparta, forcing it to join the Achaean League and end its perpetual troubling of Greece. This dependency on the Macedonians lasted until the advent of the great Philopoemen (253-183 BC), also of Megalopolis, who adopted Macedonian methods of fighting. The Macedonian king, Antigonus Doson (263-221 BC) rapidly subdued the Spartan threat and reformed their political institutions to be more akin to their ancestral laws. The League was soon challenged by Cleomenes III of Sparta (died 219 BC) who Polybius regarded as little better than a tyrant and nearly destroyed except for the timely diplomatic maneuvers by Aratus of Sicyon, managing to forge a working alliance with the recently ousted Macedonians. It was successful in regaining Greek freedom and in reinforcing democratic regimes, which Polybius understood to the ancestral and just form of government for the Greeks as a whole, across the Peloponnesus. The Achaean League was the renewal of a much older alliance system of cities, aimed at expelling Macedonian influence from the Peloponnesus. Although Polybius was clearly proud of his Arcadian origins, more importantly Megalopolis was actively involved in the Achaean League (280-146 BC), the last major Greek power faced by Rome. Polybius was born and raised in what he regarded as a bastion of democracy and freedom, Arcadia, in the city of Megalopolis. As a statesman, Polybius makes it clear that political education must first and foremost be grounded in political history. He could speak accurately about affairs leading to Rome’s universal domination because he was there. ![]() Like Thucydides, Polybius was a soldier and statesman of the Achaean League before he took to writing history. Rather, a historian should be a “man of action,” who has taken part in shaping affairs as well as recording them. In his mind, a historian should not be someone who has read much, but done little. Like many of the Greeks, Polybius was a well-rounded man. In a sense, then, Polybius’ work is to understand the Roman regime and why it out-performed every other polity, even the Greek cities and the powerful Macedonians. As far as Polybius is concerned, Rome is the first city to set out for world-wide rule and then actually attain it, and then, perhaps most astonishing of all, keeping it. For while the Persians ruled over many nations, once they ventured beyond the boundaries of their realm they always failed the Spartans attempted to gain hegemony over the Greeks, but only had it securely for twelve years Macedonian rule, while impressive compared to what the Greek cities achieved, nonetheless left parts of the known world untouched, such as Western Europe, parts of North Africa, or Sicily. As far as Polybius was concerned, only the “idle and lazy” would not consider the universal dominion of the Romans and the regime that produced it the most important object of study, at least as far as political education goes. Polybius of Arcadia (200-118 BC) wrote his Histories while in Roman captivity, wondering how this once small republic conquered the world in just over fifty years. Although it well known that classical political science influenced the development of modern political thought, especially American political thought, it is not quite as well known that the application of Greek political theory to Rome inspired figures like Montesquieu and John Adams.
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