Polybius, Rome and the Hellenistic World: Essays and Reflections

Description

This volume contains nineteen of the more important of Frank Walbank's recent essays on Polybius and is prefaced by a critical discussion of the main aspects of work done on that author during the last quarter of a century. Several of these essays deal with specific historical problems for which Polybius is a major source. Five deal with Polybius as an historian and three with his attitude towards Rome; one of these raises the question of 'treason' in relation to Polybius and Josephus. Finally, two papers (one now appearing for the first time in English) discuss Polybius' later fortunes - in England up to the time of John Dryden and in twentieth-century Italy in the work of Gaetano de Sanctis. Several of these essays originally appeared in journals and collections not always easily accessible, and all students of the ancient Mediterranean world will welcome their assembly within a single volume.

Frank Walbank is Professor Emeritus of Ancient History of the University of Liverpool and Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Polybius and Hellenistic history.

"F.W. Walbank is one of the giants among British historians of ancient Greece. This volume...demonstrates how the author's personal attachments...and his invocation of supernatural forces, helped to shape the Histories. The present selection is especially valuable because a good number of the papers included were originally published in journals and collections that many scholars will not find easily accessible." Bryn Mawr Classical Review